Help save my new lawn- water restrictions going up

[Coldamus]

Total waste of water. I have never watered my lawn, yet there is no discernable difference between it and the neighbours'. At my previous place, I used to watch the fellow across the street standing out in the rain holding an umbrella while he hosed the garden. Madness!

[JDub]

A lot of work but it is the best method for canberra. Sadly, if it has been laid on a little soil then nothing you do will save it.

Dazz (and others),
Thanks for the long reply, however I think you need to read the thread

The lawn is fine, its healthy and green, it was prepared well and is going great ATM.

This thread/question was originally asking the best way to water lawn using grey water or tank water since water restrictions will soon not allow use of potable water/sprinklers on lawns.

Good read for those wanting to know how to prepare and care for a lawn though

Going to check out Doughboys simple grey water set up on the weekend

[Stringy]

JDub,

Set up a cheap diversion system for Shwr, bth and sink as well as laundary. We have just gone to a new bin system in Mus so the ones used are surplus to those that could be found sitting on the footpath.

When water restrictions are finished , the diversions will stay. I have buffalo and it loves the soapes etc and we use napisan a couple of times a week with no probs on the lawn. I have been told not to let the grey water near native plants.

hose from the bins is 19mm poly, under $3 for 20m. I give the bathroom bin a rinse out on the lawn every 2weeks as it dose start to smell.

Laundary.

[ATTACH]Attachment 35373[/ATTACH]

Bathroom.

[ATTACH]Attachment 35375[/ATTACH]

[JDub]

Thanks for the pics stringy,

Looks very similar to what I am planning.....

How are you distributing the water from the hose (poly) outlet of the drums/bins to the garden/lawn? Gravity or pump?

[Stringy]

It's all downhill for me, the hose is poked into the side of the drum no sealant required as the hole is slightly smaller than the poly, about half way up this gives a little more height and enough head to handle the washing machine/bath dump without overflowing.

pumping it up to your front lawn without it costing a bomb is another issue, wife + bucket . You could suggest that it is a new expensive exercise regime .

[dazzler]

Hi JDub

Sorry I should have made my message a little clearer.

If you have not done this or very similar;


1. Rotary hoe to at least 4inches. This may include using a kanga jackhammer or similar to break it up first. Rake smooth, dont roll.

2. Go to corkhills and get some of thier vegie mix soil. Lay this to at least the thickness of a brick laid on its side. (4"?)Rake smooth, dont roll.

Then no matter what you do you will struggle once the lawn gets on a bit.

Consider this advice a sidetrack..

Aeration / dethatching is also a really good idea so that the water that you do use doesnt just run off. Once it is aerated top dress with sand so that the holes dont fill up again with soil.

Best of luck with the canberra summer, hope it doesnt get too hot.

[reybec]

we're in the same boat except we're now on level 4 restrictions.

we planted 2 small areas of turf complete with irrigation but as we can only bucket water between certain hours the lawn suffered and died.

but the weeds are flourishing in its place
don't the weeds need water also?:confused:

[Shedhand]

Watering lawns is a total waste of resources. We let ours brown off over summer. It greens up when the winter rains come. We only hand water our garden which is mostly native plants anyway. Whatever grass we have was here when we bought the place so I have no idee what breed it is. If you insist on watering the lawn at least put a sheep on it that way you can butcher it and get something useful out of something useless (lawn).

[Simomatra]

we're in the same boat except we're now on level 4 restrictions.

we planted 2 small areas of turf complete with irrigation but as we can only bucket water between certain hours the lawn suffered and died.

but the weeds are flourishing in its place
don't the weeds need water also?:confused:

I can vouch for that. We have all but lost all the lawn and most of my Azaleas etc.

Now it has rained some the lwan grub is tyring to destroy the last roots of lawn I have.

A tank has been ordered but there is a long delay. Using the grey sytem to save some of the plants

Praying for more rain

[corbs]

Timely thread for me. I will be building out at Bungendore next year and have been looking into grey water systems and there is some good reading here. The link below goes to a fact sheet on grey water use from the ACT govt. I am planning on an underground soaker irrigation system for the new place and was interested in how to go about it. More research to do but will be keeping an eye on this thread.

http://www.health.act.gov.au/c/healt...103672000&sid=


Corbs

[atregent]

I was shocked to learn that my washing machine uses about 150-200l per load, so I did a bit of digging to find out about grey water usage.

I found a fantastic thing that processes and stores grey water so that you can use it whenever and wherever you want. Better than a rain water tank, they only work if it rains!

Check out http://www.perpetualwater.com.au. I thought it was the answer to my prayers, until I found out it costs about $15k....

[rapapa]

Use of greywater is great. If you are going to do the lawn you may as well plumb up to your trees and shrubs also. We have been on level 4 for a while so we aren't allowed to water at all. The only thing I would add is you check out site http://www.lanfaxlabs.com.au/ for a list of friendly soaps that will be ok for natives etc. Also our local council offers a 'Water Bank' scheme where you buy extra water from town water and they then use that money to ship in water from another source to replenish the amount you have used.

[Tekskelator]

nice lawn. We put down Sir Walter buffalo 2 years ago. I have no problem keeping it green with minimal watering (once per fortnight atm)

We have that Canberra blend stuff in the front yard, and its near impossible to keep green atm.

My advice is to consider the type of turf you are putting in before having to go to the expense of alterntive watering methods later.

But hey, its only my opinon. Best of luck with your quest.

[SilentButDeadly]

We used to have very similar set-up to Stringy's......just for the washing machine mind you. WM pipe went out through the window and discharged into a plastic rubbish bin sitting on a couple of concrete blocks. A thru hull fitting from the boat shop in the bottom of the bin was connected to 15m of 1" poly pipe - water drained out onto the lawn via gravity. The bin never overflowed despite there being no lint filter on it.......worked just fine.

Don't do it any longer due to different house and better washing machine - we now have a front loader which uses less than half of what the top loader did.

It amuses me that these fancy grey water systems often cost more than a plain old septic or biocycle style system........which has to deal with real grubby water. Some-one is seeing you city people coming!!!!

[Bec]

Our shower drains out strait onto the lawn. We have various hose lengths we can attach and move around so we don't get get just one lush green spot. No affect from shampoos and soaps that we can see. We also let the washing machine run off straight onto the lawn. We used some black irrigation hosing with a cheap sprinkler at the end to spread the water about. Gives the birds a bit of a shock with all of a sudden water comes squirting out. We found the sprinkler attachment wasn't good for the shower run off though as there wasn't enough pressue for it to work effectively which resulted in the water backing up in the shower. We have a nice green lawn.