Reed beds can be used in garden design for treating and recycling household waste-water, cutting water bills and conserving water where it is short supply by mimicking the natural ecosystems of wetlands.
Constructed wetlands or reed beds can provide:
water quality improvement
flood storage and rainfall management
habitat for fish and wildlife
aesthetic landscape design
Reed beds can also be used for Natural Swimming Pools and the management and protection of lakes and ponds that suffer from algae or murky waters.
Find out more about Natural Swimming Pools
Wetland plants, such as reeds, transfer atmospheric oxygen down through their roots in order to survive in waterlogged conditions. This creates both aerobic and anaerobic soil conditions, allowing extraordinary microbial species diversity to flourish.
These bacteria and fungi can use organic pollutants as a food source, breaking down a wide range of organic chemical products. So, chemicals are not simply stored in the reed bed; they are actually degraded into harmless components.
Other contaminants, such as metals, are transformed from a toxic, mobile state and fixed in the soil via complex chemical reactions. .
EXTRAORDINARY WATER CLEANING CAPABILITY
The complexity of microbial life and powerful reactions within the root zone of the soil based reed bed result in an extraordinary water cleaning capability. This capability is often far less constrained than in many chemical or physical wastewater treatment systems.
It makes sense to use reedbeds to clean and recycle greywater because is is a continuous source of water (from the mains) and rainwater harvesting relies on rainfall which is less predicatable!
Reedbeds that treat grey and black water can still smell a little bit - so if they are intended for this purpose, they are best kept away from main features in a garden design.
Constructed wetlands for water treatment are complex, integrated systems of water, plants, animals, micro-organisms, and the environment. They can be a useful tool in the management and recycling of water in a garden design.
