The blog's first anniversary features our annual Devon County Show visit. In addition to overeating we watched duck herding, saw horses being shod, scratched a few itchy sheep, bought a reversible beekeeping hat/veil, had our teeth whitened, bid for cheese and veg in a produce auction, looked at varroa through a microscope, spun some wool, learned how to weave with fleece, talked to traders about off-grid hot tubs and the respective virtues of quad bikes v buggies, entered prize draws to win beekeeping products and a fruit press, and puzzled over the lack of secondhand stalls.

Remember the uphill rainwater harvesting system? That is no more. We have moved the take-off to a higher gutter so it runs down all the way to the top of the garden. Fortunately our most recent WWOOFer was sufficiently agile to negotiate the plastic safety windows and fit a drain pipe to the guttering. The design of the Cornish Unit is such that the rain collects only from the portion of roof directly above the window. There are two of these on each side (potential to duplicate the system) and rest of the roof drains into the lower gutter along the bottom of the tiled upper story. This is good, because a phenomenal amount of water collects from several houses, whereas this is a more manageable quantity. Lots of water is good, but it is no fun having to go out in torrential rain to deal with gushing overflows .

The water runs down the short length of drainpipe and then along a slightly downward length of about 7 pieces of drainpipe joined together. Luckily we had exactly the amount of pipe we needed and also the correct fittings - all out of number 7's skip last year. Two of the fittings were designed for something else, but ended up as handy inspection holes. These could potentially be used for introducing liquid fertiliser (wee?), or if there is no rain, for a hosepipe of tap water so that if we do have to use mains water at least the irrigation system infrastructure can be used as is (as will  be) rather than having a separate hosepipe routine. The inspection holes  are easily capped with the stretchy netting bags garlic comes in, to prevent leaves and debris entering the system.

We tested the system by tipping a gallon of water into the gutter and waited for it to flow through the system. Nothing came through. There are lots of gallons of water in that amount of drain pipe  - every foot or so must be the equivalent of a fizzy drink bottle. There are a couple of points where the pipe droops a bit, waiting for suitable forked sticks or other props to materialise, and where the pipe levels out. The water gathers here, but if you lift it up slightly it runs down to the water butt.

As sod's law would provide with any good irrigation installation, the work was followed by several days of fine weather. It didn't rain properly until after Russell left. After a few downpours there were still only about four inches of water in the butt. Still content with the manageability of it I was a bit curious as to why there is so little. The area of the roof must be similar that of the big shed, which runs into the ducks' water butt, filling quite quickly when it's raining constantly. After a couple of days I was really puzzled - and then I found the problem. The tap was in the 'on' position. The water was running straight out again. The moral of the story: always look for the simplest problem first.

I am expecting the elder hedge to grow up around the lower parts of the white (and in places grey) piping, so it should meld into the background a bit - although I must say I am quite proud of our low-key civil engineering exercise. It didn't cost a penny to make (except a few inches of gaffa tape) - everything was scavenged from skips and free boxes at the end of the car boot sale. And of course I am utterly grateful for WWOOF labour, which doesn't come in a better form than that of Russell McLendon of Mother Nature Network.

For the technically minded or the envious, this is what we used and how we did it:

• Removed existing half-round angle and half round union bracket from the gutter (prised off with screwdriver I think)
  
• Replaced with half round stop end outlet (clips into place)
  
• Attached length of 68mm downpipe long enough to almost reach the windowsill
  
• Attached offset bend 112.5º (I think) resting on windowsill for support
• Joints were held temporarily with gaffa tape during construction
  
• Joined lengths of 68mm drain pipe with downpipe sockets, sufficient to reach to the water butt at the top of the garden
  
• We replaced 2 downpipe sockets with 112.5º pipe branches, making inspection holes and scope for adding liquid feed (these will need covering - with lids, gauze or netting etc)
  
• The last pipe fed into side of water butt as this was the correct height.  (If it was higher and above the top of the water butt it would require a 92.5º offset bend or similar.)
  

I came home to find Mocha in the big raised bed (I could tell by the tone of her voice something was different) and a female blackbird dead in the ducks' bath. Rhiannon blames the ducks. The other day
she witnessed an  interaction between the ducks and a black bird (not necessarily a blackbird). The bird had gone into the ducks' house and stolen one of their eggs. They ganged up, spread their wings and charged at it, flapping it away. Silly really, when I nick their eggs every day and they don't seem to care. Maybe it's just revenue protection.

I think it's more likely that the blackbird drowned in the bath after being injured by a cat - the same cats that dig up my seedlings and use our garden and shed roof as their toilet.  But seeing Mocha with a frog the other day does make me wonder. She ran around the garden like a nutter, chased by Tahini (who probably wanted a share) and by me (trying to rescue the frog). Mocha wasn't having any of it, gobbling at the poor little thing, legging it determinedly around the garden, taking cover in behind bins and buckets, until I gave up. If it was going to be dead (which it was) it may as well be eaten and turned into eggs. It's a wild world out there in the garden.

