Description

If you’re a city dweller, you may feel like you’re “in here” and nature is somewhere “out there.” It’s in vast, distant forests, prairies, mountains, deserts, or other far-off places.

My name is Martha Retallick, and I’m here to tell you that, even in the heart of the city, we are surrounded by nature that insists on itself. Urban nature is powerful – it can push grass right through asphalt roads and force trees up through sidewalks.

Join me while I introduce my ornery desert plants and the opinionated birds that decide that my Tucson home is the perfect venue for nesting and raising their young, share gardening triumphs and tragedies, and explain how I capture it all through a lens.

Although my desert plants are an ornery bunch, they still need water. And you may have heard the stories about record-low flows in the Colorado River, which is where Tucson’s water supply comes from.

So, how do I keep my lush landscape going? Is my water bill up in the stratosphere?

Actually my water bill is quite low, and here’s why: I’m a water harvester.

What is water harvesting? It consists of three activities:

1. Redirecting rainwater away from where it isn’t wanted to where it is.
2. Storing rainwater for later use, like during a drought.
3. Recycling “used” water. For example, I don’t let my laundry water go down the drain. Instead, it’s for the fruit trees.

In simple, easy-to-understand prose, I explain the rationale for water
harvesting – and I’ll show you how I put it into practice.