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Grey water on gardens
"Staycalm" wrote in message u... I'm interested in some low cost solutions to using our grey water. Anyone got any hints on how to go about it? Good website references would help too. What sort of detergent is best when on this system? Liz if you want to use grey water for the sake of reducing your water usage a simple option is to have a system that recycles it to flush the toilet. The grey water ends up in waste treatment but has had two cycles through your house rather than one. The same amount of water does 2 jobs rather than 1. This will avoid some of the questions as to what you can spread on your garden. If you want to water your garden that is a different matter. Some system of rainwater harvesting may be more straight forward and chances are the quality of rain water will be better than grey water. rob |
Grey water on gardens
I'm interested in some low cost solutions to using our grey water. Anyone
got any hints on how to go about it? Good website references would help too. What sort of detergent is best when on this system? Liz |
Grey water on gardens
Staycalm wrote:
I'm interested in some low cost solutions to using our grey water. Anyone got any hints on how to go about it? Good website references would help too. http://www.greywaterreuse.com.au/ I attended a saturday workshop with Ross, and he really knows his stuff. Essentially (from memory): * don't use greywater from your kitchen sink. This water probably accounts for less than 10% of your greywater production, but the grease and crud in your sink water will probably give you 90% of the problems * don't use on your vege garden. That is the official word, although lots of people do. As long as you are using drippers it is probably fine, maybe not for root veg * if you can use a gravity feed system it will save you a great deal in setup and maintenance costs * don't mix greywater with rainwater * don't save your greywater too long. Empty the tank daily is ideal, although your plants are probably better off on a 3 day cycle. Perhaps if you rotate the watering zone... * your greywater collection system must overflow back into the sewer * other stuff that I have forgotten (I haven't actually implemented a greywater system) If you are in Perth Ross will come out and prepare a greywater plan for your block for a very reasonable fee. What sort of detergent is best when on this system? Ross showed us a table which had all the brands cross referenced against phosphates and other salts. A lot of the brands increased salts when they reduced phosphates and that is bad for your garden. The liquid detergents however had much lower salt levels, so a good rule of thumb is to use a liquid detergent and you should be fine. |
Grey water on gardens
"Staycalm" writes:
I'm interested in some low cost solutions to using our grey water. Anyone got any hints on how to go about it? Good website references would help too. What sort of detergent is best when on this system? You might get more ideas if you indicate whether your water contains powdered dishwasher detergent, and whether you are dependent on rain water tanks or have town water. Also, "garden" is a very broad description including everything from gum trees to delicate herbs. It's best to avoid grey water on edible crops and where it might splash onto edible parts of plants. But if you are sparing in use of detergents and use almost no chemical pot cleanser, then kitchen sink water is fine for flowering shrubs (e.g., camelias) and fruit trees (e.g., stonefruit, citrus). Ditto for laundry water. After all, the alternative is death by desiccation. As others recommend, alternate the grey water with fresh as much as possible. Use plenty of mulch around your plants to reduce moisture loss and to encourage microorganisms that will breakdown the organic stuff in the water. -- John Savage (my news address is not valid for email) |
Grey water on gardens
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Grey water on gardens
"Chookie" wrote in message ... In article .com, wrote: * don't use on your vege garden. That is the official word, although lots of people do. As long as you are using drippers it is probably fine, maybe not for root veg From what I understand, the fear is that some of your intestinal bugs have made it into the water from the shower, or via your clothes, and will then give you gastro when you eat the vegies that they have landed on. accepting this may in fact be true, what I wonder is if the greebies eminated from me in the first place, how would eating food soaked in these greebies further harm me? If they are inside me, surely the effect would be the same once they re-enter me in food? rob |
Grey water on gardens
"Chookie" wrote in
