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46 At the height of the drought in Canberra, I spotted this sign attached to a letterbox post outside a private home:

The day was hot, the sun was beating down, the bark chips around the letterbox were as dry as dust. And yet, the sign proclaimed that rainwater was in use. Sorry, there wasn’t any rainwater being used at the time. Wouldn’t it have been better to let the water police know that rainwater collected in a tank at the back of the house is all that is used for watering the garden?

Brevity is good, but it can also be less than plain English.

How about ‘Only rainwater used in garden’? You might think of something briefer, more meaningful and certainly not ambiguous.