Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category
Sustainable landscapes
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 4.
It really doesn’t matter what style of garden you prefer, whether it be formal, Japanese, cottage, or contemporary, the principles are still the same.
Water sensitive urban design is one of the most significant changes in urban design in recent years. It is the practice of keeping water on site, at least for as long as possible, rather than send it immediately into the stormwater system. An important aspect of that is porous paving. Use porous paving wherever you can to reduce runoff from the site.
Another change is recycling. Concrete from the old gardens can be sent to a recycler and turned into crushed rock. Then used as a compactable sub-base under wall footings and paths.
A practice in the industry had been to import top soil as required, with little consideration to maintaining the existing top soil, which would be buried or compacted during construction. Since most of the imported top soil is from unsustainable sources, the practice is being replaced by stockpiling existing topsoil and importing composted greenwaste products as soil improvers as necessary.
Existing top soil can be scraped to one side and stored on site. When landscape works are completed, the top soil can be amended and laid back over, to provide a planting environment. This also reduces cart away to tips and landfill sites.
Rainwater gardens
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 4.
Rain that lands on the ground or driveways usually ends up going down the stormwater drain. Why not capture some of this water not only for the benefit of your garden, but to reduce the amount of rubbish and pollution that goes into the drainage system and eventually into the waterways.
According to Stuart McQuire, author of Water Not Down the Drain, the first thing you should do when looking at capturing stormwater is to watch your garden when it is raining.
“Get an idea of your garden to see where puddles are forming. Is there water simply running down hill or are there paved surfaces that are collecting water that could be redirected to the garden?” says Stuart.
“Once you have an idea of where the water is pooling or running off you can look at ways to capture this water for the benefit of your garden. Options include landscaping, creating a rainwater garden, capturing the water in underground tanks or installing porous paving.”
Clever landscaping
Landscaping can be designed to direct water to areas where it can seep into the soil rather than running off the site. Swales are a way of landscaping your garden so that it catches as much rain as possible. Swales are hollows or ridges constructed along the contour of the slope to hold water as it runs down the slope. The water then seeps into the ground for the benefit of the plants.
In the home garden, swales can be subtle variations in the slope that are part of the landscaping without their function being obvious; wider swales can even be lawn areas. Plants or landscape features can also be used to help retain and filter the water, or they can be used to extend and enhance your swales. Swales are particularly good for retaining water for trees or deep rooted shrubs.
Porous paving is another thing to consider when you are putting new paving in. Porous paving can have the same stability and function as non-porous paving, but it allows water to seep through into the ground. Trees or other plants near the paving will benefit from this water.
Raingardens
Raingardens capture the water, allowing it to seep into the soil slowly. They can include ponds or water features and can double as a home for frogs. Raingardens are designed to capture the flow of stormwater coming from paved areas, overflow pipes of rainwater tanks or direct from downpipes from the roof of the house. The raingarden typically has an overflow point to a stormwater drain for when there is really heavy rain for extended periods.
The garden should feature plants that can tolerate the soil going from very wet to periodically dry. Rocks or pebbles should be used as mulch, as these don’t float when the water flows and end up clogging drains, but like timber mulch, they protect the soil from evaporation and suppress weeds.
With a bigger budget you could even consider getting underground tanks that can be used to capture stormwater.
Insulating Victorian-period walls
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 7.
When it comes to insulating old brick walls, look to the outside.
The Victorian clay brick has good thermal mass, which means it stores heat and cool for long periods. What that means is that when you have long days of summer sun or winter cold, your walls will store the heat or cold and move it from the outside to the inside of your home.
If your exterior walls are painted, says Stuart McQuire of Green Makeover, and they’re heating up in the summer, “paint them with an insulating paint”.
Using insulating paint, or a non-toxic and readily available additive such as Thermilate, will help prevent heat moving through your brickwork. This goes for interior walls, too. And on sun-exposed exterior walls, remember to use light colours. Plain old white paint has excellent reflective qualities.
If exterior walls are unpainted, don’t paint them! You will take your home’s period authenticity a giant step backward, and there is no way to remove the paint without huge expense and the likelihood of further damaging your walls.
Says Paul Downton of Ecopolis: “One option is to place a vertical trellis against that wall and grow plants that are happy to climb across it. The plants don’t need to be deciduous, as they offer some insulation value (about R1.0) against heat loss in winter as well as protection from summer sun. The trellis can have shade cloth on it initially until the vegetation takes over. The trellis should be about 75 to 100 mm from the wall surface to allow an air gap.”
If you plan to grow a creeper directly onto the wall, the best option by far, advises Simon Collings of Fitzroy Nursery, is Boston ivy: “it’s the least destructive of walls, can take sun or shade, and colours up beautifully in autumn. It sits out from the wall and gives you a good thermal air barrier, and is easy to maintain, as long as you keep it out of your gutters.”