From what I understand, the fear is that some of your intestinal bugs have made it into the water from the shower, or via your clothes, and will then give you gastro when you eat the vegies that they have landed on. Given that most keen gardeners shovel you-know-what on their gardens anyway, this seems a bit hysterical. I wrote to Gardening Australia once asking why a bit of human faecal matter was such a worry given Pete's enthusiasm for ordure, and they said they were just following what the water/health authorities said. They carefully refrained from comment on the realities of gardening! Did you see the show where Peter went to a garden that was vitually run on grey water (maybe 2-3 months ago)? Very lush but the veggie garden had become water repellant. Cundall said that it was because of the chemicals in the grey water and not to use it any more. |
Grey water on gardens
"George.com" wrote in message
"Chookie" wrote in message From what I understand, the fear is that some of your intestinal bugs have made it into the water from the shower, or via your clothes, and will then give you gastro when you eat the vegies that they have landed on. accepting this may in fact be true, what I wonder is if the greebies eminated from me in the first place, how would eating food soaked in these greebies further harm me? If they are inside me, surely the effect would be the same once they re-enter me in food? Are you the only one who washes their hands in your house or uses the shower? Are you the only one who eats the veg from your garden? I don't think I'd like to have a salad at a house where they were using untreated grey water on their veg. |
Grey water on gardens
"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message
... "George.com" wrote in message "Chookie" wrote in message From what I understand, the fear is that some of your intestinal bugs have made it into the water from the shower, or via your clothes, and will then give you gastro when you eat the vegies that they have landed on. accepting this may in fact be true, what I wonder is if the greebies eminated from me in the first place, how would eating food soaked in these greebies further harm me? If they are inside me, surely the effect would be the same once they re-enter me in food? Are you the only one who washes their hands in your house or uses the shower? Are you the only one who eats the veg from your garden? I don't think I'd like to have a salad at a house where they were using untreated grey water on their veg. Grey water would be suitable for citrus and other fruit trees wouldn't it? Liz |
Grey water on gardens
"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message ... "George.com" wrote in message "Chookie" wrote in message From what I understand, the fear is that some of your intestinal bugs have made it into the water from the shower, or via your clothes, and will then give you gastro when you eat the vegies that they have landed on. accepting this may in fact be true, what I wonder is if the greebies eminated from me in the first place, how would eating food soaked in these greebies further harm me? If they are inside me, surely the effect would be the same once they re-enter me in food? Are you the only one who washes their hands in your house or uses the shower? Are you the only one who eats the veg from your garden? I don't think I'd like to have a salad at a house where they were using untreated grey water on their veg. Me and my wife only. I would think that anything she has, or vice versa, we would share through daily contact or more amorous adventures. I accept your statement about sharing with other people. Still, if only me and the better 1/2 I still don't see that it would be bad for us. Doesn't mean I will use grey water on the garden. rob |
Grey water on gardens
Chookie wrote:
The bananas look fine so far... You've got BANANAS?! You are a rich man! I hope they're insured and registered. will you auction them off on eBay? -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy |
Grey water on gardens
"Staycalm" wrote in message
"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message "George.com" wrote in message accepting this may in fact be true, what I wonder is if the greebies eminated from me in the first place, how would eating food soaked in these greebies further harm me? If they are inside me, surely the effect would be the same once they re-enter me in food? Are you the only one who washes their hands in your house or uses the shower? Are you the only one who eats the veg from your garden? I don't think I'd like to have a salad at a house where they were using untreated grey water on their veg. Grey water would be suitable for citrus and other fruit trees wouldn't it? Yes. But do note the comments by John Savage and Chookie's comment about soap choice. |
Grey water on gardens
"George.com" wrote in message
