next »

[SarahLaRae]

I'm looking into the possibility of using the greywater from my washing machine to water the garden. I will be using all natural homemade laundry soap.  Has anyone had any experience with this?

[Melly Lane]

I've been traveling for a while, staying short times in different parts of the country, and some of the people that i was traveling with, would do just this. I never heard of, or noticed any problems with this. I would often hand wash my laundry in buckets (using a natural laundry detergent) and then use it to water the trees, and use my vegetable or wild plant broth to water the garden. The garden that i gave my broth to did very well. I think it's a great way to use your grey water. In my travels, we sometimes lived very poor. We would wash our laundry in our bath water, then save the water again for flushing the toilet.

[blsd2bhome]

I realize this is kind of an old thread, but I was just talking to my Mom about this today!  We are in a drought in our state right now (they call it an exceptional drought...2 years and counting..)

She related a story of her parents during the dust bowl of the 30's.  They kept all of their water from baths, dishes, and laundry and put it on the garden.  They were the only family in the neighborhood (county) to have a garden those years.  Her neighbors used to tell her stories that her parents fed the neighborhood those years...and they were very grateful to them.  I asked why the rest of the neighbors did not do the same and have gardens, and she thought it was because noone wanted to put in the effort...everyone thought that the drought would end soon and things would be back to normal.

So I would assume if you are not using anything toxic, like detergents or chemicals, you would be able to use the water for your garden.  I plan on implementing some of this, we are under restrictions and are not allowed to water gardens or lawns AT ALL! 

So I think this would be a good option for us to get some veggies grown before winter!

If you used this method this summer SarahLaRae, let me know how it went!

[SarahLaRae]

Thanks that's very interesting/encouraging. 

We did not try this this year, because we've actually had the opposite problem as you this year.  We hardly had to water the garden at all because we had floods. 

Maybe next year I'll get to give it a try.

[boysmama]

We have a book "Creating an Oasis with Greywater" by Art Ludwig. Definitely worth getting.

[blsd2bhome]

boysmama-
Do you have a greywater system installed? Do you use this water on your garden?

That book looks very informative!

Thanks!

[boysmama]

No, we don't have a system. Well, some buckets which doesn't count.  Right now I don't reuse much greywater. Too busy with all the little ones at this stage. Just collecting info like the rest of y'all.  That book is really great and addresses some of the concerns like what the greywater can do to your soil ph. Also methods for avoiding sanitation problems - like greywater from washing diapers.
I have used the rinse water from laundry on the garden. Bath water too. If your washer is close to a door or low window you can use a longer than normal drain hose and catch it in buckets. Just keep the hose in the normal drain pipe in case you get distracted and miss the cycle.  If you really want something great for your garden set up a perforated barrel with a basin beneath. Fill the barrel with a "cool" manure or compost + greywater poured through = compost tea.

[brightspot]

We are looking for a way to use our washing machine water for irrigation. We had to have our septic pumped and found out that we have a 1000 gallon tank on a four bedroom house with 8 people living here and it has been recommended that we relieve the tank of some water usage. Also, what kind of cleaners would you use? This is all new to me!

Members

• Total Members: 6601
• Latest: rosco1733

Stats

• Total Posts: 242176
• Total Topics: 21725
• Online Today: 10
• Online Ever: 437
• (April 01, 2008, 03:09:36 PM)

Users Online

• Users: 1
• Guests: 7
• Total: 8