It does its best work in the rain.
Bioswale · Alamo Heights
§Work · Plate III
Dry-creek bioswales that drink roughly 20,000 gallons a storm and grow the food back into the runoff. Drainage rebuilt as habitat — and a food line.
It does its best work in the rain.
Bioswale · Alamo Heights
The read
The site had the problem most lots have: in a storm, water sheeted off fast and took soil with it, then the ground went bone-dry by August. The land was telling us exactly where it wanted to move water. The work was to slow it, sink it, and put it to use instead of fighting it to the curb.
What we built
Dry-creek bioswales — limestone-lined channels that catch and hold stormwater, absorbing roughly 20,000 gallons per storm and letting it soak in rather than run off. Then we planted the line in native edibles: persimmon, prickly pear, agave, muhly. The drainage doesn't just manage water — it feeds.
What it does
Water: 20,000 gallons a storm kept on site instead of sent downstream — recharge instead of runoff. Habitat: a planted channel is a corridor for pollinators and birds. Food & body: native edibles bring people into the landscape to harvest — the Movement dimension of the Score, where foraging beats decorative space.
The lesson
Stormwater is only a problem when you send it away. Held where it falls, it's the cheapest irrigation, the start of a food line, and a habitat — all from the thing the neighbors were paying to get rid of.