Month: November 2011

It’s a fact that I live in one of the driest regions in the UK. Average annual rainfall in Cambridgeshire is around the 500mm mark: a lot less than the 4000mm that falls in the Scottish Highlands!

Capturing and saving water is therefore an absolute requirement if one is to have a blooming garden. This has become even more of an imperative recently as we are in a very dry spell. Historically, November is the second wettest month in the year around here (after June) but this year it looks like being the driest for ages. That persistent area of high pressure over Scandanavia has pushed all the rain bearing anti-cyclones well to the north. Scotland and the Lake District have been getting plenty of rain, but not the East and South East of England. No wonder Anglian Water have issued a drought warning for some of our area.

So, I’ve been taking advantage of the dry weather to beef up my rainwater capture system. I already had two water butts behind my office on the right hand side of the garden; capturing water from the office roof. I am now in the process of adding two more behind the shed on the left hand side. That way, I’ll have water on both sides of the gardn and I can then move to stage two; which is to implement a water trickling system.

The pictures show the two new butts joined together; a picture of the office on the right hand side and a picture of the shed on the lefft hand side. You can’
t see the butts themselves because of the reed screening in front of them.