1. Terracing the front yard. First job was to remove the kikuyu lawn and divide the yard into two levels to allow rainwater to infiltrate. The lower level was formed into a circle with the raised garden beds at the lower end to reduce any runoff. A hardy all season lawn was added for my pleasure.

2. Wicking bed. This ingenious closed system has worked brilliantly (should have been wider though). The construction was mostly from recycled materials(bought lining plastic and polypipe/agpipe). I have grown food in this climate for nearly 30years and I am happily surprised with the excellent water efficincy of the wicking bed. Nothing has ever wilted even though I only add water once a week.

3. Water tank. (This should also have been larger) Installed a 1000l water tank

4. Water divertors. Two systems. MY property already had a pit with a submersible flotation switch that pumped excess rainwater from the back of the house onto the street gutter. I cut into the pipe and added a T join to divert the water along a hose onto the front garden. I am surprised at how much water is collected just from the dew that forms on mornings in autumn and spring. The other system is a downpipe water divertor installed on the downpipe of the shed. This has some use, collecting enough water for pond and nearby garden but does not travel far due to not enough head.

5. Sunken Hugel Bed. Small (2.5m x 1.2m) hugel bed. Logs were thrown over fence by neighbouring school when they did some pruning. So far so good. I havent watered since construction in autumn but summer will be the test. I planted it out to peas, coriander, broccoli and english spinach. All have been growing excellently but I will replace them with a permanenet planting of raspberries and goji berries. These have to love it because i love them. The hugel bed was sunken to make use of the water flow from the nearby paved area.

6. The usual - loads of organic matter, mulch, hardy plants, more organic matter, drip irrigation etc.

7. Installing a no dig garden bed in a keyhole shape. I want all these different methods for demo purposes.