How gardens can play a role in preventing flooding

Rain gardens, either raised or sunken will hold water and reduce the speed of it entering the drainage system

If each garden had at least one water butt which was filled with rainwater last week, how many millions of gallons of water would that have prevented from entering the waterways. PIcture: iStock

That tapestry in which ants crawl and giant oak trees grow is the same one in which we exist. Without the trees and photosynthesising plants, we have no air to breathe.

That natural world in which storms are created and from where heavy rains fall is the same one where trees grow, and flood plains have developed. This natural world of which, after millions of years, we still only understand a fraction, is the same place where beavers make their dams and fallen trees slow and divert rivers.