Bon, is the grey water just coming from the sink and washing machine? if it is i think you could water fruit trees with it, but what is the councils regulations on this? have it going to a far back corner with fruit trees in it?

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Fruit and vegetables from the washing machine
The other rather easy thing you could do is buy a fruit tree or two and stick them in the ground close to your washing machine. The nursery at Northey Street City Farm sells baby trees from $10 and up. But if you want to do it for free it’s relatively easy. Northey Street’s Dick Copeman recommends diverting the water from your washing machine into the garden and planting fruit trees there. All you need is some grey water hose to connect to your washing machine.
grey-water-hose-medium

“But,” says Copeman, “you need to move the flow of the water every month or so in order that the earth doesn’t get waterlogged and the natural bacteria in the earth have time to rejuvenate.”

Imagine having fruit trees that easily? We haven’t planted ours yet, but we’ve decided to do it just outside the laundry without telling the landlord. We have saved some seeds from custard apples and paw-paws to plant and are going to buy a baby banana tree from Northey Street. I hope the landlord isn’t reading because we aren’t going to ask. But who would object to having bananas, paw-paws and custard apple growing happily in the garden?

Collect the water from the kitchen sink and stick it on the plants.
The other very useful one is saving water from your kitchen sink. Use a bucket to wash up in, and save the water in a bigger bin outside to water your plants and your compost.

Links
http://www.guildonline.net/sgdsp/dispsite.php?groupsiteseq=21&pageseq=80 – info from it
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=72&m=4589&ps=20&dm=1&pd=2&am=4589#m4589
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=72&m=6852&ps=20&dm=1&pd=2&am=6852#m6852

anymore questions i am happy to try and answer them. ill most probably learn alot about this a tafe over the next 3 yrs.

also bon make sure its doesn’t come in contact with them do you know the black agi pipe put that under the ground where you want it and have some pvc piping going into that from the Grey water collector pipe.
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1366316.htm

bon008 said:

Oh, I just remembered I have a gardening question for you all.. gotta stop thinking about Hugh :D

I’ve got my greywater driplines all installed, but it’s not switched on yet. I was planning to put some lattice down to stop the dog from burying pigs ears etc where the grey water goes. However I spoke to my dad today and he thought it’s no big deal – think’s if the dog is going to bury her food in manure, that will have worse pathogens than a bit of greywater.

What do you guys reckon? I can see my dad’s POV but I’m a little cautious because of how worried Health Depts are about greywater..

I should add, this is a no-tank system, so the water going out the garden has not been sitting around fermenting…

yep i would, i would even just water fruit trees with it.

Hi Veg,

Thanks for the info. I’m all up on greywater generally – it is a Health Dept approved system and can’t be installed or turned on without council permission. It’s distributed by purple dripline (has to be purple as that is the greywater colour), and will only be under mulch.

What I am not sure of is how much risk there is to the dog. I used to bucket my laundrywater out to the citrus before anyway, so it’s perfectly possible that I poured it in a spot where she had buried something. I’m less concerned now than I was then, because I was always a bit slow with the buckets so the greywater sat and got smelly for a bit. With this system it is pumped straight out to the garden without sitting first, so I’m inclined to think it won’t be too dangerous for her… just wondered if anybody else with a dog uses their greywater and whether it is a concern for them.