Madroño Landscape Design Studio completed the first pilot project approved by the city of San Francisco under a grant program to fund green infrastructure for residential homeowners. On a 4,400-square-foot property in Forest Hill we installed a 500-gallon rain cistern in the side yard, and designed a custom manifold to connect with a pump to use collected stormwater to supply an existing irrigation system in the back yard. The entire budget was funded by the grant, and the homeowner paid nothing. This new system keeps rainwater out of the sewer and uses it to recharge the earth’s water table.
The funding of such projects is a visionary move by the SFPUC and the City of San Francisco. Interested homeowners can learn more about the program here: Green Infrastructure Grants for Homes
Madroño president Geoffrey Coffey started the company in 2005 out of the back of a pickup truck. His garden column, “Locals Only”, first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2002. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children, where he also sings and thumps the bass for Rare Device.
