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Recycled water?
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Posted by stillmanz QLDAust (My Page) on Wed, Sep 28, 05 at 19:19
| Does anyone use recycled water for their gardens. Here in Brisbane we are looking down the barrel of a pretty serious drought and some heavy water restrictions. I'm thinking about using our shower water for some gardens but am a bit worried about chemicals in soaps and shampoos. I don't think I would use dishwasher water or washing machine water as I think the chemicals would be much harsher. I know some people may think its a bit grosse watering with your shower water but other wise its such a waste. What do you think? Mick |
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RE: Recycled water?
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- Posted by pepino Werribee Vic (My Page) on
Wed, Sep 28, 05 at 19:59
Why would it be grosse? What do people put down their shower drains?
My folks have a system plumbed in which collects all drainage except toilets and after going through a grease trap is used to water the gardens and sometimes lawns. The reason for the grease trap is because it collects any fats that go down the kitchen sink. If you only have shower and washing machine this can go directly onto the garden. They've had the system nearly 20 years and it's great. Without it they couldn't maintain the large garden they have. The only plants that may not like it are things like proteas, waratahs, banksias as they cannot tolerate anything but rainwater.
If you don't leave it standing ie in a tank, it won't smell. If you store it up it may start to smell and attract mosquitoes.
I have a pipe diverted from my washing machine and I have never had even the slightest odour.
Give it a go. |
RE: Recycled water?
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Go for it Mick. We use washing machine water on our back lawn every summer with no adverse effects. One year we used the shower and bath water as well, but that year we also changed to shower gels for washing, as they are less harmful to plants than bath soap.
The washing machine uses to much water (90 litres), to waste down the drain, and it keeps the lawn alive with no additional watering needed. |
RE: Recycled water?
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| You bet. This is in town and unofficial. Mainly use laundry water; mostly including the first lot with liquid detergent but always discarding the first lot of water with powdered detergent (tho' sometimes this is reused to pre-soak gardening clothes, rags etc). Always collect the water from the hot water tap over the kitchen sink while waiting for the hot to come through and use it for patio plants, dog water or whatever. Would like to use the shower water but feel the need to discuss access under screwed down covers with the friendly council plumber up the street. That hasn't happened yet. On the rare occasions I use a strong chemical to clean the shower, I'd like to be able to easily divert that water back again. I notice the tenants have killed a 4m dry rainforest tree with kitchen water on the 30 acres, nothing else affected. On my mother's place, everything grey runs into a tree line of cottonwoods, swamp bloodwood, crepe mytle. No ill effects in 13 years (she mainly uses liquid laundry detergent). |
RE: Recycled water?
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| In country areas, nothing is wasted. Washing water is fine depending on your detergents, if worried just use your rinse water. There are a few commercial detergents that are supposed to be safe for the gardens and 'gardenlen' has a good one he makes himself and I'm sure he will comment on here soon. When showering put a couple of buckets in the shower with you to catch the water, bath water can be bucketed or siphoned out. When washing up, place a plastic bucket in your sink to wash up in and use the water on your plants. Vegetable water (from cooking your vegies) is a great way to feed and water pot plants. Cheers G. |
RE: Recycled water?
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| we have older style taps which are hard to turn on or off while you soap up your hands to wash them. I put a bucket under the laundry tap and whenever I need to wash my hands I go in there and all the water gets caught in the bucket. you wouldnt think this would add up to much but I end up with about a bucket of water a day to use on the garden just from doing this, and it's all water that would have just gone down the drain |
RE: Recycled water?
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Thanks for the feed back . I have fitted a diverter on my shower which sends it to a 200 ltre mini tank from there I will use it on the gardens but not on my natives. I was thinking about using it on my tomatoes? That should be ok? I guess I will soon know.
Mick |
grey water and tomatoe
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| After reading a bit about grey water I might not put it on the tomato patch. It seems the official verdict is still out as far as grey water on crop gardens is concerned. Even though it would only be shower water I wouldn't like to risk it. Mick |
RE: Recycled water?
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Some do , and some don't. I would if I lived alone. When i was a kid (some time ago), growing upin Melbourne, we had a seven year drought, and we used the same water to bathe four kids, and then it went onto the vegies. Need dictated it had to be done.
We are one of the few countries in the world which use drinking water to flush our toilets.
Dishwashers often use corrosive chemicals in their mixes, some don't. If you wash your hands in a little of the dishwasher stuff, you'll soon know if it's okay to put on the garden. If it's not, it will take off three or so layers of skin in about an hour.
I learnt that from bitter experience. |
RE: Recycled water?
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| I just read that if the fruit doesn't come directly in contact with greywater it should be ok. I may try it on a couple plants (just deep watering around one or two plants)and see what happens. Mick |
RE: Recycled water?
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When I lived in Sydney, we kept a bucket in the shower. We switched to the lowest polluting soaps/shampoos we could find. This bucket was emptied onto gardens after every shower, including veggie patch. I'm still here to tell the tale. Same can be done with washing machine water, although that should go through a filter first. Kitchen sink needs grease trap and filter with no oils tipped down the sink.
Water is precious. Use every drop. If you have concerns about health, use it on fruit trees and ornamentals only. Otherwise, go for it. Water with town water every other time to reduce salt build up, if that's an issue. |
RE: Recycled water?
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| Because I'm only using showerr water so far, my main concern is things like shampoos and shower gels. I will just have to check out each product. The information I have found said to avoid using water with anti bacterial or anti dandruff stuff as it can build up in the soil. From what I have read tomatoes can certainly handle grey water. Time will tell. Mick |
RE: Recycled water?
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| I think you need to reconsider why you feel your tomatoes will be so thirsty. Lol. Start by having really organically rich soil and use aged composts. Dig them in a spade-depth. Forget no dig stuff. Tomato health comes back to many things inc. root depth. Add water-retentive agents. Water heavily then mulch very very heavily with lucerne (expensive) or sugarcane mulch. Put a leaky hose under the mulch for mid-summer occasional watering. Also, I found wet newspaper helped as a quasi mulch, as did hessian bags. With all this I watered my 40-odd tomatoes twice last season. And, as a result, I had far fewer problems than other growers in my area hit by Early Blight. Also, use seaweed solution in the first few months after transplant to work on that root formation. Forget ferts except for tomato or flower enahancing ones after you see the firsdt flowers. And do transplant deep. Just my limited experience. Maybe I just got lucky. Grub, who uses his buckets of shower water every day on the annuals, lawn and old-bag plants. |
RE: Recycled water?
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| g'day mick, yep and have done for a long long time now even before the drought became popular. don't believe in pulling plugs and pushing silver buttons to send good value added water to oblivion. and if it is so called illegal (mind you illegal?? what?? to use a valuable resource efficiently!!) then don't tell anyone what you are doing to easy hey. worried about all the soaps and things modern folk have been conned into using well you can cut most of it out and for the rest well we make our liquid saop that gets used as: hand wash, surface cleaner, stain/grease and grime remover and cloths washer. vinegar is good for wiping benches and adding as a fabric softer in the rinse water, as well lemon juice can used to wipe bench tops. so go to it!! get full on with it save your night water as well add that to water and use it on your vege's etc.,. len mail len lens garden page |
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