How We Harvest Rainwater. And Why.

Before we share our favorite way to connect an above-ground rain tank to your home’s gutter and downspout system, perhaps a word or two about the reason we even install above-ground rain harvesting tanks would be timely and useful.

In some parts of the world - and at certain times in history - ( from ancient to today ) -  rain water was harvested and used for drinking, bathing, washing, and agriculture. It might not even be a stretch to say that life in many hot dry areas wouldn’t feasible without large rainwater storage cisterns, and all manner of clever ways to channel rainwater into these rainwater storage tanks.

 

Human necessity is certainly a good reason to harvest rainwater, if that’s indeed the reason.

But here in the Charlotte area - where a well-run municipal water supply feeds potable drinking water into sinks, showers, bathtubs, toilets, spigots, and landscape irrigation systems - rarely with interruption or restriction - why even take the trouble and expense to harvest rainwater here?

 

The primary  - really the only reason - that we install above-ground rain tanks is because the benefit of rainwater for organic garden plants is substantially greater than the same amount of treated water from the  city water supply - even if the treated water has been though the most advanced, military grade filters in our entire solar system. 

If you doubt our view on this, simply observe the plants in your own yard for the next month or so. Grass, shrubs, edible plans, trees, even weeds. Just observe whatever it is that you have out there.

If you don’t have any outdoor plants, find a park or another nearby locale and take note of the plants there.

 

You’ll soon find that during summer dry spells - periods of a week or even several weeks without rain - these plants tend to look just okay with supplemental watering from the city’s municipal water supply. That’s supplemental watering either by hand with a garden hose, or though an automated irrigation system.

 

With heavy assistance from supplemental water, lawns can stay mostly green, shrubs look decent, organic gardens keep chugging along, like the little engine that could. 

And the weeds...well, they seem not to really care much about water, actually, so let’s just focus on the other plants for this informal experiment, okay?

 

Now, pay attention to these plants ( the very same plants you’ve chosen, so that we can prove or disprove our hypothesis accurately ) after a heavy summer downpour. One of those big summer thunderstorms that sweep into the Charlotte area, with dark clouds, swaying trees, and heavy rainfall that has windshield wiper blades set on HI and drivers inching along, hazard lights flashing. Puddles everywhere when its’ all over. You can picture it, now, yeah?

Just a few minutes into this heavy downpour, these very same plants that looked just kinda ‘ehhh’, instantly spring to life. Stems, trunks, and branches stand up straighter. Leaves turn a darker, healthier green, and reach for the sky again. Tan spots in the yard turn green. The droopy-looking plants in your organic garden, that were really just kept on life-support by all that hand watering and irrigation, seem to jump for joy when all that rain soaks in.

 

We’ve found that rainwater - whether it’s delivered from the sky or from a rainwater harvesting tank - is much more beneficial to plants than treated water - even treated water that’s been filtered. 

That’s the reason we install rain tanks here in the Charlotte area ;  rainwater is just better for your plants.

Now, that’s just the reason we install above-ground rain tanks.

There are some potential financial benefits for builders ad homeowners to offset non-porous surfaces by collecting some of the watershed from large concrete driveways, homes with a large roof area, backyard tennis court, etc. 

But before you get excited about all the money you’ll save, consider that the amount of rainwater flowing from the roof of even a modest-sized home can be hundreds or even thousands of gallons, in even a modest-sized rain event.

 

It’s, perhaps, unrealistic to think you might collect every drop of rainwater from your new 10,000 square foot home or full-sized backyard basketball court.

So, the reason to go to the trouble to harvest rainwater - at least here at Microfarm - is to give your plants the water they love best, during those long, hot, dry stretches in the summer months.

And since some hundreds of gallons of rain water is usually enough to accomplish this, our niche is installing above-ground rain harvesting tanks in the 150 to 1000 gallon capacity range.

 

Now, we have installed plenty of 80 gallon rain barrels, but we’e found that two or more of these rain barrels are often needed to make it through a long summer dry spell here in the Charlotte area. Fortunately, rain barrels and larger rain tanks can be easily connected to each other to increase the rainwater harvesting potential from a single downspout connection.