There has been a phenomenal amount of rain. I heard on the radio a few days ago that in the South West we had had a fortnight's rain in 24 hours. That would explain why the ducks have managed to make the garden quite as slushy as they have. They take the bare soil that they have already worn and trodden in drier times and turn it into a slithery mud bath, and anywhere that water collects, like down the bottom of the garden where they used to have their bath, they dig ponds. They peck and puddle, peck and puddle until the water collects in the dip. They even dig ponds in other peoples gardens when they go on one of their jaunts. But it has been worse than usual here. The water is collecting beyond the fence protecting the perennial salad bed, at about the distance the ducks can stretch their necks. Mocha, white breast a bedraggled mess of mud, is particularly skilled at reaching through and twisting at a 90 degree angle to remove anything living. I don't blame them (I have a theory that it is impossible to harbour negative feelings towards ducks) because they are laying so consistently and reliably. It must take a lot of energy to produce a perfect egg every day - the sort of hunger I used to get when I was breastfeeding.

A spate of heavy rain is a good opportunity to observe the ingress, egress and flow of the rain water. Some of it sprinkles from the sky, landing everywhere. The house roof produces the greatest concentration, gushing along the gutters and down the pipe into the drain. Part of this is the up-stream neighbour's run-off, as we share a gutter. The shed is collecting rain from one side of the roof, into the ducks' waterbutt, which is now full. It is fed by syphon into their bowl, and I can see how full the butt is by how high I need to hold the pipe to stop it flowing. The hose has a push-fit cap, and the pressure is not high enough to breach this. This water is easy to manage. There is no overflow fitted to the butt so it must be spilling onto the ground, but there is a pile of prunings in the way, waiting to be shredded, and it is  not enough to notice - more importantly the ducks haven't noticed. But it does need an overflow fitted to drain surplus into the gully. The gully is working very well, the water gradually flowing further as I clear obstructions, get the level correct and extend the trench a little further down the garden. I am confident that this system has turned a dry, scorched, south facing bed with a hungry box hedge behind it, where the apple tree suffered badly from powdery mildew, into a lush, well irrigated bed.

There is another source of water, and that is the run-off from the garages. The gutter runs down to my garage, flows largely into the downpipe, partially overflows onto the ground and under the garage door which is protected by sandbags and a grill and channel, then just runs onto the ground. It flows  down our claimed land, straight through our gate and into the garden. From here it follows the path of least resistance, stopping on the path where I have started replenishing the woodchip surface but been held up by the malfunctioning shredder. Where the deep woodchip stops the water stops too, and there is dug by the ducks (another small pond in the middle of the path). There is no way to direct it to the storm drain in the carpark. There is tarmac with gradient in the wrong direction. So it is a classic permaculture example of a problem waiting to be turned into an asset. The water is going to continue coming from the garages, and in dryer spells would be a great resource. It just needs to be directed and stored.

The most useful place to store it is in the ground, not in the sense of tanks and pumps, but in the soil itself, so that when we get another dry spell the ground is porous and able to accept scant showers. The water needs to flow into a swale across the top of the garden and to use the slight gradient to let it move downwards, like the ducks' gully does so admirably. Practically, the swale should dot-to-dot from the main waterbutts collecting roof run-off, to the point where the garage run-off flows in, to the ducks' overflow. My experience with the gully and with Spanish acequias suggest that the best way will be to start with a shallow channel to follow the way the water runs, and the water itself will cut it deeper. There has to be sufficient capacity in the channel for the amount of water flowing at a given time. If there is only a little water it will soak in almost immediately, leaving the three water sources as the dampest parts of the garden. This is where I should plant thirsty plants. When there is more water it will flow faster and further along before it soaks in. The unknown quantity is how much water there will be when we have a period of really heavy rain like we are having at the moment. The danger is that the swale will overflow, so it needs to be deep enough to deal with any influx. But not too deep, because it will be better if the excess water reaches further down the garden, in a second, and maybe third, swale. There is going to be a balance between sufficient depth at ingress to the swale to deal with the maximum volume of water, coupled with sufficiently shallow gradient to allow the water to flow slowly enough to soak into the ground as it goes, making best use of the water and not to cause erosion or loss of nutrients.

The best way to do this will initially be by trial and error, controlling the depth and direction with the azada. But there will be a time to settle on the depth, because then we can grow plants in the swale. Until then it will be unproductive bare soil and will always need protecting from the ducks. This is going to mean a tunnel of freezer baskets or similar, to allow light and water and easy section removal, but no naughty ducks.

Weather permitting, our pop-up 'farm gate' will be open on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the season. It is situated in the back lane behind Denys Road, leading from Maudlin Road into town.  There will normally be duck eggs for sale and a selection of perennial herbs and fruit bushes. Later in the season we will add some salad bags and seasonal fruit. For more details see The Very Tiny Farm Shop.