We get quite a lot of rain in Wales! We certainly did the first winter I spent here... and most of the Spring to be honest! On the front corner of my property was a large water butt. It filled from the water coming off the side of my house roof and the kitchen extension roof. It would almost always fill right to the top and then overflow, running along the front of my kitchen. I knew I had to find a solution and, initially, I just ran a length of drainpipe along the ground and channelled the rain water away from the house. That worked really well.
I then began to think about what I could do to make this water flow more useful and attractive and that is when I cam up with the idea of using some of it to stock and maintain a couple of small pools, planted up with pond plants and then a stream type set-up for the overflows.
These videos show how I created it all. This is right next to my office window, so lovely to look out on. I have already seen a frog in the second pool and birds have bathed in the little stream hollows I created.
It has matured well over the summer and I plan on adding another shallowpool at the bottom over the Autumn.
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