And, finally to the real purpose of this article ( Hopefully your’e still with us! ).

How exactly should you connect your above-ground rain tank to an existing gutter downspout? What’s the best way to go about this important step in the rainwater harvesting process?

Well, remember what we mentioned earlier in this article about how much rain water even a modest sized roof can shed during a storm?

It can be hundreds or even thousands of gallons, and you can click here to calculate exactly how much water your home, shed, chicken coop, garage, greenhouse, etc. can collect.

After completing your calculation, you find that 1000 gallons of rainwater will flow down just one downspout in a single thunderstorm, and there’s only enough space for a smaller-sized tank - say a 250 gallon above-ground rain tank - then you must ask yourself ; where will the other 750 gallons of rain water go when my 250 gallon rain harvesting tank fills up?

The answer to this question matters. A lot, actually.

Too often, rain harvesters out there get excited and remove an entire section of downspout, install a flexible elbow, and divert ALL of the rainwater from the downspout into the rain barrel or tank.

Maybe at first blush this seems like the obvious even the most logical way to go about it.

After all - we’ve come this far, why not harvest every last drop?

But we advise against this. 

Strongly.

 

Because, collecting rainwater typically requires that an above-ground rainwater harvesting tank or rain barrel be within a few feet of a gutter downspout, that means that the rain tank will be within a few feet of the structure that the downspout is mounted on. 

If ALL 1000 gallons of rainwater from that single thunderstorm are channeled into your 250 gallon above-ground rain tank, then the tank will soon overflow, with the remaining 750 gallons puddling up on the ground around the tank. Probably beside your home, garage, or greenhouse’s foundation.

The ‘drinking from a firehose’ metaphor seems fitting here - if that helps you visualize it better.

And to avoid this undesirable scenario, we use a simple, inexpensive, but very, very clever rainwater diverter kit that allows rainwater to bypass the rain tank, once the tank has filled up during a rainstorm.

 

Once your 80 gallon rain barrel, or 750 gallon above-ground rain tank fills up, rainwater bypasses the flexible diverter cup, and continues through your downspout, off to it’s original destination - one that’s hopefully away from your home, greenhouse, garage, or other structure’s foundation.

The EarthMinded Universal Rain Barrel Diverter System accomplishes this important objective surprisingly well. 

it’s our favorite.

The kit is easy to install, budget friendly, and requires drilling just one small hole in your gutter downspout. The result is a professional and tidy-looking connection, and a rainwater harvesting system that won’t overflow the  rain tank in a heavy downpour.

Want to harvest rainwater in an-above ground rain tank to have it on hand for your garden plants during the hot summer months, here in Charlotte?

Drop us a line!

Interested in harvesting rainwater to go ‘off grid’?

Want to install a massive, below-ground cistern on your property, complete with electric pumps to push all those thousands of gallons of rainwater through an irrigation system?

Sorry, that’s not our ‘jam’.

BUT... if you’re looking for more than just supplemental water for your organic garden, we’re delighted to suggest that you to check out out the many rainwater harvesting tanks, cisterns, diverters, filters, pumps, and other rainwater harvesting products at Spartanburg, SC-based North American Rain Systems. 

They can almost surely help.

Tell ‘em Microfarm Organic Gardens sent ya!

Why We LOVE Trellises!

Trellis. 

Trellises. 

Such a fun word to say, isn’t it? 

We love these organic gardening rockstars because trellises help maximize your grow area by giving climbing varieties, like cucumbers and pole beans, a sturdy vertical framework to climb.

This efficient use of vertical space frees up a TON of horizontal area in your garden for plants that don’t need a trellis - edible varieties like lettuces, spinach, kale, eggplant, and peppers.

 

And if building your own raised garden beds offers a fun on opportunity to let your creative side shine a little bit, then making trellises is your chance to really get clever, and make an organic garden showstopper.

Bamboo. Wire fencing. Repurposed concrete reinforcing mesh. Wrought iron. PVC pipe.

