Sustainable Landscaping

A thread for sharing Technical Idieas tips and Tricks for the saving and reusing of water. For Discussions regarding the politics surround current water saving affairs, please find it here:http://powerforum.co.za/topic/1839-current-water-affairs/ Lets however welcome and share some much needed knowledge for the saving and capturing water in this thread. Thanks all! :>

So, spring is about to be sprung 😁 - see minimum temps for Bloem jumping from low single digit to 11-13C from the 26th August, and IT'S TIME TO JUMPSTART THE LAWN... So, let's talk about this - what's YOUR winning recipe for a champion lawn? What do you do to beat your neighbors and having the first green lawn on your street? I'll start with mine: mostly Kweek (known as Bermuda in the US, even though it's origin is Southern Africa...): Mow very low with first mow of the season - check (all done on Friday). Thereafter, mow to about 20mm blade height. Spray pre-emergence herbicide before start of growth season - Now planned for tomorrow (Sunday) due to "water shedding" we h…

Hey everyone! Let’s talk about renewable energy—the key to a cleaner, greener planet. 🌱💡 Renewable energy comes from natural sources that never run out, like: ✅ Solar Power ☀️ – Harnessing the sun’s energy for electricity and heating. ✅ Wind Energy 🌬️ – Using wind turbines to generate clean power. ✅ Hydropower 💦 – Capturing energy from flowing water. ✅ Geothermal Energy 🌋 – Tapping into Earth’s heat for power and heating. ✅ Biomass & Bioenergy 🌾 – Using organic materials for fuel. Switching to renewables helps reduce carbon emissions, fight climate change, and create sustainable energy solutions for future generations. 🚀🌿 What’s your take on renewable energy? Do you u…

Hey everyone! Let’s talk about Sustainable Landscaping—a way to design and maintain outdoor spaces that are both beautiful and eco-friendly. 🌿✨ Sustainable landscaping focuses on: ✅ Native Plants – They require less water and support local wildlife. ✅ Water Conservation – Using rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation, and drought-resistant plants. ✅ Soil Health – Composting and organic mulching to enrich the soil naturally. ✅ Eco-Friendly Materials – Choosing sustainable hardscaping materials like reclaimed wood or permeable pavers. ✅ Wildlife-Friendly Spaces – Creating habitats for pollinators like bees and butterflies. By making small changes, we can reduce waste, save wa…

Hi From my last post on my borehole and filtering sytem I have added some improvements. 1. Added a venturi to oxidize the iron in the water before filtration. I have not added a ozone injector which I have as I am worried it might damage the rubber, plastic and other parts in the system. 2. Added a run dry protection for my booster pump as this was my weak point in my system when the tank ran dry and damaged my pump twice. 3. Added a auto irrigation and jojo fill controll using plastic 24vac irrigation valves to reduce my municapal water consumption. I hope this will help someone who plans on a similar or part of my system. Attahed is…

Hi guys, I installed a 3 tank grey water system. All my waste water from toilets,taps, showers etc. is moved to this grey water system. I don't need the grey water for irrigation so i am looking to purify the grey water into drinkable water. How do i go about doing this ? I am looking for a company that can assist me as i am not a DIY type person. Any advice will be appreciated.

I disconnected and bypassed my borehole filter system before the Dec break. Kids were visiting and I did not want any pump hassles. Lot of swambos there lol. The system has been in operation for 18 months now with 40kg Maddox in the filter initially. After advice form @Peter Topp I also added an additional bag of Clinobrite some months ago. I also put a 1 micron filter in the system as a backup. This worked well for a time but I noticed it clogging up quicker after a while. I also increased the backflush frequency but the water always seemed to be clean. So last week I tackled the job of cleaning the filter. Big surprise awaited me. 1. Of the Mad…

Here is what I did to save a lot of water. I wanted to move away from flushing 200ml of urine away with 5>9 liters of pot able water. It started by me standing over a bucket while showering, then 2 buckets with a foot in every bucket, then me standing in a oval plastic wash basin. I then use the shower water to flush the toilet. I then got tired of carrying buckets around. I decided to dig a hole and plant a 200 liter blue plastic drum to catch the shower water (to prevent a possible collapse of the tank by the soil I filled the area around it with coarse sand mixed with dry cement, it became hard by drawing moisture from the surrounding soil). From the drum I use a sm…

After Installing 8kw gtrid tied inverter system with 6kw of solar panels I deceided to sink a bore hole because of all the water problems and I have a garden. This is what I have done. Sank a 50m bore hole in the middle of my driveway as this was the only place the truck could get in. No water diviner needed. Casing was fitted to 45m as the ground was soft. Found a good source of water. Fitted a .75kw borehole motor and pump. I had the water tested and found a large amount of iron and manganese in the water. No other problems. The irrigation system filters, tank system and electrical system was designed and fitted by myself. …

some time ago eskom handed out rebates on solar geysers, why don't we get rebates on rain water harvesting tanks or grey water systems - i suppose this path of reasoning could eventually include lift-clubs etc, but aren't we at liberty to throw around some ideas?

There is another thread on deep mulching, and I have been doing that for a good few years, and every year the soil gets better, and the plants grow better. Here is the current winter's veggies:

Looking for suggestions on someone to install a rainwater system in Deep South, Cape Town. I'm on a hill, top of the property is about 30m higher than the bottom. House 1 (lower house) I have a 2500L tank already fed from the roof. (Probably could do with another tank or a much larger one as it fills to overflowing when it rains!) Would like to feed the water into the toilet and use the rainwater for flushing, and for it to be fairly hands off. Any people you can recommend? House 2 (upper house, same plot; still being built) I have a small stream of water coming down the mountain and ending up in the basement/garage. Would l…

Another recent project of mine - rainwater harvesting. The 2 x 2500l tanks were installed on 22 Dec 2016 and we got some rain on the 23rd, but only enough to fill about 300mm on both tanks - not sure how much that would be in liters, but no rain since. I've also bought a JoJo pump kit which still needs to be installed. The water will be used to irrigate my small garden, a lawn of about 20m2 and maybe to fill up the toilets after flushing.

