Atlanta Homeowners Combine Gardening with Rainwater Collection

Of course, plenty of Atlantans born in the U.S. are jumping on the bandwagon as well. Scott Garrison, a native New Englander whose property abuts John’s Creek, wants to get back to an old hobby – gardening – while also preparing for an uncertain future where, for instance, just what kind of access Atlanta will have to Lake Lanier’s water in the future remains a question.

“For some time I’ve wanted to get back to things like I enjoy such as gardening, and that realization dovetailed with the city’s ongoing draught,” says Garrison. “Water’s expensive here to begin with, and then I think something will happen with regard to Lanier and Florida’s and Alabama’s claim on that water, although it probably won’t be as draconian as some might fear.”

Beyond that, however, Garrison’s simply amazed at the amount of water that’s wasted in the city. “There’s so much beautiful and available land here, and it just gets paved over, resulting in a lot of flooding,” he says. “In my own neighborhood, we get these torrential rainstorms, and there’s just no way to collect that runoff. I don’t think the cost of installing these rainwater harvesting systems is all the great when compared to all the benefits that result.”

In Virginia Highlands, Mary Stouffer and her husband Mark, both Floridians, have suffered through numerous basement floodings since moving into their house in 1996 so have had to waterproof their basement and put in a retaining wall to solve that problem. Their rainwater system is one of the proposed pilot systems for creating drinking water!  “As we got into this, we decided we wanted to make water a friend rather than an enemy,” she says. “We don’t want to be a burden on the water system; we don’t want to contribute to flooding at our neighbors’ houses; and we don’t want to pay higher and higher water bills. Installing a rainwater collection system in addition to solving our flooding problem is a win-win – and comes with the added benefit that our kids can play in the yard, having fun slipping and sliding and doing other things that involve water, without worrying about what that would cost or hurt the neighborhood.”

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