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The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers

Greywater Systems

The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers

Epic Gardening

Home & Garden, Education, Leisure, How To

4.81.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There are many different kinds of greywater systems and ways to employ them in a garden. Martha uses greywater from her washing machine to water her fruit trees. She reaps other benefits, too, including financial incentives! EG shop homepage: https://growepic.co/3QutqqV EG book collection page: https://growepic.co/47npgad EG homesteading book: https://growepic.co/3ON9vT0 Learn More: Collecting Rainwater: Hints, Tips, And Tricks https://growepic.co/3qu1J6V Connect With Martha Retallick: Martha Retallick is named for her great grandmother, a Victory Gardener who fed eight people from her plot in the blizzard capital of America, Buffalo, New York. With that level of determination in her DNA, Martha has to find ways to make gardening work. Even in Tucson, Arizona. She’ll reveal her secret superpower, water harvesting, during her “Epic Gardening” appearance. Western Sky Communications Web Site Book Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 5% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If capturing rainwater is a bit intimidating to you, there's simple ways that you can

0:16.7

repurpose city water, back out into the garden, and the most common way, of course, would

0:21.4

be a great water system.

0:24.0

We have Martha Vitale back on the show, authored the new book, City Nature, which explains

0:29.6

the rationale for water harvesting and how she approached it in Tucson, Arizona.

0:34.0

So you mentioned at the beginning of this week, Martha, you have your laundry gray water

0:38.6

system.

0:39.6

Do you mind just kind of taking us through the basic setup?

0:41.4

Okay.

0:42.4

I have gray water harvesting off my washing machine.

0:47.0

And what that means is instead of sending water down the drain and into the county sewer

0:53.6

system, which I can do, I can divert that water.

0:59.4

There's a two-way valve, it's a plumbing valve that I had installed, to another drain pipe

1:05.0

that goes out of the house and connects with irrigation lines that go out to three fruit

1:10.6

trees.

1:11.6

I have a Meyer lemon, a black mission fig, and a pomegranate.

1:18.8

And their primary water source is the washing machine water.

1:22.5

Now, here's the thing with washing machine water.

1:24.8

You don't want to just throw any old detergent in there.

1:28.6

I would very strongly recommend, read your ingredients carefully.

1:33.2

A lot of detergents, a lot of soaps have sodium in them, and that's not good for plants.

1:37.9

Don't ask me how I know that.

...

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