Building a raingarden
A raingarden looks like a normal garden except layers of sandy soil lie beneath. It's designed to receive and filter stormwater from hard surfaces such as roofs, driveways and paving.
Trevor Cochrane from the Garden Gurus talks about designing garden beds to filter rain water before it reaches the storm water system and enters natural rivers and streams. Rain water for the gardens can be used from a tank, or directly diverted from a down-pipe.
Water soaks down into the mulch and through various layers of sand, via the root zone of the plants. A pipe collects the water at the base of the garden bed and diverts the filtered water into the storm water system.