"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message Are you the only one who washes their hands in your house or uses the shower? Are you the only one who eats the veg from your garden? I don't think I'd like to have a salad at a house where they were using untreated grey water on their veg. Me and my wife only. I would think that anything she has, or vice versa, we would share through daily contact or more amorous adventures. Maybe, but I suspect that some of the gut goobies can be person specific. For example, if your wife picks up Giardia someplace, I'm not sure if she can give it to you by just day to day contact but it can live in her gut for months unless treated. I know someone who had it for months but her partner never got it. I know that it can survive for months in the "wild". I accept your statement about sharing with other people. Still, if only me and the better 1/2 I still don't see that it would be bad for us. Doesn't mean I will use grey water on the garden. No. Worth exploring though but I'd want to know lots about it before I'd try it on veg. |
Grey water on gardens
In article , "ant"
wrote: Chookie wrote: The bananas look fine so far... You've got BANANAS?! You are a rich man! I hope they're insured and registered. will you auction them off on eBay? Woman :-) They're the little sugar bananas, and there are no bananas there yet. In Sydney, it can take 18 months to get from flower to eating. -- Chookie -- Sydney, Australia (Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply) "Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled." Kerry Cue |
Grey water on gardens
In article , "George.com"
wrote: accepting this may in fact be true, what I wonder is if the greebies eminated from me in the first place, how would eating food soaked in these greebies further harm me? If they are inside me, surely the effect would be the same once they re-enter me in food? They belong at the lower end of your digestive tract, and cause problems if they get into the upper part. -- Chookie -- Sydney, Australia (Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply) "Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled." Kerry Cue |
Grey water on gardens
"ant" wrote in message ... George.com wrote: "Chookie" wrote in message They belong at the lower end of your digestive tract, and cause problems if they get into the upper part. I will defer to your superior knowledge on this. Best way I think, in an urban area at least, to use grey water is to use it a second time around to flush the toilet. When my tank got very low a few years back, that's exactly what I did. I put tubs in the shower to get the water, then put that water into the cistern. running slap bang in the centre of hamilton is a big river that is never liable to run dry from which the city draws all its water. The major constraint on water usage is actually capacity issues of drawing out and treating drinking water, rather than low flows. Major upgrades of treatment stations are needed every so many years to keep pace with growing demand. Given such a scenario, it strikes me the best way to dramatically conserve water is not to put grey water out on to gardens but to use it twice over through the house with a low flush bog. Alternately a compost toilet and rainwater for drinking/watering the garden with grey water out in to the garden. A closed cycle like that is long term sustainably desirable. The reflow through the bog idea perhaps more straight forward and likely to reduce water usage in our city by around 30-40%. rob |
Grey water on gardens
"Chookie" wrote in message ... In article .com, wrote: * don't use on your vege garden. That is the official word, although lots of people do. As long as you are using drippers it is probably fine, maybe not for root veg From what I understand, the fear is that some of your intestinal bugs have made it into the water from the shower, or via your clothes, and will then give you gastro when you eat the vegies that they have landed on. Given that most keen gardeners shovel you-know-what on their gardens anyway, this seems a bit hysterical. I wrote to Gardening Australia once asking why a bit of human faecal matter was such a worry given Pete's enthusiasm for ordure, and they said they were just following what the water/health authorities said. They carefully refrained from comment on the realities of gardening! Simon Toze (CSIRO) has looked at some of the issues involved with grey-water recycling and health issues. http://tinyurl.com/f2wgq I think treatment is the key |
Grey water on gardens
"Chookie" wrote in message ... In article , "George.com" wrote: accepting this may in fact be true, what I wonder is if the greebies eminated from me in the first place, how would eating food soaked in these greebies further harm me? If they are inside me, surely the effect would be the same once they re-enter me in food? They belong at the lower end of your digestive tract, and cause problems if they get into the upper part. I will defer to your superior knowledge on this. Best way I think, in an urban area at least, to use grey water is to use it a second time around to flush the toilet. rob |
Grey water on gardens
George.com wrote:
"Chookie" wrote in message They belong at the lower end of your digestive tract, and cause problems if they get into the upper part. I will defer to your superior knowledge on this. Best way I think, in an urban area at least, to use grey water is to use it a second time around to flush the toilet. When my tank got very low a few years back, that's exactly what I did. I put tubs in the shower to get the water, then put that water into the cistern. -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy |
