A hosepipe ban to include Sussex has been announced by South East Water…
We need to sort out our rain harvesting. I love the idea of collecting water from the sky. It’s a valuable commodity. I have four tanks but always think I could do with a fifth with one down pipe left. Then I could even start on an over-flow system, much like car parks. There’s the multi-storey option as well to consider and the underground reserves. But that’s possibly going too far!
Some gardens do not possess a water tank. Or perhaps there’s just that token one in a corner, abandoned, clearly seen better days — no longer hooked to a downpipe, the lid long blown away and holding the fetid remains of water and detritus, and perhaps a decomposing animal. You know what I mean.
I wonder what’s going on there. Is it a combination of not having the time as we live the frenetic dream; we’ve just not even thought about it; believe it’s too tricky a task to buy the kit and install it ourselves or that there’s no obvious place to put the tank (and let’s face it, not many of them are particularly attractive unless you go full on high end with the beehive design or the Cretan urn). Or could it be that we are just so connected to the tap that old habits die hard?
Whatever the reason, rain water is actually better than tap water for your plants and better for a healthier soil. Tap water contains chlorine and other chemicals which will harm soil microbes that keep the soil in balance. Rainwater also has a pH which is better suited to most plants, particularly acid-loving plants such as camellias and rhododendrons. Rain water also carries with it microorganisms from the atmosphere which help make up a healthy soil. I love that it’s collected passengers on the way down.
So if you do one thing for your garden this summer, invest in your rain harvesting if you’ve not done so already. The horse may have already bolted for now, but we can always do the rain dance and wait for that deluge to come.
Ps. I can definitely source and install for you, if you would like the help. Tanks cost around £35.
Garden Regeneration 