Greywater Garden

One thing I love is gardening. do as little work as possible, but give the soil some love, and either the right seeds or starters, and leave it go! Out in arid santa barbara, though, our gardens are artificial creations, illusions of a more temperate reality. So do we pipe in more water still from where it rightfully belongs? Why do we use culinary water, with all the energy intensive pumping and treating, to provide moisture from plants and soil with zero interest in mega-filtered, treated water? There's not much that's local about stealing water to keep food gardens not native to this climate.

So why not use greywater? When I wash dishes and rinse veggies, I use a ton of that culinary water, but it certainly doesn't need to be swept away to yet another energy intensive treatment facility. No, best would be to put that water to an appropriate use, and it seems to me that my little veggie garden is a perfect one. Save energy, save water, grow veggies. Here are my rules:

- Don't use chemical dishwash soap- I use oasis, designed to degrade to plant food

- Don't let the water sit for a long time, it needs to go straight to the soil!

So what I do, since I rent and am not a master of plumbing, is close the drain of the kitchen sink, wash my full batch of dishes, which about fills the sink. I use a 3 gallon bucket to transfer that water out to the garden. I don't do it every night, but every few days. By knowing that I'm not using any toxics, I have no problem putting the water in the garden, and with compost-rich soil in the garden, the extra nutrients of the greywater are getting eaten up by the soil microbes. I can't wait to eat some of those greens and tomatoes!

-Ed France