Should there still be water? Although spring has been around for a while, April is pulling out all its shenanigans and the rain continues to fall in buckets every day. This may be a bit depressing for the mood, but all that rainwater can also be quite useful. Especially if we get extended periods of drought again in the summer.
I'll give you three tips for putting rainwater to good use.
Storing rainwater to use later
Installing a cistern.
If you want to use the big resources, you can (have) a prefabricated cistern buried in your garden. The advantage: you can collect thousands of liters of rainwater to use later for your washing machine or as irrigation water for your plants. The big disadvantage is that it requires quite some effort to install a cistern, both in terms of budget and work.
Using a rain barrel.
A more budget-friendly way to collect rainwater than a cistern is a rain barrel. For example, you can attach a gutter to your greenhouse or gazebo 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 have to be careful with prolonged frost.
Tip: using snow
You can also easily supply the greenhouse with rainwater by collecting packs of snow outside and pouring it out into the greenhouse. The melt water then trickles steadily into the soil. To do this, of course, it must already be snowing heavily in winter.
Collect rainwater and use it immediately
You can also collect rainwater and use it directly in your garden ... or in the greenhouse.
In the greenhouse.
The soil in the greenhouse has had a rest and could use some new food after winter. Fill a couple of watering cans and give that rainwater to the soil in your greenhouse. Feel free to repeat this for several days.
In the garden.
Rainwater you collect on the roof of, say, your gazebo can also be sent directly into the garden, for example through a downspout in which you make holes or with a drip hose.
- To do that, you do need a garden with some variety of plants that make the soil richer, allowing it to absorb more rainwater.
- Mulch enhances that effect. It is a layer of organic material on the soil, such as wood chips, grass clippings or compost, that allows the soil to absorb and retain more rainwater. A natural reservoir , then, that will prove its benefits in summer.
Making your garden water-friendly
Besides collecting rainwater and using it yourself, you can also let your garden do the work. Provide a few nooks and crannies where water is king anyway.
A pond seems like the most obvious step. Not only do you have something beautiful to look at yourself, you also attract a host of animals with it.
Have you considered a green roof yet? That works like a sponge that retains rainwater while insulating your roof. It also requires an investment, because such a green roof weighs a bit, so it's best to have an expert look at it. In any case, the plants on a green roof are selected for their function of water retention and insulation.
Another option is a wadi. Wadi stands for water drainage and infiltration and is actually a lower piece of garden in which you let the downspout flow. In wet periods you then get a kind of swamp. The slow way the rainwater seeps in gives the soil time to absorb all that moisture properly and store water permanently. "Wadi," by the way, is an Arabic word and refers there to riverbeds in desert areas.
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In this video, Angelo explains how you can very easily make your own water tank with terracotta pots.
