Alana, a friend does this with her kitchen sink water. She say the plants in the bed under her kitchen window are doing beautifully and better than in other areas. If you can do it, it's a great idea.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

People have been using "gray water" on their gardens for centuries. My Grandmother always dumped her dish/laundry water on her garden. If it hurt the plants it wouldn't still be being used.

Thanks Sherry and Seil, it should be fine on bands newly planted as well right? For everyone on this forum who is helping me thanks and as soon as I'm through with all additions and work I'm going to be doing in my garden next year, I'll post some pics. I'll make a seperate post some time soon on all the roses I ordered for spring planting that I chose based on everyone's recommendation's Thanks ya'll.
Alana

We certainly use kitchen sink water, and when the day comes that we HAVE to, we'll use laundry water.

BUT in part because we are on a septic system, we use "eco-friendly" detergents. We RARELY use chlorine bleach. (I can't use it without getting it all over my clothes.) So our "greywater" is reasonably benign.

It's a lifesaver for those of us who live in a ". . . land of little rain."

Jeri

HI Jeri,
My detergent says it's eco friendly, I only bleach the whites and I would never put that water on my roses :) I've thought about doing the kitchen sink water but then I would have to go buy pans to pet in my sick to haul the water out in instead of just putting them straight in the sink. My husbands gramma (before her health went downhill) use to use them in her sink although I don't remember her using the water in her flower beds, but I may look into getting rwo of those or just one to use on the rinse side.

Well, I have ALWAYS used a dishpan to wash dishes, so it's pretty easy.

If there's too much water for me to pick it up, DH hauls it out.

I have photos of my GG-Grandfather's home, in TX, right after 1900. The "dooryard" is fenced off -- presumably to keep livestock out) and there are roses, tho I don't know WHAT roses of course.
I'm certain that those roses were watered with dishwater, cooking water, and on rare occasions bathwater.

But it is important to remember that the soap they used, and the soaps and detergents we use, are not at all the same thing.

Still -- my Step-G-Grandmother was said to have "always had roses." :-)

Jeri

That's pretty neat Jeri, I wish I had some photo's like that, would be nice to have to look at, and that's true what they had back them didn't have all the additives in them, as what we have now :)

I have a large garbage can next to my washing machine. When I do laundry, I put the water line into the garbage can and let the rinse water flow into it. I use a 5 gallon bucket about half full (so it won't be very heavy) and use it to water a lot of the plants in my back yard. I've been using less detergent since I started doing this, just to be on the safe side, and even newly planted plants do fine with it. Soap has a bit of nutrient in it anyway. And you can add some fertilizer to the water, and the soap acts as a surfactant and helps it absorb. It's nothing but a plus in my book.

Jeri, my grandmother lived in a house with the dooryard fenced, too. That's where she had her flowers and small vegetable garden. The fence kept the chickens and wild critters out. She watered with her wash water, too, and everything was always green and flourishing. East Texas, btw, but I think people did it everywhere in the world, frankly.

Well, don't they use 'night dew' on crops in the Orient? think we covered this extensively fairly recently, and enlarged it into testimonials from all the folks who kept pails in the bathroom and guys who watered the fence-line, etc. LOL...sally

Thanks eahamal, I believe I will be tryin this, thanks everyone for your input and if anyone else has any advice or story's to relate please share I'd love to here them.
Alana

A bit of bleach in the water won't harm your plants. Once it breaks down, it becomes salt, which you obviously don't want too much of, but you shouldn't be using that much bleach anyway. I'd worry more about the phosphates in the detergent.

You can by 'green' dishwashing and other cleaners in places like Whole Foods, if you really want to make sure you aren't putting anything dangerous on your plants.

Ok buford thanks, I don't know if we have a Whole Foods anywhere near here, kind live in the country, but I will check it out, I wash alot of clothes because I have three little girls, so my roses should get plenty of water once I can get it fixed where I can use the washer water :)

Alana, FWIW, Costco has a phosphate-free laundry detergent. I bet Sam's Club and Wal-Mart have one, too. And, FWIW, they also have phosphate-free dish detergent.

We use both, and have for quite some time.

Jeri

Thanks Jeri , and everyone else for all your help. the detergents that say free should be phosphate free, right?

Jeri I just looked and the laundry liquid detergent I use is phosphate free :) so it should be fine I think, I'm not sure about my dish soap, I use palmolive.

One of the comments in several grey water 'source' books emphasized that liquid laundry detergent was preferable because the dry detergents had filler to make them not clump and to give people the feel they were getting a lot for their money.

We've used grey water on roses for quite a while, FWIW.

The one thing I'd warn you about is to have an alternative for very wet weather...yes, your roses can get too wet roots.

Yeah anntn6b I was going to try and have it set up where I could switch it from the flowers to the septic by turning a knob or something that way I could only put them on the roses when they needed it. I haven't got it worked out how I'm going to do it yet but my husbands a pretty good handyman so I'm sure he will figure it out :)