daidoji_gisei: (Cornflower field)
[personal profile] daidoji_gisei posting in [community profile] gardening
Crossposted from my journal.

My clothes washer is one of those little jobbies that has one hose you hook up to your kitchen faucet to pour water in and another you put in the sink for the water to drain out of. The water that drains out is graywater, water that has been used for something and is no longer drinkable. I have never given it much thought, but over the winter I came across a mention of someone using it to water her garden with. This got me thinking about the water I was pouring down the drain from my laundry, and the fact that I was already hand-carrying my water, one watering can at a time, to water my own garden. (When I do water my garden, that is. Not having a hose and sprinkler has made me a big fan of dryland agriculture.)

My bakery gets oil in 35# jugs, which holds about 30 pounds of water. I rounded up 4 of them and tonight I started my experiment in irrigation. After two loads of laundry I have determined that at its maximum fill my washing machine holds about 90# of water, or approximately 11 gallons. This completely fills 3 jugs, though partially filling 4 jugs works a little better because they are easier to carry. (I guess I should mention here that I am on the second floor, so I need to carry the jugs out of my kitchen, down the stairs, and out to the garden.) If I continue with this I expect that I will build up those muscles even more, allowing me to carry the full ones with less strain.

It will be interesting to see if I stick with this. Using my graywater will allow me to water my garden more often and more deeply without increasing my water usage, surely a win-win. Also, I am pretty sure hauling around 30# of water counts as a core-strengthening exercise: another benefit.
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