A WATERWISE nursery is drawing kudos, writes ANDREW MOLE
It might sound like a dream come true.
And it is, because it has - come true that is.
Helen and Philip Wratten run a large-scale wholesale nursery at Heath Hill and they do it without a water meter.
Or paying for any water.
And if they haven't harvested and/or recycled their water then they won't have any to use.
Dream-Time Wholesale Nursery produces more than 150,000 plants annually, across almost 11ha.
It sells to NSW, SA and throughout Victoria. But the big business is in Melbourne where, among other things, Dream-Time supplies more than 60 per cent of evergreen trees used by the city's councils on nature and median strips.
With two dams - one holding 37 megalitres and the other 28 - Philip says Dream-Time has been self-sufficient for the past eight years.
It sounds spectacular. And it is - the nursery recently took out the Best Business (small) category in the national 2011 savewater! awards in recognition of its water-saving efforts.
For every 25mm of rainfall received it captures 1.1 million litres of water.
Which really helps out as Dream-Time goes through 7.71 million litres annually.
Mind you, that success story is the end result of spending more than $1.5 million turning the nursery into a veritable sponge.
"It is all based on the black plastic we have under everything," Philip says.
"The plants take what they want and everything else passes through the holes in the bottom of their pots, and through the soil, before being directed downhill to our collection pond.
"From there the water goes through wetland plants, a rock filter and then a settlement pond, where the clean water rises.
"We treat that with calcium chloride and, through a set of ag channels, our Grundfos pump system delivers water all over the nursery.
"It is very simple - gravity brings it to our collection centre and dams, pumps take it back up the hill to our plants."
The Grundfos system pumps 24.5 litres per second to a computer-controlled program designed around what may well be the single most innovative strategy in the Australian nursery industry.
Philip says a large part of their planning centred on extensive analysis of plant water usage - combining rainfall and water.
He says his irrigation system is the cornerstone of Dream-Times' water conservation success.
"The static wind breaks and hedges are designed to precise detail to protect plants from water loss through wind and to control humidity," Philip adds.
"The controller, linked to a weather station, is programmed with watering values that determine which crops require water after rainfall. Tradi-tionally people have stuck to their watering regimes regard-less of how much rain falls.
"If some of our plants only need half an inch a day, and we get an inch of rain overnight, the valves don't turn on.
"If other plants need 1.5 inches, then their valves deliver half an inch.
"Anything else is just wasting water."
Key factors of the Dream-Time system include:
Drains with sufficient capacity to allow water movement freely.
Run-off water does not discharge from growing area.
Barriers are in place so that water used in the nursery does not come into contact with soil.
Collected run-off water is monitored for pH, nitrates, phosphates and electrical conductivity.
Waste water, if released, is adequately managed and treated before discharge through sediment traps and wetlands.
Not only is Dream-Time self sufficient, it actually puts back into the local ecosystem.
Philip expects his dams to be full year-round.
Unlike most producers, he doesn't worry so much about empty dams as he does about ones running over.
"The overflow, and there is a fairly regular one, is diverted down a natural gully and back into the Lang Lang River," Philip says.
"Our water collection and recycling system has been quoted as 'one of the best examples seen' in various awards and been highly recommended to other industry members, and other businesses.
"We are not selfish about what we have done here.
"If someone else, even other nurseries, wants to get serious about water management and conservation, we are more than happy to provide what we have done as a blueprint for them.
"I started trialling this when we were based at Narre Warren and when we moved eight years ago was determined to get it right.
"Since then we have won a lot of awards - five state and three national - for the work we have done, and are in the running for more right now,
"What it has also helped us do is produce plants which are survival acclimatised.
"Many of our clients find our plants only need one water a week over summer while most others need at least two.
"They ask what our secret is, but instead of making Dream-Time the perfect growing conditions, as most nurseries are, we are tough on our plants, getting them ready for the real world."
Obviously tough love works - and the right amount of water.
