Does the name bring to your mind exotic flowers blooming in rain forests? You couldn’t be more wrong! Rain gardens are simply plants that absorb rainwater pollutants.

Is every garden a rain garden? Definitely not. A rain garden is distinguished by certain types of plants that can be grown in it as well as by a substrate made of special layers of sand and gravel.

Plants that can be cultivated in rain gardens are known as hydrophilic (water-loving) plants. It means that their roots keep the waterborne pollutants such as heavy metals and protein-fat compounds. Such plants include, for example, Viola palustris (marsh violet), Eryngium campestre (field eryngo), Osmunda regalis (royal fern), and Iris pseudacorus (yellow iris). Not the whole garden must be planted with hydrophytes, however, it is recommended that at least 50% of rain garden plants have the source pollutants’ absorbing characteristics. It’s also important to grow perennial plants.

The structure of the rain garden substrate is designed in such a way so that the storm water can quickly infiltrate into the soil. The topsoil layers remain wet only for a short while after the rainstorm.

Rain gardens should be located in the immediate vicinity of the rainwater drainage source, that is near the end of a downspout or along a slanted roof so that there is no need to buy water supply piping.

Have you ever heard of this special solution? After all, who takes interest in household taps? Actually, it’s really worth checking whether there is a small ring with a net insert at the tip of your faucet head – it’s the aerator! It helps you save water.

There are two kinds of aerator, a female aerator that has the threads on the inside of the aerator, and a male aerator with the threads on the outside of the aerator. If your faucet is not equipped with an aerator, you should add it yourself. How does this small ring work? When an aerator is added to the faucet, a region of high pressure is created behind the aerator against the low pressure outside the faucet. Air is drawn into the water stream, aerating the stream and reducing the water flow through the faucet. Aerated water has a better pressure and so the water flow is reduced by 60%. Another advantage of the aerator is that it shapes the water stream coming out of the faucet spout.

A few tips for those who want to install a tap aerator:

• do not go for the cheapest metal models – they are made of lower-quality material and are more prone to corrosion;
• it is easier to clean plastic or silicone models; remember to clean them regularly, especially if you have hard water in the house.

Aerator is a good solution, but …. NOT in case of bath mixer taps. When water is mixed with air, the bathtub will fill up slowly, so the water will cool down. By doing so we are wasting the energy needed to heat the water.

Do something for the environment! You will be cutting on your water bills at the same time. It’s not difficult and does not require any cash-intensive or complex solutions. Just a few simple habits will do the trick:Do something for the environment! You will be cutting on your water bills at the same time. It’s not difficult and does not require any cash-intensive or complex solutions. Just a few simple habits will do the trick:

1. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth every morning and night! The math is quite simple. Brushing your teeth twice a day for two minutes and not turning off the tap, you are sending almost 50 litres of water down the drain every day, which means 1500 litres per month and more than 17 000 litres per year!
2. Do you like to take baths in the bathtub? If you want to be green, give up on it! A full bathtub is about 150 litres of water, and you would be actually using less than half of this water during a five-minute shower!
3. Dishwasher! It’s a wonderful solution and not just because hardly anyone likes to do the dishes. During one cycle the dishwasher uses 15 litres of water and the same amount of dishes washed by hand would take 50 litres of water.
4. Do not discard! Reuse water. If you have washed vegetables in  a bowl, the water that remains can be used for watering plants in your apartment.
5. Your tap has been leaking for a long time? The never ending tip… tip… tip… irritates you, but it’s just a drip, after all. Do you know you are wasting 5000 litres of water per year this way?