Hello, I was interested in trying to build an artificial wetland in a container garden, to see if I could purify or filter waste/stormwater. I was speaking to a gardener outside my building, and they mentioned that the CK Choi building has a very effective wastewater management system, and I should find out what plants they use. Can anyone recommend native plants I should use for filtering water? Is it possible to naturally filter water until the point that it's actually drinkable? I'm obviously really new at this. I've searched around online but am having a hard time finding recommendations for specific plants. Thanks.
Plants like reeds Phragmites, club-rushes Schoenoplectus and bullrushes Typha are what is usually used for this. The resulting post-treatment water will be safe for watering plants, etc., but not suitable for drinking. It won't be any cleaner than any other swamp water, nothing like as clean as a mountain stream (and even those aren't always safe to drink from!).
Thanks for the reply Michael, really appreciate it. Maybe I should try expanding my scope to non-chemical filtering process. I'm basically want to great a garden or natural filtration process that can be used as a learning tool, so ideally there would be multiple stages, like a stage where I reduce the nitrates in the water with EES volcanic rock. I have no idea what the best order is. There has to be precedence though. If anyone can think of anyone that has made a daisy chain of gardens that filter water naturally, or can point me in the right direction, please let me know!
Waste water filtration schemes like this have been mandatory in new housing developments in some European countries for several years, and are starting to appear in Britain too (though not mandatory here yet) - there should be plenty of literature on the topic, both in scientific theory and practical site engineering, though I'm not sure where one would find it.
