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ParksWide Nursery - City of Whitehorse

Despite being responsible for producing and watering more than 100,000 plants per year, the City of Whitehorse’s ParksWide Nursery has achieved an annual reduction in potable water use of more than 45 per cent (4 ML or Olympic sized swimming pools).

ParksWideNursery-CityofWhitehorse

Plans are also underway to increase that to a 67 per cent reduction (almost six megalitres) for the coming year.

According to Steve Day, Horticultural Services Team Leader at ParksWide Nursery, the nursery’s water savings have primarily been achieved by upgrading the irrigation system and installing a water harvesting and recycling system.

"The irrigation system is now an electronically operated network of sprinkler heads with appropriate flow rates, uniformity and droplet size,” says Mr Day. “The system runs only at night to avoid evaporation and has rain sensors to automatically switch off during wet conditions. We also water plants in groups according to their water needs. For example, drought tolerant plants obviously don’t require much water.”

“The water harvesting and recycling system collects all run-off and stormwater from the site and reuses it for irrigating the plants.”