Gray Water – What is it and How Can It Help Your Garden?
If you have ever tried to keep a garden alive during a drought… or experienced the shock of receiving a high water bill during a hot dry summer, then you need to know about gray water.
Gray water is not actually gray in color. Instead, this is a term which refers to water that as already been used in the house which is then able to be recycled for use on your lawn and garden. A lot of water used in a standard American home can be reused to water the garden.
Now there are different regulations and laws for gray water usage across the country, so you’ll need to consult with your local city authority before starting to use gray water in your own gardens. It’s also considered best to avoid using it in vegetable and food gardens.
For flowers, trees, grass, and other non-edible lawn and garden areas though, using gray water can mean the difference between a healthy green garden or a dead one.
Most gray water comes from the bath and shower in your home. Some places also allow washing machine and dishwasher run off to be used as gray water too. If you use any of these sources to water your lawn and garden though, it is safest to choose soaps and other cleansers which are non-toxic or biodegradable and not harmful to the environment.
When a house is set up to use gray water for the yard and garden, it is simply rerouting used water to those areas instead of letting it go down the drain into the sewage system. After taking a bath for instance, when the tub is drained of water that water may go out a hose which leads to a tank or garden area. Alternatively, the pipes which connect the bathtub to the sewage system may simply be rerouted to a tank or garden area instead.
The same type of set up is done for showers too, and washing machines or dishwashers. Water from your toilet is not used for watering the lawn or garden areas though, because this is considered hazardous waste material. Human waste materials from the toilet can create diseases and other major health hazards. It may be of interest that grey water from other areas in the house can be used for the toilet.
It is these health hazards which also cause some authorities to be very strict about the usage of gray water. Many areas for instance, will not allow water from the dishwasher to be run into the yard and garden area because there could be hazardous germs and contamination risks.
In some areas, gray water is only allowed to be used with certain other conditions and restrictions too. You may be required for instance, to make sure your gray water run off is a minimum distance away from your neighbor’s yard.
For the best results in your garden, when you use gray water be sure that it has cooled to a luke warm temperature before it is drained into your garden. Sending very hot water to your plants and flowers will shock and kill them. This is easiest to accomplish by rerouting the grey water to a tank first, and the water from the tank is then used to water the garden.
