Waterway-friendly gardening

Together we can protect the lakes

The ACT’s beautiful lakes, rivers, and wetlands make it a great place to live. These waterways provide recreation spots and are home to native plants and animals. All of this depends on clean and healthy water.

The ACT Government is helping protect our waterways by:

Building wetlands, ponds and rain gardens to strip pollutants from stormwater
Sweeping streets to intercept leaf litter and pollutants before they reach the drains
Collecting excess green waste in green bins and turning it into compost and mulch
Helping the community to reduce nutrients and pollutants from gardens and businesses.

Every time it rains, stormwater flows from roads, roofs, and footpaths into drains, carrying pollutants to our waterways.

The pollutants in stormwater include:

phosphorus—a nutrient that stimulates unhealthy algal blooms—found in leaves, grass clippings, manures and animal droppings
chemicals like fertiliser, pesticides or car fluids.

There is no treatment plant for the stormwater system. Our waterways need everyone to play a part to stop pollution.

Waterway-friendly gardening is popular in Canberra. Water-friendly gardening helps to save fertiliser, water, and leaves from entering stormwater drains.

Using less phosphorus

Like many gardens in the ACT, your garden can look great with little or no added fertiliser or manures. Added product that isn’t absorbed by the garden can wash down the stormwater drain and end up polluting the waterways. Large amounts of fertiliser or manures can damage garden plants, too.

Phosphorus is a nutrient found in many fertilisers. It helps plants grow strong roots and produce flowers and fruits. However, too much phosphorus can be harmful to the environment because it can cause blue-green algae to grow in the waterways, which can affect human health and aquatic life.

To avoid throwing fertiliser and money down the drain, simply:

use little or no fertiliser, especially before rainy weather
choose a low-phosphorus fertiliser, often marketed as ‘for natives’
target the fertiliser you use to specific plants
read the packet and measure fertiliser amounts carefully
avoid large amounts of manure, especially raw manure. If you use it at all, get it by the bag, never by the trailer load.

Collecting leaves and grass clippings

Leaves, bark and grass clippings are some of the most visible stormwater pollutants. They contain phosphorus, which is released when they break down or get washed into the drains.

Autumn isn't the only time leaves can build up—eucalypts drop a lot of leaves when it is hot and dry.

To keep phosphorus from leaves and grass clippings out of stormwater, you can:

regularly collect leaves from your paving, gutters, and nature strip
use a catcher when mowing next to the road, driveway and other paved surfaces, or rake up clippings
put leaves and clippings in your green bin or take them to a green waste recycling facility for city composting
turn leaves and clippings into home compost to feed your garden or use them as mulch to protect your soil and plants
store excess leaves in a leaf cage.

It is important never to rake leaves onto the road, even if a street-sweeping truck is scheduled. Leaves collected by street sweepers cannot be composted and end up in landfill.

Find out more ways to manage garden leaves.

Saving rainwater

Rainwater is invaluable. With temperatures increasing, more frequent droughts, and less water, it is important to find smart ways to store and use rainwater. Directing stormwater (from the roof, downpipes and paved areas) to your garden will save water and prevent fertiliser, leaves and pollution from being washed directly into the drains and waterways.

To save rainwater, you can:

redirect your downpipes into a rain garden or swale
use tanks to collect rainwater to use in your garden (and regularly use it for watering your plants)
plant groundcover plants and use permeable paving to slow the flow and help water sink into the landscape.

Using water from tanks regularly means there will be space in your tank to catch the next rainfall. This reduces flows in our stormwater drains. When flows are large, they overwhelm our constructed wetlands, and more water enters our lakes and ponds untreated.

Building healthy soil

Healthy soil does much of the gardening work for you by holding rainwater and nutrients for your plants. Healthy soils slow the flow of stormwater and pollution to the waterways.

To keep your soil healthy:

plant vegetable gardens or groundcover plants that can filter water into the soil
apply mulch (like leaves or wood chip) to garden beds to foster soil health
use edging to keep garden beds contained and prevent erosion.

Keeping pollutants away from drains

Chemicals that get into stormwater drains end up in our lakes, wetlands and other waterways. When using your garden, it's important to keep all chemicals out of stormwater, by:

washing your car on grass or gravel so that detergents are filtered by the soil, or go to a commercial carwash where they manage the water
maintaining your vehicle so that it doesn't leak oil or other fluids
disposing of gardening chemicals, paint, paint cleaners, and other hazardous household waste at your local resource management centre.