Washing Machine - Garden - Which power is safe?

[woodPixel]

I've been wanting to run the water from the washing machine into the garden for many years.

Trouble is that the commercial powder/liquids are saturated with salts and incredibly bad for it. I've looked in many places and cannot find a solution.

It occured to me that many on the forum must be from rural backgrounds, or have semi-rural setups. What do you do with water such as this? Obviously you wouldn't want to put it into the black water treatment pits/drums/holes as its a frigging big load of water if you have a busy wash day.

What power/solution/goo do people (their wives...) use?

TIA!

[BobL]

For the last 2 years we've a washing machine on the back patio that just pumps its wastewater onto the back lawn or onto a garden bed alongside the fence, doesn't seem to have harmed anything. It's mainly used to wash horse plants, coats and saddle cloths.

We use a brand called Earth Choice of liquid detergents (regular and wool wash) not because of any supposed eco friendliness but because it's cheap from a place called The Spud Shed where we also buy our fruit, veg and meat..

We use about half the recommended amount of detergent in all our washes including those in the washing machine in the house.

[damian]

I am on septic and have been for over 20 years (same house). I didn't care much for septic until I had one, now I reckon they are the best things ever. For a start I save about $400/yr on government ripoff sewer charges. I wish I could buck the water access fee aswell.

Anyway for years now I've used the hippie detergent. It's dear but gets my clothes clean. I have a front loader so it uses a fraction of the water of a top loader, there is a religious war for you...

Anyway enough waffle, to your question. I have been running the washer water straight onto my lemon tree for well maybe a decade. Yes detergent has alkalie salts but so what ? it's easy to correct the ph of your soil if it becomes a problem. All my grey water gets pumped out onto my garden.

Don't pump it onto acacias, grevillias and most eucalypts as they are phosphate sensitive. There is a paper online somewhere that talks about native phosphate sensitivity. Don't use grey water for edibles that grow in or touch teh ground. Carrots strawberries potatoes. It's fine for bushes and trees.