You can make a garden trellis with just about anything, and the sky is both the objective and the limit when it comes to making garden trellises.

Now, since our niche here at Microfarm is building garden projects like raised beds with red cedar, we prefer to build our own trellis designs with this same durable material.

But make no mistake ; we absolutely love seeing all the creative trellis making out there. From ‘Whimsical’ and ‘shabby chic’ to ‘stately’ and ‘elegant’ . 

And everything in between.

We especially love trellises, obelisks, arbors, and other garden structures made with woven branches or vines. Those are super cool and unique.

 

But since our raised garden beds are made with rough sawn red cedar, we like to keep it simple and make our trellis designs with this same hardy and beautiful material.

That delivers both the high aesthetic standard, and the needed consistency. This also yields the robust strength required to support heavy wind, snow, and ice loads - along with whatever plant variety that a customer chooses to put the strength of our cedar trellis to the test.

 

Our cedar trellises can be either built into our raised garden bed designs - usually with a 2”x4” or 4”x4” outer frame, fitted with 1”x1” cedar strips - spaced about 7” apart.

Or, our cedar trellises can be mounted onto the outside of existing cedar garden beds, using high-strength structural steel screws.

 

And occasionally, we’ve made simple cedar trellis designs that can be pushed right down into the raised bed’s organic soil, and removed seasonally to be cleaned and stored.

But the wonderful thing about trellises is that they can be SO much more than just a vertical growing frame for plants.

Trellises are frequently used to create tasteful privacy screens, and cozy ambience in places that feel too exposed.

 

For example, we made a raised garden bed with a 6’-tall built-in, cedar trellis to help shade an outdoor grill station -and make it feel a little more cozy, too.

One of our fun, geometric cedar trellis designs we will give a star jasmine plant the room it’ll need to spread out - and give the homeowner just the right touch of privacy in her backyard until that new jasmine plant hits is stride.

 

We’ve built and installed cedar planters with trellises to help screen back-up generators and swimming pool equipment - in addition to giving garden plants room to ramble vertically.

 

One project required fitting three of our Terrace Garden cedar planters with 6’-tall trellises to create a tasteful and neighborly -yet very much-needed - buffer between two adjoining driveways. Annual or perennial plants will only add beauty to this sturdy privacy screen, which already substantially softens the exposed feel of the adjoining driveways.

A 6’-tall, 20’ wide cedar trellis mounted onto the back side of three of our 4’x8’ Kitchen garden raised beds subtly removed the ‘fishbowl’ feel of a customer’s deck -  and it gives vining edible garden plants a vast framework to show off their climbing skills.

 

Are you interested in a cedar trellis for your raised garden beds? These can be built in our workshop, to your size specs, and anchored onto your raised beds.

And if you’re still just dreaming of having an organic garden of your own one day - imagining how it might look, and where it could go on your property - consider a cedar garden bed with a built in trellis.

That may be just what you need to make the dream come true.

Three Essential Steps To Garden Success.

Career.

Romance.

Hang gliding.

Stamp collecting.

Whatever it is we undertake to accomplish, we all want to succeed in our endeavors.

Right?

It even seems to be hardwired into our very nature to be delighted by success...and repulsed by ( yikes! ) failure.

And such is the case with gardening, too.

 

All kinds of gardening, not just growing edible varieties organically.

Lush, green lawn : Smiley face. Five stars. Yard of the month contender.

Brown spots, crabgrass, and fire ant mounds : The albatross of failure.

And that’s just grass.

How much more important are the plants that you plan to grow organically, then bring inside and serve with dinner?

We’d like to think way more important. 

But whatever the case, if you take anything away from reading this article, let it be these three very simple - but very important - elements to success with growing plants of all kinds.

Something like 90% of success with growing plants is planting the right thing, in the right place, at the right time.

 

That might even be true for careers and romances, too.

But let us leave those topics to more qualified writers, and continue on with the gardening thread that we’ve begun.

What’s the right thing? 

The right thing is whatever it is you want to grow...that’s able to thrive in your cold hardiness zone. 

Let’s say you want to grow decorative palmetto trees in your front yard, for example. 

