3 tips to make the most of rainwater in your garden

Installing a rainwater tank. 

If you want to use the big guns, you can have a prefab rainwater tank installed in your garden.The advantage: you can collect thousands of liters of rainwater to use later for your washing machine or as watering water for your plants. The big disadvantage, however, is that it requires quite a bit of effort to install a rainwater tank, both in terms of budget and work.

Using a rain barrel. 

A more budget-friendly way to collect rainwater than a rainwater tank is a rain barrel. You can, for example, attach a gutter to your greenhouse or garden shed and collect that water in a rain barrel. In it, you can easily collect 200 to 300 liters of rainwater. Handy for filling your watering can and watering plants in the summer. With such an above-ground reservoir, you do need to be careful during prolonged frost.

In the greenhouse.

The soil in the greenhouse has had a rest period and could use some new nutrients after the winter. Fill a few watering cans and give that rainwater to the earth in your greenhouse. You can repeat this for a few days without any problem. 

In the garden. 

Rainwater that you collect on the roof of, say, your garden shed can also be sent straight into the garden, for example through a downpipe in which you make holes or with a drip hose.

• For this, you do need a garden with some variety of plants that enrich the soil, allowing it to absorb more rainwater.
• Mulch enhances this effect.It's a layer of organic material on the ground, such as wood chips, grass clippings, or compost, that ensures the soil can absorb and retain more rainwater. A natural reservoir then, that will prove its benefits in the summer.
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A pond seems like the most obvious step. Not only do you have something beautiful to look at, but you also attract a lot of animals.

Have you considered a green roof yet? It works like a sponge that holds rainwater and at the same time insulates your roof. It also requires an investment, because such a green roof weighs quite a bit, so it's best to let an expert handle it.The plants on a green roof are at least selected for their ability to retain water and provide insulation.

Another option is a wadi. Wadi stands for water discharge through drainage and infiltration and is actually a lower part of the garden where you let the downpipe end. In wet periods, you then get a kind of marsh. Due to the slow way in which the rainwater seeps in, the soil has time to absorb all that moisture well and store water sustainably. "Wadi" is actually an Arabic word and refers to riverbeds in desert areas.