I was lucky enough to visit RHS Wisley on August 9th to have a look at their water management systems and to consider opportunities to secure more water for use in the garden, to save water in their existing activities, and to store more water to make them more resilient. It was impressive to see how much attention they pay to water management, although their beautiful gardens are certainly an asset worth protecting. They take great responsibility for the protection of their internationally valuable plant collections. They are transforming their former trials field at Battleston into a beautiful lake. It will be functional as well as ornamental, serving as a rainwater collection reservoir, fed from the Hilltop building roofs and surrounding paths. This supply of water will help them to irrigate their plant collections on Battleston Hill, which can struggle on the sandy soil in hot weather. This supports their sustainability goals and rainwater collection (perhaps on a smaller scale!) is something that we can all do to help to reduce water usage in the face of increasingly hotter, drier summers and extreme weather events. If you haven’t got space for a lake, consider a sub-surface tank or a collection of water butts around you site.
It’s nice to see some new SuDS in Leeds
Our Director of Operations, Jo Bradley, was in Leeds recently