If you live in Charleston, SC, then go for it -  there are probably more than a few varieties of palmetto trees to choose from, there.

But, if you live in Maine, you’ll simply have to accept that palmetto trees aren’t an option, and choose another decorative tree that can survive Maine’s cold winters.

The same is true for annual and perennial edible varieties. Choose cultivars that will thrive in your cold hardiness zone. Resist the temptation to try to ‘challenge Mother Nature’ on this.

So, with a better idea of what to plant in our cold hardiness zone, now we’re we’re ready to continue down the path to success i the garden.

 

What’s the right place? 

If tomatoes is what you want to grow, and you live in the Charlotte area ( cold hardiness zone 8a ), the right place is an area that gets six or more hours of direct sunlight per day.

If you live in Charlotte, and want to grow decorative ferns, look for a much shadier, cooler area. 

Okay, so now we’re cooking with gas. We understand the ‘right thing’ and the ‘right place’.

What do we mean by the planting at the ‘right time’?

 

Well, as in so many of life’s endeavors, the old maxim ‘timing is everything’ is especially true with gardening. 

 If you live in the Charlotte area, the right time to plant cold-hardy, leafy green seedlings - like lettuces, arugula, and spinach  - is in the early spring and in the fall. Planting these varieties at these times of year will set you up for a successful organic garden.

Late spring and summer would be the wrong time to plant these same varieties in Charlotte. Planting these varieties then would almost certainly result in an epic garden fail - wasting both time and money.

 

Hers’s another example ; Autumn is the ideal time to plant trees here in the Charlotte area - because they'll have months of mild weather to get established in their new environment, and begin to grow new roots before the onset of hot weather the following summer.

Late spring or summer would be considered by most growers to be the ‘wrong time’ to plant trees in Charotte ( edible or decorative tree varieties ) because the hot daytime temperatures would stress the newly-transplanted trees and make it much harder for the trees to survive in their new environment - even if you planted the right kind of tree, in the right place, AND had drip irrigation to water them.

Timing is key with organic gardening, and we’ve found that good timing - along with choosing the right plant and putting it in the right place - pushes your chance of success in the garden well over 90%.

So, if you live in the Charlotte area, want to have a successful organic garden, and you’ve ever thought or said things like :

”I really want an organic garden, I just don’t know where to start”.

“We’d love for our kids to grow their own organic produce, but we want to make sure the garden is successful”.

“I have a brown thumb - everything I try to grow dies”.

“We tried growing an organic garden last year....but it didn’t go so well.”

Don’t worry - we’re here to help you succeed. 

In the garden, anyway.

 

Our cedar garden beds with installation, always include the critical first step of identifying the best site on your property for an organic garden ( Right place ).

And very often, shopping for, and planting your seedling selections. ( Right thing, right time ).

New growers seem to prefer this service, which we’re happy to provide. Experienced organic gardeners may already know that early May is the perfect time to plant tomatoes and basil in the Charlotte area, and will plant their own seedlings once we’ve completed their raised bed installation. 

 

The many organic gardeners in Charlotte area that fall somewhere between novice and expert, may simply need advice or reminders on what varieties to plant, and when to plant them in their new cedar garden beds. 

Whatever the case may be, we want your organic garden to thrive, and we work hard to ensure that it does.

That helps us both ‘grow successfully’.

Right thing. 

Right place. 

Right time.

Give these three concepts the thoughtful consideration they deserve, and you’re more than well on the way to success out in the garden.

Maybe even in your career and in hang gliding, too.

 

Freestanding or Attached?

With a spacious site, plenty of sunlight during the cooler months, and access to power and water supplies, a freestanding greenhouse is often the first choice.

And we’ve built many freestanding greenhouses in the Charlotte area, ranging from 8’x8’ to 16’x24’, with rugged, red cedar frames, multi-wall polycarbonate glazing, automated vent windows, and other climate control equipment.

But not every grower in the Charlotte area has the ideal site or the budget for a freestanding greenhouse. 

Sometimes, the ideal greenhouse site happens to be right beside an existing structure - like a storage shed or a detached garage. Or even right beside a grower’s residence.