Grey water on gardens
George.com wrote:
"ant" wrote in message ... George.com wrote: "Chookie" wrote in message They belong at the lower end of your digestive tract, and cause problems if they get into the upper part. I will defer to your superior knowledge on this. Best way I think, in an urban area at least, to use grey water is to use it a second time around to flush the toilet. When my tank got very low a few years back, that's exactly what I did. I put tubs in the shower to get the water, then put that water into the cistern. running slap bang in the centre of hamilton is a big river that is never liable to run dry from which the city draws all its water. The major constraint on water usage is actually capacity issues of drawing out and treating drinking water, rather than low flows. Major upgrades of treatment stations are needed every so many years to keep pace with growing demand. Given such a scenario, it strikes me the best way to dramatically conserve water is not to put grey water out on to gardens but to use it twice over through the house with a low flush bog. Alternately a compost toilet and rainwater for drinking/watering the garden with grey water out in to the garden. A closed cycle like that is long term sustainably desirable. The reflow through the bog idea perhaps more straight forward and likely to reduce water usage in our city by around 30-40%. My water got used 3 times actually. The fresh stuff was my shower, then that went into the toilet cistern. Which all goes into a bio-cycle-type system, which then comes out as garden irrigation water. -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy |
Grey water on gardens
George.com wrote:
running slap bang in the centre of hamilton is a big river that is never liable to run dry from which the city draws all its water. The major constraint on water usage is actually capacity issues of drawing out and treating drinking water, rather than low flows. Major upgrades of treatment stations are needed every so many years to keep pace with growing demand. Given such a scenario, it strikes me the best way to dramatically conserve water is not to put grey water out on to gardens but to use it twice over through the house with a low flush bog. With such abundant water your outlook is no doubt somewhat different from many of us. Here in Perth we are looking at building a desalinator to extract drinking water from cockburn sound. There is talk of complete bans on watering gardens. Using greywater to flush the loo is great, but wouldn't use more than a fraction of our greywater. On the subject of using greywater for flushing, I saw a neat little trick in Tokyo. The sink in the toilet drains to the cistern, so as you wash your hands the water helps refill the tank for the next flush. |
Grey water on gardens
Not sure what has already been said, but I would not use grey water on any
natives. Soap detergents have phosphates in them, phosphates harm a lot of our native plants, therefore if you have natives (which we should all have over those crappy foreign "exotic" things) you may find they kark it. Cheers, Clint "Staycalm" wrote in message u... "Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message ... "George.com" wrote in message "Chookie" wrote in message From what I understand, the fear is that some of your intestinal bugs have made it into the water from the shower, or via your clothes, and will then give you gastro when you eat the vegies that they have landed on. accepting this may in fact be true, what I wonder is if the greebies eminated from me in the first place, how would eating food soaked in these greebies further harm me? If they are inside me, surely the effect would be the same once they re-enter me in food? Are you the only one who washes their hands in your house or uses the shower? Are you the only one who eats the veg from your garden? I don't think I'd like to have a salad at a house where they were using untreated grey water on their veg. Grey water would be suitable for citrus and other fruit trees wouldn't it? Liz |
Grey water on gardens
Clinton M James wrote:
Not sure what has already been said, but I would not use grey water on any natives. Soap detergents have phosphates in them, phosphates harm a lot of our native plants, therefore if you have natives (which we should all have over those crappy foreign "exotic" things) you may find they kark it. Almost all the plants in our garden are either edible, scented or decidous. Ideally a combination of the above :-) Itis very hard to meet these criteria with a native garden, and I don't suffer any major guilt episodes over our terraformed backyard. But no, natives won't like the phosphates. The banksias that are native to our area are particularly prone to fertiliser poisoning. |
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