This campaign has now closed
With water being the key resource needed for the survival of any garden, the Chelsea Physic Garden would like to reduce its reliance on external water sources and changing weather patterns. To become environmentally sustainable regarding water, it wants to dig/install a bore hole which will give it its own on-going water supply and link it to a new water efficient automated irrigatin system.
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PROJECT - Sustainable Water Source (Borehole) and New Irrigation System Annual rainfall in the Chelsea Physic Garden has more than halved since 2000. With water being the key resource needed to sustain the Garden, the Environment Agency has given permission to install a borehole which would provide the Garden with its own sustainable source of water. This project is a partner environmental project to a new irrigation system at the Garden. The Garden staff has relied in the past on an outdated system of hoses and watering cans to keep the 4 hectare Garden watered. Rainwater was collected in water butts and in a large rain water tank, but each summer this supply was inadequate. The new borehole, in conjunction the new irrigation system, will stop the inefficient and environmentally unfriendly use of water and secure an inexhaustible water source for the Garden. Key Aims/Benefits of the Borehole/irrigation system • The Garden will have is own sustainable water source; • The borehole, linked to the new irrigation system, can be used to teach children and visitors about sustainable water use and renewable resources; • The Garden will substantially reduce risk to plant collections from unknown changing weather patterns; • The project will, by example and publicity, encourage other sustainable initiatives within other educational institutions and gardens around the country to follow its lead; • The partnership with the irrigation system project will leave the Garden with a completely sustainable approach to water and its use; • The Garden will reduce water bills and, eventually through savings, will have been self-financed. The project will be deemed successful when the borehole is dug, the water resource tapped and utilised, and the ‘story’ of the project communicated and used to the benefit of the Garden, the general public, educational visits and other organisations.