water conservation | Backyard Roots

Jeffrey and Kathryn Crinklaw’s chicken coop feels like it just stepped out of an English garden. It flows seamlessly into their beautiful garden that has roses, lavenders and hydrangeas as well as tomatoes and rhubarb. I found the coop as part of the Portland Tour de Coop and had get a closer look at it and its 23 hens. Jeffrey made the coop mostly from reclaimed materials including the French door, the window, and the cedar shingles. It features an enclosed vintage six-sided gazebo at one end with a large center perch that forms the center support for the chicken wire that wraps it. The structure runs along the back of his garage and has a concrete floor that keeps the predators out.

The chickens produce about 16 eggs a day and he has close to 20 different breeds. I loved the Crinklaw’s watering method that ensures clean water without refilling. He uses chicken waterer cups that are connected to a 50 gallon drum of tap water (a rain barrel can’t be used because of possible bacteria contamination) No more changing 5 gallon water containers, the chickens always have fresh water without waste and he can go out of town without worries.

Jeffrey gives water to his chickens with these chicken waterer cups that gives clean fresh water without wasting it.

Two young girls collect water from rain barrels.

Ann Naffinger and Paul Canavese daisy chained 4 55-gallon barrels on the side of their Alameda home.

With drought and rising temperatures it makes sense to conserve water whenever you can. Installing a rain barrel or tank is an easy way to collect water for your garden that would otherwise just go down the drain. It doesn’t have to be expensive either. Using recycled food transport barrels are cheap and cities often offer inexpensive barrels for sale. Rainwater is also good for your plants (unless you live a place with very polluted air) because it doesn’t have cloramine, a disinfectant added to many municipal water that is not good for soil and plant health. While visiting urban farms up and down the coast I saw lots of examples of tanks and it seems the biggest obstacle for city yards is figuring out where to fit the barrel or tank. Here are some ideas.

Birgitt Evans put her tank under her deck in Alameda, California.

Kenya Spiegel and Seth Brown in Portland hooked up a tank to flush a toilet.

Catherine Burke in Seattle had plenty of room in her large Seattle backyard to set up this 1500 gallon tank.

Here's our 200 gallon tank in my San Francisco yard. We didn't have room to put it next the house so it's at the end of the side walkway.

Here’s the 200 gallon tank in our San Francisco yard. Because we only have a four foot wide walkway on the side of the house, we put it just past the walkway in the backyard.

Here is the way Barry made the round foundation for the barrel.

This shows the gutter with the shut off valve.

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Tag Archives: water conservation

Jeffrey and Kathryn Crinklaw’s Garden Coop

Rain Barrels