With Easter now behind us, many people’s thoughts are starting to turn to their gardens and getting them ready for the summer.

But with climate change making the weather less predictable, Severn Trent is offering some advice to green-fingered customers which could help them reduce their water use in the garden, and potentially save some money off their bill.

Sophie Evans-Young, Customer Demand Lead at Severn Trent said: “We’ve seen some pretty wild weather over the last couple of years, from record-setting summers to really wet and windy winters.  While we’ve seen quite a damp start to the year, we may yet see a hot and dry summer.

“We’re spending millions on our network to cut down on leaks from pipes and make sure that we’re getting water to where it’s needed. There are a few brilliant and really simple things that we can all do around the garden which can help to use less water and if you’re on a water meter, save you money too.”

Sophie’s top tips for getting your garden summer ready:

Capture rainwater – catching rainwater and storing it for when it’s needed is a top tip. Water butts are cheap and come in a variety of capacities, so there’s one to fit every type of garden.  It’s also great if you’ve got a lot of hard surfaces – like tarmac or paving – around your house, as a water butt can ease pressure on drainage and help avoid surface flooding.

If you live in a flat or don’t have access to a garden, you can make a mini water butt from a milk carton, perfect for those indoor plants! It’s also a great activity to do with the kids on a wet afternoon. Water butts are available at most garden centres, or from the internet, and are available at a discount via Get Water Fit.

Brown lawns bounce back – we all prefer a lovely green lawn, but sprinklers can use 1,000 litres of water every hour, some of which will be lost to the air before it even gets near the grass!

 Don’t worry if your lawn looks a bit brown during hotter weather; a healthy, well-maintained lawn can easily withstand drier periods and springs back to life and as a bonus, leaving the mower in the shed for a couple of weeks to let grass grown can help it to develop longer roots, making it easier to find water.

Cover the paddling pool – there’s no better way to beat the heat and help keep the kids (and adults) cool than with a paddling pool. But with most having a capacity of around 400 litres, filling a paddling pool even half way can use loads of water. Instead of emptying it out every night, reuse the water for a few days and pop a cover over it when it’s not being used to keep insects out.

Swap out some hardier plants – if you fancy changing this up in the garden this year, why not consider some more water-efficient plants? While people might picture cacti when they think about water-efficient plants, species like Blanket flower (Gaillardia), Sea holly (Eryngium amethystinum) and Euphorbia are easy to look after and add a great splash of colour to the garden without being as water-intensive as other varieties.

Customers could also save money and water around the house by reporting any suspected leaks on taps,  toilets or showers around the house via the free Vyn platform.

People have already saved over 1 million litres of water since 2023 by taking a short video of their issue via Vyn which is sent straight to a Severn Trent engineer. The footage is then reviewed, and the team will contact the customer to book a visit within a few days to get a repair made – all free of charge.

If a Severn Trent engineer isn’t able to support with the repair, they will put the customer in touch with a WaterSure accredited plumber in the area.

Common leak locations are showers, taps and toilets and the cost of not getting these issues fixed can mount up – a dripping tap can add £90 a year to household water bills, while a leaky loo could cost up to £300!

To find out more – including how to access the platform and what you need to do to report a leak in your home – visit stwater.co.uk and search for Vyn or by clicking this link.

For water saving tips and advice, click here or visit stwater.co.uk and search for Saving Water Made Simple.

ENDS