The National Botanic Garden of Wales looked a picture yesterday. Apart from most of the spectacular plants in the great greenhouse having passed their peak flowering, and the lake levels being slightly lower than normal, there was little to show for the heatwave and near-drought conditions (which thankfully look like coming to an end just before an emergency is declared in Wales.) For once, there was no need to close the "airlock" doors to the glasshouse in order to keep the Mediterranean heat in.
All was achieved without troubling Welsh Water. There is a borehole which supplies the estate:
We recycle waste water in our Living Machine
Sewage, and stuff that’s gone down the sink in our restaurant, is pumped into a big underground tank in the Living Machine. Whilst the solid sewage drops to the bottom of the septic tank, the watery top is pumped down to a big pond in our Conserving Our Future Zone. How does this work? Here, tiny creatures eat the nasty bits. These bacteria need lots of oxygen – so we pump air across the gravelly floor. This fairly new technology is called ‘forced bed aeration’.
Tall reeds help control water flow. Bacteria also attach themselves to reed roots – so increasing bacteria numbers.
Where does all the water end up?
It waters trees in a nearby field which we intend to use to fuel our biomass boiler.
There is more at the official site, botanicgardens.wales.
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