Greywater Reedbed Biomass Reduction

As the temperature rises, the greywater outflow has been facilitating excessive Vetiver growth even during some of the driest and warmest conditions locally in historical record. This can be seen by the shorter growth in the non-outflow hedges.

Ideally in a true treatment system, the nutrients converted into biomass would be taken away and used elsewhere or pyrolysised to capture carbon or heavy metals/pharmaceuticals/chemicals. Here I am using it to mulch the area, build up the silt control behind the hedges, and to cover the lowermost wet area as a walking path. If we didn’t have excessive bamboo leaves elsewhere on the property to harvest, this may be a good mulch source for gardens.

The cutting of the hedges has been done with a cheap serrated hand sickle. Using a hand sickle has the added benefit of placing the cut foliage wherever you want as it’s in your hand after cutting whereas hedgers require raking material later. A sickle is good for small maintenance jobs such as these.