Who’s behind most of what you see here on this site?
The main idea of actually building rainwater storage into benches and functional outdoor living elements was a brainstorm of a small town family consisting of farmers, gardeners, horticulturists, DIYers, artists, a nurse, a roofer and inventor, and a landscape designer.
a family business…
…striving to keep that childlike awe for nature and faith in humanity.
Children remind us why we’re doing this.
Let’s leave something behind for them.
Second Rain in a nutshell…
We are a small family-owned business in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA, that is striving to create ways for every one of us to do more to make the world a little better place to live, especially for our children.
We know that this looks different for each one of us; some are perfectly happy cutting back on using resources, changing our lifestyles – some 
are doing so due to increasing costs of those resources, while others for whatever reason cannot change certain things but would love to find better ways to accomplish them and live the same way.
That is our goal: To create ways for people in every walk of life to live better, both environmentally and comfortably.
How can we have both?
First, by rethinking the traditional way of conserving, and of building, and by looking at how we can merge the two, more than just by using recycled material, but by combining utilitarian, aesthetic, AND environmental functions, all in one.
Second, we know water. It’s what we have worked with for generations, both in small and large scale irrigation, to drainage, earthwork and creating beautiful, naturalistic ponds and waterfalls.
Harvesting rainwater just completely makes sense, wherever you are.
Third, make it DIY. Sure we can build it for you, but with DIY kits we hope they open up more opportunities for more people to conserve greater quantities on a homeowner scale, which is really the only way to avoid a serious water shortage in many parts of our country and the world in the coming years.
Put them all together and basically, we live for…
…pushing the envelope of what rainwater harvesting looks like.
Grilling on the Rain…
Scott Gear, our head of product development, with daughter Veda on his shoulders, (and wife Emily, taking the photo, with their other daughter Isla on her shoulders 😉 explore the woods.
Lifelong students of natural spaces especially involving water, Scott and Emily have been designing and building sustainable landscapes in Madison, WI since 2000 (ok, Emily has since 2004 when they entered into eternal marital bliss together).
Countless others along the way have been an integral part of creatively designing and building rainwater storage right into the landscape.
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The Russell Family, (clockwise from center) Bill, Chris, Shawn and Dylan (John will be photoshop’d in later) owns a farm market, bakery, and perennial nursery in Central Wisconsin that use rainwater and high efficiency drip irrigation in much of their operation..
Chris (Mom) designed the Saving Rain Diverter and started Saving Rain, LLC, which ships diverters out right there from the farm.
Chris and Teri (sis) inspecting a fantastic new variety of echinacea!
Wild horses can’t keep these two away from the garden…
At the end of the day, though, the beach looks pretty relaxing…
Too bad for us it’s about 2,000 miles away in either direction!
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