Rain gardens have been a landscaping tool that councils across Australia have implemented over the past two decades to varying success. It’s a concept developed during the early 1990s in Maryland, a Mid-Atlantic US state that’s defined by abundant waterways and coastlines on the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.
Before the built environment, natural systems filtered rain through soils. The mineral component of soils work as a mechanical filter, while the soil life, such as bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms, consume the pollutants resulting in the removal of biodegradable organic carbon.
The main types of microorganisms that break down pollutants in a biofiltration system are aerobic, requiring oxygen to metabolise compounds (nutrients or pollutants).
This is why a constructed biofiltration system must not be allowed to get waterlogged as the aerobic microorganisms will perish. Adversely, rain gardens must not be allowed to dry out as the soil life will die or hibernate in very low numbers.
In a world that is increasingly challenged with pollutants and water run-off – rain gardens have merit, however, as always, the theory often works better than practice.
On this page we provide an overview of rain gardens:
Enabling edible gardens has always been a key focus of WaterUps with improving food security one of our company’s three main aims.
When it comes to growing your own food, older generations tend to be more experienced because it was part of their way of life.
With WaterUps we initially wanted to make edible gardens accessible to more and more Australians, particularly those in suburban settings and younger generations. Now, we see a future where WaterUps can help feed the world by enabling quality food to be produced locally. They can be quickly implemented following climate or other emergencies to re-establish food gardens.
Growing your own food can be challenging and something that you become more proficient at with experience. What we wanted to do was making growing your own food easier, more enjoyable and more reliable.
Across Australia and around the world, rooftop gardens are increasingly used in commercial and civic buildings, hotels, private residences and accommodation blocks and public spaces. WaterUps is able to provide the wicking technology that makes these installations more water-efficient and enduring.
Rooftop gardens offer our cities many benefits including:
Watch this video to see how the rooftop garden at the New York Convention Centre has saved them $3million annually in power and supported 25 bird species.
