If we did more to harvest rainwater it could be put to good use in the garden, particularly in times of drought. I can see why water collection hasn't seemed like a priority here in the UK. We expect to have plenty of rain but that is not a given in times of climate change. Indeed the rain we do get may be of such intensity that we need to mitigate the risk of flooding.

 Having had a water butt at my flat in London for some time I decided to install water storage on a larger scale in my father's garden in Hertfordshire. The butt I ordered came with its own stand but I also made a small platform from a couple of planks.

 It was supplied with a diverter to connect a downpipe to the butt via a hose but I wanted to run the pipe straight into the top of the barrel. Accordingly I cut a hole in the lid.

 In fact this one only holds 100 litres and will fill up quickly. In due course it will be connected to two others holding 350 litres each i.e. 800 litres in total. The roof sheds thousands of litres annually so that's a drop in the ocean so to speak but will come in useful during drier periods. The excess drains straight onto the garden by connecting a soaker hose to the overflow. Better that than going (literally) down the drain. NB It's possible to buy ready made soaker hoses but making lots of pin holes in an ordinary hosepipe amounts to the same thing.

 The 350 litre barrels have been out of stock with all suppliers for months. It seems this year's drought created a run on them which is no bad thing if people's thoughts are turning to rainwater harvesting.