Rain Garden Planter

As a direct result of climate change, we are seeing more and more flash floods occuring due to extreme rainfall.
This is amplified by the trend for covering gardens with impervious materials instead of rain absorbing surfaces,
including front gardens paved for driveways and reducing the size of back gardens in favour of new buildings.

East of Eden SuDS Rain Garden planters are a sustainable and affordable option
to meet the 'four pillars' of SuDS design, where roof surface water runoff is managed for :

Water quantity

Water quality

Amenity

Biodiversity benefits.

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East of Eden SuDS Planters satisfy the fundamentals
of a sustainable drainage system.

Storing or using surface water at source.

Decreasing flow rates to water courses.

Improving water quality

A Sustainable Way to Manage Rainwater Runoff

East of Eden SuDS planters collect rooftop runoff and work like a rain garden within the planter providing sustainable stormwater management. They are particularly useful if there is a significant amount of rain water traveling from the rooftop or other impervious surface directly into a drain causing flooding on the property.

East of Eden SuDS planters offer an affordable system that will contribute to the management of roof water surface runoff therefore helping prevent the drainage and sewerage systems becoming overwhelmed during high rainfall periods.

The SuDS planters are designed to also enhance Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)

The unique design offers a versatile modular solution that will intercept and attenuate rainwater runoff. Our modular system has been designed to be suitable for new developments, as well as to be retrofitted to private, public housing and local authority buildings, including educational institutions.

As featured in:

Click HERE to read the full article

Download our e-brochure guide to SuDS Rain Garden Planters

The guide Includes

Full list of advantages of our sustainably constructed planters

Enhanced Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for your development

Full technical data, including specialist design features

Unique internal drainage system to enable

Maximise water storage and provide growing conditions for a wide range of plant species.

For a full comprehensive guide to our SuDS Rain Garden planters click below to download our PDF.

Download our e-brochure Guide to SuDS Planters

How SuDS Planters Work

East of Eden SuDS planters capture the water that lands on the roof, which is directed from the gutter downpipes into the planter, which is installed directly below roof downpipes.

A SuDS planter effectively operates like a rain garden within the planter for the sustainable management of flash flood and stormwater.

The roof downpipe is primarily directed into a gravel dispersal pit, which feeds the water directly into the water storage tank area. Water will pass through the soil/compost mix, which will absorb the rainwater for the plants to use. As it passes through the compost and then the specialised separating membranes located between the plants / compost it is filtered before reaching the lower water storage area.

We have designed our SuDS planters so that the water storage area is the largest component of the system to maximise the volume of water stored, which is then released at a controlled rate from the base drainage outlet pipe. The outlet pipe can be located either from the lowest point on any side, or in the base of the planter directly above the site drain to suit the requirements of the specific site.

Each site often requires SuDS planter bespoke dimension requirements, including length, width and height. This is a service that we offer at no additional cost.

For large roof catchment areas even the largest SuDS planter alone will be insufficient to deal with predicted 1 in 30 year and 1 in 100 year storm events. Our unique design permits SuDS planters to be connected in series to deal with these situations.

With both bio-retention and maximum internal water storage, our SuDS planters are an innovative solution to property level retrofit SuDS, and is therefore significantly less expensive than most groundworks intervention.

TIn addition to storm water management, our SuDS planters enhance the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) of any development or retrofit. This can be enhanced by installing or attaching livings screens, living walls, as well as invertebrate and other animal habitats to our modular SuDS planter

See the unique features of our
East of Eden SuDS Planters summarised below

Special Features of East of Eden SuDS Planters

Produced in the UK from grade A Larch, with long lasting durability, from sustainably managed British Woodlands .

East of Eden SuDS planters are supplied fully lined, with the complete internal drainage system fitted, including screened overflows and drainage pipe outlets ready to fit into your site drainage system.

The unique internal design enables maximum water storage for each of the standard sizes.
The additional internal overflow system prevents the soil and compost are being inundated with water enabling a much wider range of plant species to be planted, including pollinators, which in turn will support a much greater biodiversity.(BNG)

Bespoke sized SuDS planters are available to suit the demands of each property sites and location. This is a popular option by most clients to enable them to be installed in restricted sites, and match the site requirements. This is a service offered to our clients at no extra cost.

SuDS Planter Sizes / Prices ex VAT

These sizes are based on large, but manageable and movable sized units using a fork lift. This offers practical sized unit options to be used in combination to achieve the recommendation catchment areas stated above.

As well as the standard sizes, we can also construct the rain garden planter to bespoke requirements, but recommend a maximum length of 2000mm.

Prices do not include delivery.
(Please contact us for delivery to your site.)

Bespoke sizes for different roof drainage volume requirements and site restrictions

Many of our clients require SuDS planters sizes to meet the roof drainage volumes, as well as site restrictions.
We have therefore developed a bespoke service for variations in width, length, height and linear shape
of the SuDS Planters are bespoke sized made to order to suit the specific needs of each site and location.

For a quote, please complete our Contact Form.

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Linked SuDS planters for larger roof areas.

For larger catchment areas we advise multiples of our standard or bespoke sizes, with each one fed
from a separate downpipe. Separate downpipes can usually be specified for new builds and extensions.

