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Designing water-efficient verges and gardens

Col DuttonSponsored
UDIA WA President Col Dutton.
Camera IconUDIA WA President Col Dutton. Credit: The West Australian.

Private gardens, as well as street verges and public open spaces such as parks, are all important elements of a residential area’s aesthetics and amenity.

Getting the landscaping and design right in these spaces is critical for both liveability and sustainability reasons.

Depending on the location and style of the development, private gardens and verges might be designed with predominantly grass, paving, vegetation or a mixture of all of these elements.

I have seen many homeowners, developers and local governments in recent years thinking more creatively about how these spaces can be designed and maintained more sustainably.

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What is important is that they are designed appropriately for each location and limit water consumption to reasonable levels.

While verges, private gardens and public spaces should be appropriately designed to suit the Western Australian climate, there are a range of factors that can assist us in achieving water-saving targets, including drainage solutions, groundwater recharge and water reuse.

There are landscaping options, such as native or drought-tolerant planting, as well as landscaping, that can capture and utilise stormwater.

Stormwater is the runoff from surfaces such as roads and driveways after rain or a storm event.

This water can be captured in obvious ways, such as off roofs and gutters into rainwater tanks to be used for irrigation purposes or we can design elements around our homes, like driveways and gardens, to be more porous and soak up this water.

Stormwater that is drawn back into the ground through porous surfaces can then recharge shallow aquifers and supplement our water supplies.

A number of developments in WA feature water-sensitive urban design, which takes a holistic approach to water use and efficiency across the project, including street verges and public open spaces.

Many EnviroDevelopment-certified projects have a strong focus on water efficiency and sustainability.

At an individual lot level, most developers provide front landscaping packages for homebuyers, as well as comprehensive smart landscaping guidelines to assist residents with implementation of sustainable, water-efficient gardens.

Overall there are many alternative ways we can build and maintain our street verges and land around our homes in order to conserve water and ensure they are useable and aesthetically pleasing spaces.

These are important factors to consider when you are looking at buying a block of land and building a new home.

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