if you can simply cut into your line and feed it direct to the gardens plants i do little more than that and have done that on many occassions.

len

mail len

lens garden page

Len, do you use any special kind of detergents, etc, when you do this?

SueinWA

The water is actually pumped out by the machine, right, so I don't have to depend on gravity the whole way, do I? Unkinkable hose straight to the mulch pile is what I'm planning on.

Oops. Never mind. I pulled on the black thing, and it all became very clear!!!

If I understand correctly, if you have to pump UPHILL, and you're having the washing machine do the pumping, you will burn out your motor.

Find a book called Greywater Oasis, and it will explain in more detail. It's in the library system.

Sue

g'day sue in wa,

we use an earth friendly dish detergent and we make our own laundry detergent but in all the the times i've used grey water i've never detected the plants having any problems.

len

One thing I'll add is you really should 'hold' that water for a short period to allow the hot water to cool. Don't want to 'cook' your plants! The easy way to do this is to take that black hose you spoke of and run it to a drain line that empties into a 55 gallon drum which is placed outdoors near where you have the washing machine, opposite the wall that the washer is placed is best so you won't be running lots of drain line. Plastic drums are easy to find and cheap ...$10 here in New Orleans ... and most are safe to use since the prior products in plastic barrels are syrup and other food stuffs but do ask what they had in 'em before purchase.
Run that washer water in at the top of the drum. Then take and drill a hole at the bottom of one side of the barrel and attach a water hose end adapter or outdoor faucet inplace. Most can be screwed inplace with gaskets on either side of the barrel. Tell your hardware man what you are up too and I'm sure they will be able to fix you up. Oh and frankly a bit of leakage from the connection is no big deal. If using an outdoor faucet ..... and this is very important .... always leave the faucet turned on. Do not store grey water!!!! Never have the faucet turned 'off'. Leave it on so the water will always drain freely. Do not store grey water in the drum.
Once that hose end adapter or faucet is in place attach an old garden hose and run this out to your garden. You can move the hose around to where ever you would like to water.

Important ... do not store greywater! Also the barrel must be below the level of the top of the black washer hose (so ya don't burn out your washer's pump ... that level will be just below the height of the top of your washing machine) but above the level of the garden so that the drum will slowly drain by gravity.
Mike

I am trying to make the most out of what looks like a potential asset --- the classic silk purse from sow's ear, I guess.

My little house (40' long) is separated from a large apartment parking lot by a 4' high chain link fence. Between my house and the fence is a 30" alley that long ago was lined with pebbles and covered with black plastic and a storebought bark mulch. The sun comes from the east/southeast (almost 7 hours, and the house is white, so it reflects some heat and light. There is a downspout at either end.

The space was completely full of nasty prickly weeds and thorns, but it's now clear. I have been cutting half of the bottom out of 3 and 4 gallon pots, filling them with soil and compost, and setting them into the ground about 3 to 6 inches, after just raking away as many of the rocks as I could. I'm planting vining things, mostly --- tomatoes, pole beans, some morning glories. Also hollyhocks and okra.

I am collecting big bags of leaves and grass clippings every week and spreading them over the entire alley, including the edges of the pots. The space sits a little below the parking lot and there's a 1' grass verge between the fence and the parking lot.

Now the idea is that I will get vegetables and flowers and, with a string trellis that goes all the way over the house (easiest way to secure it, just tie a stake to the end of the twine, throw hard, and stake it on the other other side) shade the house a bit.

I'm planning to use a couple of diverters to make the gutter water stay in the alley and also have the option of outletting some greywater in that area.

BigEasyJock has already warned me to keep the vines off the roof. Any other thoughts, predictions, warnings, suggestions, attacks?

Thanks,
Martha

Hola,

Here is the URL for Oasis Design that Sue mentioned.

Terran

Here is a link that might be useful: Oasis Design

Martha, sounds like you are beautifying the alley wonderfully but I have a couple of thoughts/cautions: the parking lot sits higher than the garden.... Is the lot blacktop/cement? Potential chemical runoff problems (I'm thinking oil and radiator coolants)? My mother planted veggies outside her courtyard (in her outer yard but still had split rail fence between it and common road) and someone harvested all her artichokes! She doesn't know if they have been in her courtyard while she is gone but it is suspectious that her asparagras also turned up missing. I can't imagine why a person would steal artichokes from a senior citizen! She figures they must be awful hungry to steal. I don't share the same opinion! I had people pick flowers out of my yard before I put in a long hedge about waist high... now they just abuse the hedgerow.
So, my main thoughts are the 'down stream' concerns about toxins entering a food source and people who just help themselves or abuse peoples attempts to create beauty. I'm not discouraging you! We need more peoples like you :) Just mentioning things that might not have been considered so you can plan!

BigEasy: (or someone else with more knowledge than I...)
why can't i store grey water? can i store it for a coupla days?

not good to store grey water as it contaminates it is after all already contaminated after you use it so those bacteria will multiply and it then gets very smelly and by some descriptions i have seen turns into black water. best used straight away.

len

mail len

lens garden page

The other thing to check into, if you care, is the fact that sending graywater out of the house could be illegal where you live. My hubby said the DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources) specifically prohibits that in our state, and he threatened to turn in my mom for doing that some years ago. She was trying to keep the washing water out of her septic tank, not to water anything specifically. Of course we bought her house and don't do that, and need our tank pumped again, so maybe she was on to something. :-)

Marcia

Len - Can you tell us what the recipe for your homemade laundry detergent is?

Thanks!

Trish

g'day trish,

the recipe is on my remedies page at my web site, listed in the site index, enjoy we find it is excellent for all cleaning applications.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Thanks Len. A very interesting site you have, along with some great links!