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 planters

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, as well as bespoke options.

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.

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

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 rates

The standard rain garden planters are drained via a perforated drainage pipe running along the bottom of the planter. A number of factors influence the drainage rate including the drainage pipe diameter, soil mix and therefore infiltration rate, impact of plants and soil conditions prior to any particular rainfall event will be important.

Based on trial data from South East Rivers Trust narrow diameter (68mm) internal attenuation drainage system is fiited to limit the flow out of the planter to maximise the potential for flood storage, enhanced by the extra water storage provided by the dedicated water storage layer.

One hour after a rainfall event begins, up to 0.75 m3 of water can drain from the bottom of the planter. In reality the infiltration rate of the soil will have a notable impact of the volume and rate of water which can drain out of the bottom of the planter.

Hence the taller the planter the slower the infiltration rate. Also, the larger the overall dimensions of the planter will allow for more storage before the water level reaches the overflow downpipe.

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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: