Can your home help you manage your garden maintenance? While many people view home and garden as separate, they’re really part of the same system. Your home should complement your landscaping and vice versa. Whether you have too much water in your garden or not quite enough, these home systems help you manage water in the garden, so that you’ll reach a happy equilibrium.

Treat Your Roof as Part of Your Water System

Your roof is there to keep the elements from coming into your home: isn’t that right? Yes, but it’s also there to keep your garden and home working as a single, unified system. A well-maintained roof is able to easily move water into your home drainage system. It protects your home because it doesn’t have areas that pool or leak. It also acts as the initial part of your rainwater harvesting system, allowing you to capture and store rainwater or direct that rainwater into certain parts of the garden. 

Maintaining your roof regularly allows it to function well as the initial entry point for water in your home and garden water system.

Keep Your Gutters Clean 

One integral part of your roof is your gutter system. Your gutters are responsible for collecting water and sending it into various parts of your drainage system, where it either moves into storage, underground pipes, or into the garden. If your gutter system is clogged, it can overflow into your garden, creating problems for both your home foundation, your garden landscaping, and your garden soil. Large puddles or eroded areas in the garden may be the result of water cascading over the side of blocked gutters. Cleaning your gutters regularly or adding a gutter cover can reduce these problems in your garden.

Connect to Rainwater Harvesting Systems 

If you’re in an area that suffers from drought, you may consider adding a rainwater harvesting system to your garden. These systems can be a simple, single rain barrel or a complex underground rainwater collection system. There are some considerations to think about when adding a rainwater harvesting system to your garden. 

You must ensure that the water stays clean and free of pests. The CDC recommends “adding a screen to the water inlet or emptying the rain barrel in less than 10 days to prevent mosquitoes from using the rain barrel as a breeding site.” These systems allow you to store water during rainfall events and slowly release it into your garden environment.

Send Your Water to the Right Places 

If your water drains into the garden, where are you sending it? Maintain a strong garden ecosystem and avoid problems with soil erosion in the garden by sending water to places where it will be useful. Consider adding the following structures to your garden: 

• A rain garden, which is a depression in the ground surrounded by plants. According to the Family Handyman, you can “nurture the land in your yard and protect the environment by channeling rain water and runoff from gutters into a rain garden planted” in your yard. 
• A small pond or water feature that uses the water found in water-rich climates to create an artistic focal point in the garden.
• A swale, which is a ditch dug on the contour in your garden. These swales fill up with water and slow it down, allowing it to sink into the ground, which acts as a water reservoir for your garden.

By sending water to places where it can slow down, sink into the ground, and get stored in the soil, you protect your garden beds and lawn from erosion and ensure that water collected on your roof ends up in places where it will help your garden grow.

At Harry Helmet, we know that you want to have a low-maintenance, beautiful home and garden. Talk with us about how adding new gutter covers, roofing, and awnings can help you achieve that goal.
Schedule a free estimate today.

Written by Del Thebaud