For situations where separate downpipes cannot be supplied, such as old buildings with cast iron downpipes,
we have developed the SuDS planters so that can be interlinked so that multiple planters can be fed
by the same drain downpipe connected via an overflow link between the planters.

Water Storage Volume for Standard SuDS Planters

Using light planting, as recommended above, the maximum storage volume can be achieved by reducing the depth of the soil area.

thus providing more water storage area, which is the primary function of the SuDS planter system.

The following storage volumes are for our latest SuDS planter design:

Size (L x D x H cm)	Water Storage Volume (litres)
100 x 65 x 90	247.19
120 x 65 x 90	303.37
150 x 65 x 90	387.64
200 x 65 x 90	471.91
220 x 65 x 90	528.09

Location of SuDS Planter Outlet

Standard and Bespoke Outlet Options

The drainage outlet from the internal slow release system can be located to suit your specific site requirements. In most situations the outlet is required to feed into the downpipe drain that already exists, which will therefore located directly below the planter. For these projects the outlet feeds through the base of the rain garden SuDS planter, as shown in the above figures.

Some clients have requested an outlet from the lowest point from one of the side walls. During the construction of the planters, our workshop manager will contact you to discuss the location of the outlet

SuDS Planter Storage and Flow Rates

The storage volume and retention and subsequent outflow rates will vary with the dimension of the planter to be incorporated into the scheme.

East of Eden SuDS Rain Garden planters are all based on the internal design features as recommended by South East Rivers Trust,
which was founded on extensive trial studies

The SuDS Manual states that typically the surface area of a bioretention feature would be 2-4% of the overall site area being drained, to prevent rapid clogging of the bioretention surface. Based on this guidance, the surface area of any planter (or combination of planters) should not be less than 2-4% of the roof area it is draining. Where possible, the size of the planter should reflect this recommendation.

As such, we offer a range of standard planter sizes to use from

1000mm L x 650mm W x 900mm H to 2000mm L x 650mm W x 900mm H.

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Storage Layer

As mentioned, the storage value will depend on the dimensions of the planters. With a planting layer of 450 mm, this would leave approximately 400 mm for a sub-base water storage layer in our standard 850cm high SuDS Rain Garden planters.

A major advantage of East of Eden SuDS Rain Garden planters is that they have a suspended permeable Draintex geotextile lined floor with Delta dimpled sheet providing a substate layer reservoir of water to sustain the plants during dry periods.

Importantly, this also means that the sub-base layer is completely dedicated to water storage, in contrast to most other designs where the water stored is part of the substrate layers, significantly reducing their water storage capacity.

With a dedicated water only storage area, our rain garden planters are able to hold almost twice as much water, which is critical during a deluge, which will then be released slowly.

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Outflow and Infiltration Rates

The standard SuDs raingarden planters are drained via a perforated drainage pipe running internally along the bottom of the planter. A number of factors influence the drainage rate, including drainage pipe diameter, soil mix and the density of the vegetation including root systems which all impact the infiltration rate.

We recommend using an open, free draining peat free soil mix of 15% loam soil or John Innes No.3 with 85% peat free multipurpose compost.

If planted with shallow, light rooting plants, the outflow rate ranges from 15 - 20 litres per hour (0.0042 - 0.0055 litres per second) depending on the head of water.

We recommend light rooting planting, such as small perrenials, grasses and flowering annual pollinators as the infiltration rate will be mostly impaired by the formation of a dense root network from more mature shrub-like plants.

Annual planting that can significantly enhance the BNG value of your SuDs planters can be replenished each year. Hence they are ideal for creating wildflower pollinators, long summer flowering and a minimum rooting system, that can be cultivated annually to retain a free draining soil/compost mix.

Please see the RHS guide to pollinators HERE

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Embodied Carbon

• Made from FSC sourced UK grown Larch – Carbon Neutral

• Internal graduated perforated drainage pipe system for controlled release with sealed storage area to reduce plastic (recycled)components. • Installation above ground to reduce installation energy impact.

• Plus linked directly to drainage system to reduce flash flood impact without being inundated with oil residues, wastes, pesticides etc often released into waterways following storm surges

• Supports permanent aerial plant growth, which in turn:-

Promotes carbon sequestration
Enhances aesthetic value of the site – Promotes wellbeing
Supports biodiversity, including nectar feeders, thus adding Biodiversit Net Gain(BNG) value for the site
Constructed in the United Kingdom by UK based craftsmen
Unique SuDS planter design has been developed so that there is an additional internal overflow flow system so that in the rare occasion that the water storage area fills to the top it will not inundate the separate soil/compost area.
The enhanced design of our SuDS planters allows them to be used for any type of plants specific to the needs of the client, and local climatic conditions. As such they can significiantly contribute to an enahnced BNG for most developments. They are ideal for growing veg, pollinators etc.

East of Eden SuDS Planters linked to Rain Gardens

Water may discharge from a planter into the normal drains or it could be diverted further into a Rain Garden.

For an enhance biophilic and aesthetic effect, we like to encourage the construction of landscaped features that the water could travel along and slowly percolate into the soil, such as: