planting over grey water system

19 years ago

I recently bought a farm, which has a grey water system. The sink, shower, dishwasher, washer & dryer drain out, slightly underground, about 15 feet behind the house, in a mostly sunny area. The soil remains soggy year-round, and doesn't stay frozen in the winter.

The area is only a few feet away from my giant, 100+ year old lilac bushes which attract literally thousands of birds throughout the year.

We use environmentally-friendly detergents.

At first, I was considering installing a tank to hold the water, which I would then pump out to my vegetable garden. However, I got to thinking that, for once in my life, I might be able to grow some moisture-loving plants.

Do you have any ideas regarding what might look good there, keeping in mind that the soil will be very rich (food scraps from dishwasher) and never dries out completely?

Bird- and butterfly-friendly plantings would be ideal.

Also - any ideas for keeping the mosquitos under control there?

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Comments (5)

webfeeet
19 years ago
environmentally friendly, bath soap, shampoo, cream rinse and all the other 753 different items that are dumped down the sink, washer and shower?

That said...if you sod over the entire area and NEVER cut the grass that grows there you will pretty much guarantee good mosquito control.

Then just cut a hole through the sod for any kind of moisture loving plant you wish. Cattails are a good start. Willows are great. Asparagus is wonderful. Tomatoes will love it. Joe Pye would thrive. Pennywort and watercress would be great and form a real nice barrier against mosquitos when combined with the sod.

Al the above are loved by birds...
Pookiesmom
19 years ago
I am interested in doing bioremidiation using plants and a bog garden. It definitely can be done...this is a great article that details everything..unfortunately teh chap lives in Australia so the plants he uses would nt be suitable for your location but do a googel search using phytoremediation and you can narrow it to your bioregion.

http://frogs.org.au/frogwatch/greywater.php
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Hi Jenkins, In some ways Petrushka has a point. This plant is almost dead. It's gonna be awhile before you see any success and there is a chance that the plant will alternately die. This is really a matter of how badly do you want to save the plant. The question you need to ask yourself is whether this a plant has any emotional significance to it. If it's just a plant that you picked up at the grocery store and now it's not doing very well, I would be inclined to agree with Petrushka and suggest you throw it out. Then you can go to the store and get a nice African violet that you can enjoy right now. With the new plant I would be inclined to put it in a better soil though. On the other hand I've seen plants like this one survive. But you will need to make the changes that I suggested very quickly for it to have any chance at all. Oh, and I forgot one thing. After you re-pot it, put the whole thing in a plastic bag for about three weeks. This will give the root system and plant a chance to recover from the manhandling that it has had and will get when you re-pot it. DO NOT put the bag in direct sunlight! You will cook the plant. If you do buy a new plant and put the thing in better soil, I would suggest you do the following. Take the plant out of the pot and break off as much of the old soil as you can. Don't worry too much about losing some roots. Then make your soil as I have suggested above and re-pot your violet. Remember to use a pot 1/3 the diameter of the plant . Now the root system has been damaged by the soil change so you need to give it a chance to recover from that. Put the plant and pot in a plastic bag for 10 days. That will give the roots a chance to recover and multiply. When removing the bag do so over a period of three days. First day open the bag a little bit. The second day open it a little bit more and you can take it out of the bag on the third day. Many people don't bother with this step but the plant will like it. Larry
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Manual just assumes you're cooking directly in the PC. What you are describing won't work. The flat containing the pots has to float or be suspended above the flat holding the water. All you need is a standard flat with no holes, a piece of capillary matting cut to fit it on the long sides of the flat but left longer in length so it can drape over into another container sitting end to end with the flat that contains your pots. Another flat filled with water works well. Simple and easy to do. However you also need to understand that capillary matting has problems of its own. It tends to way over-water many plants, especially young seedlings. And it will wick water as long as water is available regardless of if the plants need it or not. Fill the water flat with water and you will come back later to find most all that water sitting over in the flat with the pots and the pots will be soaking wet. The wicking material used in the commercial set-ups of this kind are much thinner than standard capillary matting, made of a different material, and do less wicking to try to avoid just this problem. They also use spnge type mediums rather than potting mix so they dry out faster. Even then they are only partially successful at eliminating the problem of over-watering. Standard capillary matting works ok for well established plants that need to be left alone for a few days for some reason, They are old enough to tolerate the over-watering for a brief period of time as long as they are allowed to dry out some when removed from the matting. Germinating seeds and young plants are not so tolerant. Dave
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"Shake off as much of the peat as you can, let the root systems air dry in shade a few hours then shake off the rest of the peat. Replant in gritty mix." I agree with this, except I wouldn't allow the roots to dry. A damp, porous soil is the ideal environment for roots. Letting them dry out just puts more stress on them. You can cut off any obviously dead roots. Then replant in gritty mix and water. -Chris
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wilddog
19 years ago
This describes what I did in similar situation. We live in a 200 year old log cabin seated on its original foundation.
A bog septic system has the normal septic tank then the affluent flows through a bog which eats the dead organism that ate the sewage. The roots go down to the liquid and feeds on the result of this process. This is acting like a Bokaski composting system. We plumbed our shower out the back of our house into a constructed bog. We keep a bucket at the back door for household waste and kitchen scraps, this is dumped into the entry of the bog septic system. Most of us are gardeners which is the main reason I mention this. Plants grow like weeds in this system.
The construction is like a pond made from a rubber liner then filled with hardwood mulch to begin the process. I piled the mulch up as you might do for a raised bed. You can substitute any organic matter for the hardwood mulch which was what was available at the time. My first thought was to plant bog plants but before I could get around to bog plants I planted daylilies and hosta which just love it. Before you say that hosta or daylilies donÂt like wet feet, they have prospered for years. IÂve planted a long list of plants in this system, all have done really, REALLY well including a dwarf tree.
Before anyone expresses fear, a properly sized "Bog Septic System" is safer than a normal septic system, in fact you could poop in one end and drink the water coming out of the other end. I sat it up so that the over flow goes into our pond and fish are doing well. To get ahead of the first question; no the soap has never caused a problem. IÂve never added fertilizer except the occasional urine in the bucket of household waste.
This would make a great way to handle rain water that is causing an erosion problem, capturing air conditioner condensate. If you canÂt picture either of these, IÂll explain.
kate_rose
19 years ago
Cool stuff wilddog. DARN those planning regulations in cities. I'm not even sure we are allowed to do greywater here & my SO is unconvinced that it is even sanitary though we did fine with it when I was a kid.

Anyway to dry up a boggy area if thats what you want to do you could put in cottonwoods or willows. They will prosper & keep water from pooling at the surface so much thus controlling your mosquito problem. If you have a permanent pool/pond mosquito fish will keep them in check. If you want more beautiful things I would go with lobelia, irises, lilies, hostas, etc. You could even plant it in a sort of formalized way if you are into that. Stepping stones could provide a path through the garden. There are so many possiblities. I am not sure what zone it likes but Clematis crispa is supposed to be a bog friendly vine.

Enjoy

(I must admit to a bit of jealousy). It is so dry here that I collect rainwater to keep my pond & bogs going.
wilddog
19 years ago
My system does not meet code, I asked the plumber to plumb it to the bog. Said he couldn't do it because it didn't meet code so I asked if would plumb it into the yard and I would get another plumber to finish the job. He smiled and said ok. I can't imagine any problem unless someone complains and then you meet code which is what you would have done anyway.

planting over grey water system

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webfeeet

Pookiesmom

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