In these cases, an attached greenhouse design is typically the answer, and very often, this is built using a shed roof or lean-to style design.

The biggest advantage to attached greenhouse designs - whether it’s an upscale conservatory attached to your home, or a simple, cedar-framed greenhouse built onto the side of a detached garage -  is lower cost, because there are fewer walls to build than in a freestanding greenhouse.

Conservatories, solariums, and sunrooms describe the high-end version of the attached greenhouse concept, and there are companies who specialize in these structures.

One of our favorites is South Carolina-based Florian Greenhouse, who builds and installs elegant, metal-framed conservatories and solariums, with multi-pane, high performance glass glazing, in the Charlotte area.

These high-end, attached greenhouse structures can add value to your home, reduce your heating costs during the winter months, and add welcome humidity to the air inside your home, during the winter. 

Conservatories, solariums, and sunrooms offer the convenience of access from inside your home, and these structures often house hot tubs, reading, dining, and entertaining areas - in addition to plants.

And, as you might imagine, these handsome structures usually come with a handsome price tag to match. 

At Microfarm, we build space-saving, budget-friendly, lean-to style greenhouses, framed with red cedar, and attached to a side of non-residential buildings, like storage sheds and detached garages. 

Just like in our freestanding, cedar-framed greenhouse designs, we use either twin or triple wall polycarbonate to glaze our lean-to greenhouse designs.

We prefer multi wall polycarbonate glazing because it has outstanding insulation value, various options for heat screening and light transmission, and multi wall polycarbonate greenhouse glazing is virtually shatter-proof.

It’s easier for our crew to transport and install than glass. It’s safer for the people using the greenhouse, and much easier to remove and replace, in the rare instance that it ever is damaged. 

Our cedar-framed, lean-to greenhouse designs can be fitted with automated vent windows, louvered shutters, exhaust fans, grow lights, cedar potting benches, and raised garden beds - just like our freestanding cedar-framed greenhouse designs.

A single entry door that allows access to the greenhouse from outside the adjacent building is standard, but in some cases, we can cut another door for access to the attached greenhouse from inside the non-residential shed or garage.

And while of our cedar-framed, polycarbonate glazed lean-to greenhouses may not spike the value of your home the way a fancy glass conservatory might, there are some notable advantages to ‘keeping it simple’ with a smaller structure that’s attached to a non-residential building.

Conservatories, solariums and sunrooms that are attached to your home are certainly more convenient, and the warm, humid air is often welcome inside the home in the dead of winter.

But in the summer months, this very same warm, humid air - which is likely to become even more warm, more humid, and also include a variety of winged insects - must be dealt with by sealing off the access door from the sunroom to the home, shading the structure with blinds or  shade cloth, investing in low-e and other high-performance, heat-screening glass glazing, applying insecticides, and usually some very, very capable ventilation equipment.

These summer issues that come with with conservatories, sunrooms, and solariums attached to a residence, are usually non-issues with smaller, lean-to greenhouses built onto the side of a a shed or garage.

With these more modest attached greenhouses, it’s generally understood that, while the greenhouse can be used to grow plants most of the year, during the summer months, it will be too hot inside for growing, and the lean-to style greenhouse will serve as more of a storage space for garden tools and supplies.

Thinking about building a cedar-framed greenhouse on your property? 

Debating between a freestanding greenhouse design and an attached greenhouse structure?

Drop us a line at hello@microfarmgardens.com - we’d love to hear from you!

Make New Raised Beds, But Keep the Old.

Over the years, we’ve found that organic gardens in Charlotte have a way of growing.

And we’re not talking about copious harvests of show-stopper tomatoes, or fine-textured, blue-ribbon-winning winter squash, either. 

That’s a foregone conclusion, here at Microfarm.

We’re talking about scaling up the organic garden in size, to increase production.

A bigger area dedicated to growing edible varieties organically.

More cedar garden beds to satiate that love of organic gardening.

In fact, we’ve found it so likely that an organic garden design with one raised garden bed will eventually have two or three cedar garden beds, that we plan for this eventuality during the initial site visit to scout out an organic garden site.

Might as well know how much space is available for future growth, right?

And such was the case with Charlotte’s Turner family.

Like many Charlotte families, they began their organic garden with one of our 4’x8’ Kitchen Garden raised beds, which we placed in a sunny nook in the backyard.

You can grow a lot of organic produce in our 4’x8’ Kitchen Garden raised bed. And many growers find it an attractive raised bed design, too.

The Turners liked the look of this 19”-tall cedar garden bed design so much, that it found a home in a prominent area in the backyard, just outside the kitchen window.  

We installed 1/2” diameter drip irrigation in the garden bed, filled the cedar planter with a premium organic soil blend, and even planted the family’s selection of seedlings when we wrapped up the installation that day.

Then the years rolled by.

Six years, to be exact.

When we returned to revisit the property in 2026, things had moved around a little since April of 2020.

That trampoline that was in the backyard wasn’t there anymore.

Two new cars - both with teenage drivers - were now parked out in the driveway.

And an area at a corner of the family’s backyard that was overgrown in 2020, had recently been cleared when the power company installed new utility poles and power lines.

With branches from the nearby trees pruned way, way back, and the newly-cleared area bathed in sunlight, this previously unsuitable area now had everything we look for in an organic garden site: 

6+ hours of sunlight.

Close to the kitchen.

A water supply nearby.

And best of all, this site had much more space than the previous garden site - enough room to add two new 4’x8’ Kitchen Garden raised beds to the existing one, which we would move back to the new garden site. 

After we moved and reinstalled the existing raised bed ( which was still in remarkably excellent condition, by the way) back to the new garden site, we’d then install the two new 4’x8’ cedar garden beds right beside it. We’d install drip irrigation grids in all three 4’x8’ raised garden beds, and connect them underground so that they could be tied into the property’s existing irrigation system, and watered simultaneously on a dedicated zone at the main irrigation control panel.

Then we’d fill all three cedar garden beds with a premium organic soil blend -  just like we always do.

There was just one small problem. More of an aesthetic preference than a problem, really, but still something that we had to address.

You see, with exposure to sunlight, red cedar will weather to silver grey - sometimes in just  a matter of weeks. Most people seem to prefer this weathered look, and red cedar still retains its famous outdoor durability long, long after the red color has faded to silver.

And even though the Turner family’s six-year-old cedar garden bed seemed to have years of useful life left, it’s sun-faded silver color wouldn’t match the pinkish red color of the two brand new 4’x8’ Kitchen Garden raised garden beds.

Sure, the two new cedar garden beds would eventually fade to silver, just like the existing one. But the Turner family liked the idea of creating a more uniform appearance for all three raised beds -  perhaps even a way to extend the life of the cedar and give all three planters a more ‘polished’ appearance that would be easier to maintain over time. 

Staining all three 4’x8’ raised beds with a semi-transparent, pigmented exterior wood stain was the answer, and applying a heavy coat of stain to the exterior of the two brand new cedar garden beds was easy enough.

But, a semitransparent, exterior wood stain wouldn’t have quite enough pigment to conceal the silver color of the six-year-old raised bed ; it would ‘show through’ the stain, and, thus, not achieve the desired uniform appearance for all three cedar raised beds. 

But this was resolved by simply planing and then sanding the exterior surfaces of the family’s existing planter before applying the stain. In fact, once we completed this step, the original pink/red color of the six-year-old cedar garden bed was essentially fully restored. 

 

And the end result, when all three raised garden beds had been stained with the same semitransparent stain, installed, fitted with drip irrigation and filled with organic soil?

Not bad at all. 

In fact, the three cedar garden beds had a surprisingly uniform appearance.

To us, anyway

Now, can you tell which of the three raised beds is six years old, and which two are brand new?

Take all the time you need.

Have fun with it. 

Study all three raised garden beds closely. 

Zoom in on the photos, but only if you must.

Pick the winner, if you can.

Think of it like a game of three-card-monte on the sidewalk of a big city.

But way less sketchy, and just for fun.