The half footpath/half stream behind the house is 100% stream at the moment.

@mrshsaxon @helenclayton

Those are great! I love the clear sections (although I wonder if they'd go green quite quickly)

@suearcher @mrshsaxon ooh this has got me thinking thank you! I wanted to incorporate a rain chain somewhere - a garden I used to visit in Devon had them inside a greenhouse (didn’t pay attention at the time to how the water came in) - but not sure how. I want to divert water to a butt but then take the overflow away. I wonder if there’s a way to do it high up so can walk under still

@JeniParsons @suearcher we plan to have a couple of these too (given how often the water gets cut off it will be useful) but not really organised enough for that yet. We’ve got a place lined up for one or two. This bit I’m dealing with is in a tight spot and in quite a nice corner of garden.

@helenclayton @suearcher in that case any container needs to be inconspicuous

@JeniParsons @helenclayton

We hid the IBC that's collecting rainwater off the community workshop, by cladding it!

@suearcher @helenclayton very neat job!

@suearcher @JeniParsons tidy job. For me collection isn’t the issue so much - I want to collect the water and don’t mind the look of a water butt - but I need to divert the overflow across 2-3 metres of ground somehow. I wondered what the alternative to burying pipes is.

@JeniParsons @helenclayton

When I say we, I mean Alfred of course, who did all the construction. I applied the woodstain!

We've since added some hexagon motifs and bee cut-outs, to riff on the slight beehive look.

@helenclayton @suearcher we lay blue alkathene pipe in the grass so we don’t accidentally cut it with the mower or a scythe

@suearcher @helenclayton nice

@helenclayton @JeniParsons

A pipe-bridge? Carry the water across a raised structure, maybe you could make it into a pergola or something with climbers growing up? Or would it be too low to walk under?

@Maker_of_Things has done pipe bridges at the community allotment, and at the workshop.

@JeniParsons @suearcher this is over a gravel area

@suearcher @JeniParsons @Maker_of_Things yes, this has got me thinking! I’d not thought about over the head before. There is already an archway I could utilise. The trick will be getting a diverter high enough - it needs to divert to a water butt first. I have two down pipes from different directions but I’ve temporarily joined them. I maybe could do that more permanently otherwise I’ve got two outflows to worry about. I need to do some measuring!

@helenclayton @JeniParsons @Maker_of_Things

Oh I hope you can work something out!

@suearcher @JeniParsons @Maker_of_Things me too, this has been a great brain storm!

@helenclayton @JeniParsons @Maker_of_Things

Well, a brain storm is better than a rain storm at the moment!

@suearcher @JeniParsons @Maker_of_Things when we get around to adding the IBCs it will be a bit easier. I can direct the overflow to the veg patch with pipe as Jeni suggests. It’s this ‘tidy’ corner that is giving me a headache. It needs to be functional and aesthetically pleasing. There’s a vague Japanese theme to it (or was at one point) so a rain chain would be good if I could carry the water overhead to it.

@suearcher @JeniParsons @Maker_of_Things auto correct did initially change it to rain storm. Taking the piss I thought.

@suearcher @helenclayton @Maker_of_Things isn’t it just! Some drier weather in the forecast for this week I believe

@JeniParsons @suearcher @Maker_of_Things the ground here is the most saturated it’s been since we’ve been here. I can’t imagine our soakaway system is working too well.