We are very aware of the problem of water shortage here on the farm. After all, in years past East Anglia has been officially classed as a desert! Every year we get half way through the summer and find ourselves literally scraping the bottom of the rain water tanks to water the plants around the farm garden. But for the first time last year we were also faced with the problem of what to do with greywater from our new campsite.
Hang on a minute………what if we could use the greywater to water the farm plants when the rain tanks ran dry? Haaahaa!
Our heavy clay soil might not cope with a reed bed system and any way we were too close to the farm pond and the watercourse. We also needed to make sure that our new friends at Environmental Health were happy.
After much internet trawling we found Chris Shirley Smith of Water Works UK and his green roof water recycling system, or GROW. GROW is essentially a tiered garden of low growing, flowering, native plants, whose roots can perform the same cleansing function as a reed bed. It is really designed for urban situations where space is tight and it is not practical to use systems that need land. Chris wanted to design a system for the roofs of buildings, that helped to recycle relatively clean water so that it could be used for lower grade jobs such as watering garden plants or flushing toilets. His award winning system also has the benefit of being recognised by the Environment Agency in their publications.
Although we are anything but urban the system was perfect for us – we did not have to trust our clay soil to cope with a reed bed, we could position GROW where we needed it and change it later if we really had to, and we would have a really great way of demonstrating the recycling power of plants to our campers!
Lots of sawing of timber, sieving of gravel, and shopping for marginal plants later and we were ready to go for the first camping season. The compost toilet sinks, washing up sink and shower all drained greywater into a collection tank. Water was then pumped from here into GROW and filtered through the various pond plants until it flowed out of the other end and into another water tank. We either released the water safely into the ditch or used it to water garden plants, and the new willow fedge, when needed. We couldn’t use the recycled water on edible crops though, we had to stick to rain water for that.
So, a year further on and hard working GROW seems to be coping well. The plants are now just coming back this spring and it is time to give the whole system and check up. Last weekend we cleaned the top levels of gravel, ran some water through to give the plants a boost and fixed a couple of small leaks.
We are delighted with our water recycling system and can’t wait to see the plants in flower again this year. If you are coming for a visit we are very happy to give you a guided tour!
