On Thu, 1 May 2008 01:22:16 -0700 (PDT), Gas Bag
wrote:

X-No-Archive:

I was hoping to get some advice regarding the use of grey water from
the laundry for garden watering – mainly lawns.
I’m not at all asking about the legality of it, which is not at all an
issue. Rather I am trying to find out whether or not the grey laundry
water is likely to stuff up my lawns. I use different sorts of washing
powders, switching between different brands, but I typically add:

NapiSan OxyAction MAX

http://www.vanishstains.com.au/whats_new.shtml#1

Is this sort of grey water ok for lawn watering?
What if this grey water was used for deep soil irrigation near plants
and shrubs? (This is much less of an issue at this stage).
I really would appreciate some advice. Thanks.


Here's a few links which may bear some light on this question.

http://www.lanfaxlabs.com.au/laundry.htm

http://www.lanfaxlabs.com.au/gardens.htm

These were found on this page of the "Gumnuts" blog

Reuse of Greywater on Gardens

26 October 2007 8:56 PM
In these times of water restrictions in many Australian cities, it's tempting to consider using water from washing machines to irrigate lawns and gardens. The question is - is it safe to do so?

The answer is... it depends - on the type of detergent used in the washing machine, the soils in your garden and the area available to distribute the water. The fact is that applying laundry water indiscriminately can seriously damage plants and soil structure.

And it's not necessarily the amount of phosphorus in the laundry waste that is potentially harmful. More often than not it's the sodium content that determines how much laundry wastewater can be safely applied to a given area.

Much of the available information about applying greywater to gardens comes from the work of Dr Robert A. Patterson who is the Director of Lanfax Laboratories based in Armadale, NSW. Dr Patterson is regarded as an expert on the interactions between recycled water (including grey water from laundries) and soils.

The Lanfax Laboratories' web site has a lot of useful information that can help you plan how best to distribute grey water on lawns and gardens. The site itself is a bit confusing to navigate but the following two sections should provide most of the information you need.

* Laundry Products Research
* Reuse of Greywater on Gardens

One significant finding of Patterson's research is that "the simple assessment of the liquids (detergents) when compared with the powders is that liquids present less of a sodium hazard than the powders”.

The other (perhaps) surprising finding is that "... there are very few essential plant nutrients in greywater and a lot of nasty sodium. Most of the benefit you see from using greywater is from the water, not what is in it.......so greywater is not a fertiliser and never will be!"