Harvesting rainwater with Rain Garden Kits

DESPITE the wet summer, some parts of the UK are still considered to be experiencing a drought, according to the Environment Agency.

Rain Garden Kits www.raingardenkits.co.uk offers an innovative and exciting range of garden accessories which takes rainwater from the roof and puts it to good use.

Since forming the Fulham-based company a year ago, owner Chris Killingbeck has been amazed how much interest there has been in the kits and says this is a perfect opportunity to develop a rain garden.

“Autumn is the right time to begin harvesting rainwater ready for planting in the Spring,” explained Chris. “Water is such a precious commodity, but what a rain garden does is to capture not just some of the rain, but all of it. The soft rain water is simply ideal for growing orchids, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias, and kids will love creating their own wild wetland centre brimming with nature.”

Rain gardens are nothing new. In the Mediterranean, sun-kissed gardeners have been building sinks to store rain water for hundreds of years. More recently, rain water has been harvested in Australia and the USA as water becomes more valuable and populations increase.

As water becomes such a valuable resource, UK water companies are installing meters to limit household usage. Yet in urban areas, rain water goes straight into the sewers and the concreting over of gardens for car parking adds to this dilemma.

Chris explained that Rain Garden Kits offer an affordable and easy-to-build way of brightening up any garden in an extremely environmentally-friendly fashion. Customers don't even need to have a huge garden since the mini soakaway kit is perfect for growing wetland plants in a small, city garden.

He added: “Installing a water butt is a great way to start, but once it is full the water reverts to the sewers. A rain garden takes the overflow from the water butt to fill or top-up a pond and even a soakaway unit in which you can grow vegetables or marsh plants. Plants for ponds and soakaways are included in our kits.”

Rain Garden Kits offer a herb wheel kit for under £100, which is perfect as a stand alone feature or an aromatic addition to any rain garden. In fact, they offer a range of kits to fit all sizes and any location of garden, including the popular dunking pool kit for gardeners who want a ready supply of soft rain water.

The Met Office recently reported that it had been wetter this summer than 12 months ago when the UK had 267.7mm of rainfall, compared to 243.8mm in 2010. But this summer was drier than 2007, 2008 and 2009, when 323mm of rain fell that summer.

Don Potts, an independent environmental consultant, is a strong advocate of Rain Garden Kits. He said: “Throughout the world people and wildlife are experiencing acute shortages of water. Even in the UK, many areas suffer regular droughts, as experienced in East Anglia and South East England this Spring and early Summer.

“The Rain Garden Kits provide not only an excellent way of collecting rainwater but also make a significant contribution to establishing mini wetlands in schools and gardens, benefiting a wide range of wildlife species.

“If you care about wildlife I cannot think of a better way of doing something positive than by building your very own rain garden.”

Find out more information at www.raingardenkits.co.uk

Editor’s notes

Rain Garden Kits was formed in 2010 by business partners Neil Jenner and Chris Killingbeck and is based in Fulham, south-west London. Both businessmen have worked in advertising and sales in the city, before forming their own companies.

They developed an easy-to-build kit system for the small urban garden, bringing together suppliers of water butts, wooden ponds, wooden soakaway units/planters, herbs and aquatic plants to produce a rain garden kit.

Kits range from a small herb wheel priced at £61, and a basic rain garden kit, costing £109, to a complete large garden kit which retails at £610. Other kits in the range include a large herb wheel  (£89), a mini soakaway kit (£239) and a gardener’s dunking kit (£290).

Rain Garden Kits offer nine complete packages, depending on the size of the garden and the number of components. For example, the small rain garden kit comprises a 100 litre water butt and plinth, a diverter, a 50 gallon hexagonal pool with seats, a bamboo channel and a connector, plus a 36in x 36in soakaway unit for £348.

There is a medium rain garden kit which retails at £552, leading to the large garden kit at £610.

All the kits delivered this Autumn/Winter do not include plants-all purchasers of Rain Garden Kits will be emailed in March 2012 and offered plants for their ponds, herb wheels and soakaway units.

Rain Garden Kits is a completely new business which plans to expand into other eco-friendly products and areas. Two projects on the horizon are to design a rain garden with bigger storage and a pump to beat the hosepipe bans, as well as looking to tap into the ‘grow your own’ market, by providing a kit to help gardeners harvest rainwater to feed their allotments.

What others have to say about Rain Garden Kits:

Helen Beioley, head of fund-raising, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust:

“We do wish you every success. We believe that your motivation is as much to help the environment as it is to build a business. and we all respect your initiative in this respect.”

Find Rain Garden Kits at: www.raingardenkits.co.uk with links on both Twitter and Facebook.

For more information contact redheadPR:

Emma De Maio on 07921 160134

Email:  emma@redheadpr.co.uk