As many of you who have been here to Peru this year will know, we have a pretty major project underway in our waste water treatment system. It is a system that receives all of the waster water from the houses on the property. This water enters the system at a two chambered holding tank where the liquids are seperated from the solids, the solids are then broken down by bacteria and the liquids pass on to the next stage. That next stage is a partical filter that uses plants on the surface to use nutrients found in the water. Then the water passes into a pond where aquatic plants and fish and other life clean the water further. The water can then be used to water the grass and gardens. This system takes a long time to get up to full functionality especially the filter and all of its plants.
Yesterday we were working on the fence around the system and I got the idea for this blog entry. While the system has a certain odor that is not always enjoyable, I thought that the plants and insects that are found in its filter deserve to be seen and enjoyed. I don't know all the names of all the plants that I have growing in here but this one always catches my eye and yesterday it caught the attention of this little bee that was visiting our filter. In fact we have a lot of bees coming to visit the flowers and also taking advantage of a water source.
These lovely flowers are Canna Lillies that a friend of mine, Jeff Morgan, introduced to the filter and they just love it in there. They are thriving and have numerous new flowers each day. Jeff has been a great help with this project and has been experimenting to find out which plants do well in the filter and which do not. He has found some grasses that grow amazingly well that we can cut and feed to rabbits and guinea pigs when we get them. He even found a way for tomatoes to grow, and they are not a plant that usually likes much water. He has a tree growing in there that he tells me is a great source of food for the animals as well, and he even had me plant a banana tree in there last week that seems to be growing like crazy. Other plants include water hyacinth, butternut squash and onions. All of these vegetables and grasses can be used to feed animals.
This is an elephant ear plant that I found growing in the river that flows near our property. I brought back 4 of them and planted them in the filter. They seem to be doing well so I think I will return to the river one of these days and get some more. The whole idea of this filter is to have as many plants in there as you can have, so they use as many nutrients as they can. The grasses and vegetables are also great because they can be cut down or picked which removes the nutrients and uses them for other things.
This is a little spider that I found crawling on one of the trees in the filter. His body was very shiny silver colour. I don't think it really showed up in the picture. I just marvel at God's creation. So to sum things up, this project has been both frustrating and fun. It has been a long time maturing to the point where it will actually filter the water but it has been fun experimenting with the different plants and fish. The odour has also been less than desirable but the beauty of the plants has been very enjoyable.
As many of you who have been here to Peru this year will know, we have a pretty major project underway in our waste water treatment system. It is a system that receives all of the waster water from the houses on the property. This water enters the system at a two chambered holding tank where the liquids are seperated from the solids, the solids are then broken down by bacteria and the liquids pass on to the next stage. That next stage is a partical filter that uses plants on the surface to use nutrients found in the water. Then the water passes into a pond where aquatic plants and fish and other life clean the water further. The water can then be used to water the grass and gardens. This system takes a long time to get up to full functionality especially the filter and all of its plants.
Yesterday we were working on the fence around the system and I got the idea for this blog entry. While the system has a certain odor that is not always enjoyable, I thought that the plants and insects that are found in its filter deserve to be seen and enjoyed. I don't know all the names of all the plants that I have growing in here but this one always catches my eye and yesterday it caught the attention of this little bee that was visiting our filter. In fact we have a lot of bees coming to visit the flowers and also taking advantage of a water source.
These lovely flowers are Canna Lillies that a friend of mine, Jeff Morgan, introduced to the filter and they just love it in there. They are thriving and have numerous new flowers each day. Jeff has been a great help with this project and has been experimenting to find out which plants do well in the filter and which do not. He has found some grasses that grow amazingly well that we can cut and feed to rabbits and guinea pigs when we get them. He even found a way for tomatoes to grow, and they are not a plant that usually likes much water. He has a tree growing in there that he tells me is a great source of food for the animals as well, and he even had me plant a banana tree in there last week that seems to be growing like crazy. Other plants include water hyacinth, butternut squash and onions. All of these vegetables and grasses can be used to feed animals.
This is an elephant ear plant that I found growing in the river that flows near our property. I brought back 4 of them and planted them in the filter. They seem to be doing well so I think I will return to the river one of these days and get some more. The whole idea of this filter is to have as many plants in there as you can have, so they use as many nutrients as they can. The grasses and vegetables are also great because they can be cut down or picked which removes the nutrients and uses them for other things.
This is a little spider that I found crawling on one of the trees in the filter. His body was very shiny silver colour. I don't think it really showed up in the picture. I just marvel at God's creation. So to sum things up, this project has been both frustrating and fun. It has been a long time maturing to the point where it will actually filter the water but it has been fun experimenting with the different plants and fish. The odour has also been less than desirable but the beauty of the plants has been very enjoyable.