At all costs, he says, avoid English ivy, “which really is just a noxious, invasive weed”.
Save water
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 6.
Use three or four star WELS-rated shower heads, toilets and water fixtures. Catch your rainwater in tanks for use in the bathroom and garden and look into getting a wastewater treatment system. Use drought-tolerant landscaping.
Natural swimming pools
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 6.
There are few things better than diving into some cool water on a hot summer’s day, but with water an increasingly scarce commodity in Australia, home pools are becoming a questionable luxury. Pools are notorious for losing water from evaporation, not to mention the volume of water lost through backwash discharge via filtration systems, leakage, cleaning and so on. Some estimates have pools losing up to 4 to 5 times their volume each year. Pools are also energy guzzlers, with average sized pool’s pumps and filters chewing through up to 2,200 kW per year.
Installing a pool is something not to be done lightly, but not every part of Australia is water-stressed and if you do want to install one, there are plenty of things you can do to minimise its impact on the environment.
For existing pools you must have a good pool cover, which can help to reduce evaporation by up to 90%. Installing a cartridge filter instead of a sand filter, which uses a lot more water, will also help. And installing a rainwater tank to top up your pool is of obvious benefit. To save energy, solar pumps are available, as are solar pool heaters. For other tips see www.savewater.com.au/how-to-save-water/in-the-home/pools-and-spas.
If you’re in the market for a new pool, there is even more you can do – such as installing a chemical-free pool.
European countries have been installing natural pools for years. Now a handful of pool design companies, such as Bionova Natural pools (www.bionovanaturalpools.com.au) and Aquaviva Australia (www.mynaturalpool.com.au) have brought the technology to Australia, and are adapting it to Australian conditions.
Natural pools mimic the biological “filter systems” you’d find in a natural stream and pool. As long as you create the right environment, nature – supported by pool system technology – will take care of the rest. Impurities like decomposing plants and bacteria are filtered out by plants and by a specially designed, multilayered gravel filtration system.
Australian natural pool designers adopt a two-pool system, where one pool is for swimming and the other is for regenerating the water via the biological filter. You can have the two pools merged in the one body of water or two separate pools – it depends on what you like and how much space you’ve got to work with.
Tank bling
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 5.
So you have chosen a tank that suits your needs and are ready to install. But before you call the plumber have a think about any other rainwater tank accessories you may need to keep your water clean and healthy. Prevention is better than cure and poorly maintained roofing or guttering, overhanging trees, birds, possums, and air pollution can all affect water quality. There are a number of ways you can minimise the amount of contaminants that enter the tank. Other devices are also available to help you manage your rainwater.
Gutters
Gutter guards or special gutters with filters can be used to prevent leaves and debris entering the guttering. The need for these is dependent on the extent to which the roof of your house has overhanging or nearby trees. Leaves can block the guttering causing the rainwater to overflow rather than go into the tank. Blockages can also cause water to pool in the gutter, providing habitat for mosquitos. Leaves that accumulate in the gutters can also start to break down, causing leaching and discolouring of the water.
Choose gutter guards that install in line with the roof gradient, rather than those that create a curved barrier over the gutter that may collect leaves on the upper side. Alternatively, there is guttering available that has two layers, with filters mounted in the top layer to exclude leaves and debris but which allow water to flow into the bottom layer. The top layer of this guttering is shallower than standard guttering, with the intention that it is self cleaning as the wind blows leaves out of it. This happens to some extent, but it will still require brushing periodically depending on the location.
Leaf diverters
Leaf diverters can also be used to screen leaves and debris from entering the downpipes and tanks. These are mounted on the downpipe and typically consist of a mesh screen angled to deflect leaves, but that allows water to flow through into the downpipe. If you are already using gutter guards or guttering that screens leaves then these should not be needed. They are an alternative to gutter guards for stopping leaves entering the downpipes, but they don’t stop leaves accumulating in the gutters.
First rain diverters
First rain diverters are used to divert the first bit of rain—20 to 25 litres for an average roof catchment—away from the rainwater tank along with any accumulated contaminants from the roof or guttering. Health authorities recommend these as an additional barrier to reduce contamination rather than a reason to avoid the maintenance of keeping the roof and gutters clean.
Plumbing and tank suppliers sell a range of first rain diverters. Simple downpipe first rain diverters consist of a vertical pipe with a ball inside. As the pipe fills, the ball floats up and the rain then flows into the tank. The first bit of rain is below the ball and this then drips out to the garden over a period of time, so that next time it rains the diverter is ready to accept more water. The base of the diverter needs to be removed periodically to flush out any accumulated sediment or debris.
