Greywater for the Garden

Ninn · #1 01/30/08, 04:00 PM

Can someone please direct me to a site that will help me decide about this without having to have an engineering degree? I just want to know if it makes sense to use this idea, along with rain water catching, to water my gardens. Thank you.

Jim S. · #2 01/30/08, 04:09 PM

I can tell you from personal experience that it does. We do all that. You can catch your roof runoff in a large tank or cistern and use it. We just line up cattle water troughs under the dripline. Or you can get plastic 50-gallon barrels, cut out the tops, and do the same. Or you can plumb into an ag tank and save it up. Depends on how complex you want to make it.

Likewise, you can run a line from your washer outlet to the garden and just water it each time you do laundry, which is what we do, or you can capture that graywater in a tank and use it.

SolarGary · #3 01/30/08, 05:03 PM

Hi,
Some good info here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Water/Water.htm

The Oasis Design site that is listed has some good, down-to-earth systems.

Gary

Forerunner · #4 01/30/08, 05:48 PM

Greywater would only be advisably applied directly to the garden if you use organic or mined mineral (borax, etc.) laundry soaps.
Greywater containing harsher chemicals can be properly neutralized and biologically assimilated if used to irrigate the larger, hot compost pile.
Thermophilic bacteria, properly fed and cared for, can neutralize just about anything.

Roof water would be great for the garden.

I have plans to bury a 2000 gallon steel tank slightly downhill from the house
that all my greywater will run into. From there, I can gravity feed it to one of the compost piles further down the hill, or the garden during dry spells.
We make our own lye and lard laundry soap and we use borax, hydrogen peroxide and occasionally Shaklee's "basic H".
The only concern would be making sure the tank was empty to start the winter season, and/or that the exposed valving was well-insulated if the tank were to be filled during the winter....

Shadow · #5 01/30/08, 11:56 PM

We looked into the useing gray water on the garden but found when you wash certain parts of the human body you get rid if body waste that you can not wipe completely off ( I'm trying to be delecate here, I am refering to washing your butt) you transfer fecal matter small amouints sure but held in a tank they mutiply fast and then when you water the garden you have ecoli sprayed on your lettice, beans tomatoes get the picture. It is like someone pooped in the salad. We dropped the idea. If you treated the water and did it correctly you could do it. If you don't belive me collect your shower water and let it stand in a container for 24 hours then just smell it you don't want that on or around your food.

Ninn · #6 01/31/08, 09:22 AM

OK, so what I want is a good rain catch system for the roof line and to drain my dishwater and rinsewater into a bucket for the garden? (i started playing with this idea last year and never went anywhere with it.) I think i can get some plastic barrels for the water. Rain gutters, on the other hand, could be a problem. Dishpans and a bucket takes care of the dishwater problem. Any other suggestions?

wogglebug · #7 01/31/08, 10:07 AM

Nothing wrong with the principle of greywater use - just use it on your fruit trees and vines.

As for rainwater, do some basic arithmetic. Calculate your roof area, then multiply it by an inch of rain, then convert that to gallons. Makes drums or barrels look a trifle inadequate, doesn't it? Beautiful pure water, large volumes, why waste it? Well, cost of storage, I guess, if you can't afford it.

YuccaFlatsRanch · #8 01/31/08, 10:28 AM

Rainwater is really calculated at approx 600 gallons per 1000 SF of building footprint per inch of rain. The SF of the roof does not apply as it has a pitch and the SF of the ground it covers is different. If it wasn't this way then steep pitched roofs would gather more rain than low sloped roofs. A roof essentially straight up and down would gather an infinite amount of rain.

You can gather large amounts of water though. I gather 4500 gallons from 2 large roofs every time it rains 1 inch.

My trees get my greywater, and I also save the condensate from the A/C system to use for cats and dogs water. It is essentially distilled and it helps with the male cats not getting urinary stones.