Anyway, here we are, 160mm of missed rain later, but finally with two tanks installed, a small one beside the house, plumbed into the toilet, and a larger connected one beside the shed.
Some plans have gone on hold, as the reality of getting the tanks took hold. How much easier to see them in situ than just sketch them out on a piece of paper. In particular, the glasshouse and a new layout for the veg bed (with boundaries marked out, though no rush for new beds) can be planned and visualised much better now.
Funnily enough the huge tank beside the shed seems to sit most comfortably in its spot, filling the back of that tempting but basically neglected area that I've been calling, hopefully, a 'courtyard' for the past couple of years, whereas the much smaller house tank completely changes the sense of the backyard, at least for now, when it's all we notice.
But the flow-on of this is immediate. Apart from the reality of planning for water (rather than just the relief, joy and perhaps denial of this spring's massive drought-breaking rains) we were able to get Mark the minidigger man to move some of our bought in soil around, a huge help in establishing three new beds and making future jobs much easier. The real breakthough (the job we kept putting off, and that would have been a backbreaker with spades and barrow) was to create a surround extending from the flat area beside the house to become a bed beside the walkway on the house's west. The ultimate plan is to put up a framework and train fruit vines here, for afternoon shade from the low summer sun that heats up our bedrooms. Kiwi fruit look the go, but perhaps passionfruit instead or as well. And of course there'll be room for some growing around their base.
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