A Rain Garden is a garden we send water to from a hard surface.  In doing so we don't send the water down the drain and this helps prevent flooding.  A key example is sending water from your down pipes to a planted area designed to deal with the extra water. 

The pictures here show a rain garden planter and a rain garden side by side that we (myself and Orbis Construction!) installed at Bayside Community Centre.  The water it gathers also waters the bed along side it.  The planting is designed to have interest through the season and provide for pollinators.

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So often with Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) engineering solutions are preferred and implemented with little thought to the greener infrastructure that has many more benefits.  When solutions like Rain Gardens are implemented as part of SuDs solutions we achieve more.  We gain additional benefits for biodiversity through the planting, better healthier spaces for residents in the area and the rain garden is also a carbon store.

It is important that green infrastructure is Nature led as well as nature based to get the full range of benefits and avoid the use of concrete.