After being inspired by this book last fall, I built an area to absorb and consume the greywater from our kitchen sink. That post is here.
Take a look at the pictures on my previous post… and now look at this:
Amazing. The bananas, malanga, papaya and bulrushes are eating everything, including the dishwasher’s soapy overflow. I was worried about salinity but it doesn’t seem to be a problem thus far.
Lots of food slop is underneath the mulch bed, but the plants are happily soaking it up. And the area doesn’t smell – and the slop isn’t noticeable unless you dig.
Very cool.
2 comments
I also have a greywater experiment. I took the output of our washer (using greywater safe detergent)) and ran it out to two peach trees and one lemon tree. They are downhill from the house and run through a heavily mulched area before hitting the tree. The jury is still out. The peach trees have been alive for about 10 years with a few very productive years but most years the buds freeze off the trees. I just put the meyer lemon in last year. Not sure how it will do.
Good for you! Our washing machine is running on homemade soap so it's greywater safe… but it's tucked in the middle of the house so I'm unable to run the water out, dang it.
Your peaches should love the good watering, though the lemon may not.
If it starts yellowing out (and you know it's had enough fertilization), that means it's getting too much moisture. A friend of mine had three of his citrus do that after directing water from his nursery paths their way.
We've had problems with losing peach buds both in TN and in FL. They really don't do well at staying asleep and waiting until a GOOD time to bloom! They go… "Hey… it's February… and it's a bit warm today… heck, I think I'll bloom!" Then BLAM! NO PEACHES! Persimmons are much better at timing their fruiting.
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