The term "Bioengineering" causes some confusion, as in recent years it has been appropriated by the biomedical industry. Generally it referrs to a group of activities where living and nonliving materials are used to achieve an engineering goal.
It is abroad term encompassing many different techniques. Many of these were refined over thousands of years prior to being actively grouped together under the umbrella of "Bioengineering". Others have been developed more recently as practitioners experiment with new ways to address environmental challenges.
Spraygrass offers bioengineering solutions and techniques that utilise organic (living and non-living) materials to achieve an engineering goal. Below are a few of these techniques.
Jute Meshing (Soil Saver)
Heavy woven jute mesh holds seed and soil intact on slopes, drainage ways and other areas of concentrated water flow, and aids in preventing erosion during rainstorms.
Jute mesh is a material that stays put and generally cannot be lifted by flowing water, wind or vegetation. Because of its mesh formation, vegetation has plenty of growing room.
As jute is a natural vegetable fibre, you get "built in" organic material which will decompose in time and enrich the soils at the rate of 5 tonnes per hectare. You get immediate protection from erosion in critical areas, as well as a unique mulch.
Jute mesh can be placed onto the area immediately after grading, and can be seeded, pegged and oversprayed with bitumen emulsion. It gives you the freedom to select a variety of grasses or ground covers that best suit local and climatic conditions.
After jute mesh is installed, its gives the job a neat finished look.
Organic Fibre Matting
This product is often referred to as a “blanket” and unlike Jute Mesh is a complete blanket usually made from Jute, Coconut Fibre or Coir. It is also available in several grades (thicknesses) depending on its intended use. The thinner variety is used for establishing grasses, whereas the thicker OFM is generally used as weed mats in Landscaping where after being placed on a garden bed or embankment plants are then planted into the mat.
Where grassing is the intended use the seed can be sown either under the mat before placing or into the mat when placed.
The thinner mat allows the grasses to grow through it providing protection to the soil against storm and tempest until the grasses are established.
Once grass is established, the OFM’s being totally organic eventually decompose returning valuable organic properties to the soil.
Synthetic Matting
There are a number of non organic mats and netting available that are made totally from synthetic materials. These are usually UV Stabilized and are specified for the more extreme situations where greater protection and strength is required to hold the soil together whilst grass establishes through them and in some cases they are placed so that they are covered with topsoil and then seeded over.
Without referring to generic names they are variously referred to as a polypropylene fibre mats, three dimensional mats or polypropylene netting.
In almost all cases these products are more expensive than the Jute and OFM’s and information on these are available on enquiry.
Sediment Control Logs (“Straw Wattles”)
The cylindrical shaped logs are made from Coir, Coconut or Straw. They are available in several different diameters depending on the end use.
They are particularly useful on steep slopes where they act as contour banks, and can be used along waterways where aquatic plants can be planted unto them, whilst at the same time are providing stability at the waters edge.
Heavy woven jute mesh holds seed and soil intact on slopes, drainage ways and other areas of concentrated water flow, and aids in preventing erosion during rainstorms.