This method of vegetable (and other crop production) involves no digging, no weeding and very little work. It also requires little or no fertiliser or pesticide and keeps increasing the soil fertility the longer you practise it. Less water is required because of the mulch covering the soil retaining the soil moisture. Developed by Ruth Stout : https://www.goveganic.net/article182.html Basically all you do is heap organic matter thickly on the ground, raise seedlings in trays and then plant them straight into the mulch. That's it. You may find a few weeds coming up, buy then you just heap more mulch on top. Once you have harvested, guess what, just throw more m…

I'm trying to fill up my swimming pool for the kids, but my borehole delivers very little excess water, and the evaporation is really high and the pool level goes up by 6mm when I'm pumping water in the day, then down by 5mm from evaporation overnight. Very frustrating. I pump water into a 4000l tank for household use, and it overflows into the pool when the tank is full. I have recently put gutters and a rainwater capture system on my shed for water for livestock and garden watering, but that is all lower than the swimming pool, so no joy by gravity feed. My next wise plan is to get the rainwater to drain into my firefighter which I have put at the lowest point in t…

HI All, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I've read some really useful forum threads here about rainwater harvesting, so here's my question: I've got a rainwater harvesting tank and small pressure-controlled pump which is currently totally independent from my municipal supply. However I'd like to put a couple of toilets and washing machine onto rainwater, but obviously can't guarantee a year-round supply. I should be able to isolate those 3 supply points onto one line such that they can be fed by rainwater, and then switched over to municipal if I don't have any rainwater in the tank. The switch would just be at one location - I don't want to h…

So this is technically not landscape related (though I wish it was!), but there are so many clever creative people here (and a few farmers) that this might just be the best place to ask this. The drought has a side effect: The birds are all hanging around the houses, where there is water and food (sometimes). And these damn blue doves are becoming a real problem. They make such a terrible mess, the droppings damage the paint, and whenever I put up bird spikes they literally just move to another section of the property. Unfortunately I cannot shoot within urban areas either (or they'd be dead by now), and poison... well that could get someone's pet killed, so that's o…

I need a simple system to switch a borehole pump on and off when the water levels are high and low in the tank. Preferably a 12v system (if possible) switching a 230v relay. Ive got a float switch but it stops starts the pump as it only looks at about a 1/2 m of water level difference. I need one that switches on / off with about 1,5m difference as I have two 5000 l tanks installed with a 2,2 kw borehole pump. Any suggestions will be welcome.

Self propelled automatic eco friendly lawnmower. Powered by grass, free fertiliser as a by product! Prunes trees up to a level of 80cm above the ground. Edge trimming function! I got annoyed with the paradox of trying to grow grass as fodder outside of the garden fence, and cutting it with a lawnmower on the inside of the fence. Made no sense. So I have sheep to do the job for me. Currently I have 7, but when spring comes I'll build it up to 40 or 50, and maybe let them loose in the garden on weekends.

After upgrading my bore hole fltering system I have removed the Birm flter media from my FRP 1354 vessel. The Birm has been used to filter iron for about 1Yr. I also have Maddox filter media which was in use for 2mths in a FRP 1354 vessel. (both filter media was school fees in my leaniing process). I am willing to gve this media away for free (mahala) if anyone has use for it keeping in mind that Maddox needs to be regenerated and Birm needs a PH >6.9. Both need iron to be oxidized before fitering and need to be backwashed regularly. I stay in Boksburg. Please email me at [email protected] if you are interested. Peter

Greetings to all. Has anyone had much to do with aquaponics, I'm thinking of a large splash pool with fish in it and the the water filtered through grow beds so no need for chemicals. The idea is to collect rain water in the fish tank as a storage instead of a jojo tank on the side of the house, with the added bonus of growing a few fish and vegetables.

A Cool and easy one. We planted some fast growing trees to keep the afternoon sun off the windows. Sincerely Jason

i cant find my previous post on this, but never mind. the house i spoke about might be finished in november, here is a pic as well as a snap of the wind turbine - the owner informs me it is capable of 10kwh. the stoep overhang accommodates 36x265w panels and i counted 10 inverters. a borehole of 130m as well as the roof catchment supply plenty of water. needless to say they are off-grid 32°45'33.63"S 18° 0'10.09"E

many people think water in a rain water tank is just for garden usage, toilet flushing etc. and in order for the water in them to be 'useable' the tanks must be flushde or scrubbed every now and then. wrong. we have been using water [FOR DRINKING!] from a 5000l tank which is fed by a slate roof for more than 5 years WITHOUT the tank being cleaned - and still the water is clear, does not taste of anything and we [me and wife and employees] are still healthy and alive [as i type...] note: no special filters, only a piece of rolled-up chicken wire at the inlet and NO first flush. HOW? two methods [preferably used together although we usually forget about the second…

Hi All, Do any of you perhaps have some experience with grey water recycling? I am contemplating making something to recycle basin and bathtub water to irrigate my garden (normal sprayer/s - not micro as what I read says they clog) - sort of a mini system at a drain point with a level activated pump. I will collect water at two points at least. Problem is that my house was sunk to slightly below ground level - thus the drain pipes comes out level to the foundation on the outside. There are some ready made solutions out there, but they are horribly expensive. Any ideas would be appreciated.