Watering with the washing machine

[Blowmax10]

I like my new place in the middle of nowhere outside of the Saguaro national park - The washing machine here is set up to dump waste in the middle of the back yard with a healthy amount of grass growing around the spout

I'm wondering if I could use the waste pipe to grow a garden

I'm willing to do a bit of plumbing

I guess my question is will the soap be unhealthy for the plants? or the consumption of the food? I realize I shouldn't use bleach for this but what about the soap and the fabric softener?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I like my new place in the middle of nowhere outside of the Saguaro national park - The washing machine here is set up to dump waste in the middle of the back yard with a healthy amount of grass growing around the spout

I'm wondering if I could use the waste pipe to grow a garden

I'm willing to do a bit of plumbing

I guess my question is will the soap be unhealthy for the plants? or the consumption of the food? I realize I shouldn't use bleach for this but what about the soap and the fabric softener?

My Great Gandma used all her washing machine, bathwater and dishwater to use in the garden with no ill effects
I would no water with it from the top but from ground level or below using a soaker hose

[harrya]

Great idea. Just don't let anyone know it. EPA would have a fit and probably fine you to boot. At 30 gal per load, that's a lot of irrigation for free. You could move the hose end around a bit or use a hose with holes in it.
Been in your neck of the woods (or should I say cactus) & my bro-in-law did the same for his fruit trees and small garden in Tucson.

[goatlady]

Soapy water should be no problem since they changed the formulation of all the laundry soaps a few years ago. Would NOT use fabric softeners though.

[Hawk_308]

I used the AC condesation for the garden , it gets me 3-7 gals a day . It would be usless if things go to hell but it saves some resources now that in turn puts a bit of capital in my pocket to distribute where its more needed .

[thedreamers]

I'd run it thru some kind of filter to get stuff from clogging the hose.

[dilli]

there are plenty of "green" soaps to make or use out there that will not harm plants in the least. Heck even the five gallon make your own is perfectly safe and harmless... back when we had a real washer we just ran the pipe out then reduced it down so that we could use a garden hose and let it run where we wanted it too, never had an issue with it..

these days I do it all by hand and just use 5 gallon buckets for watering

[EX121]

We used to use the wash water, before we had to move to town. We ran the drain hose thru a fishtank filter and then into a pickle barrel & watered by hand from there. I had planned to set up a gravity system to do the garden but never got around to it.
Try doing a internet search for greywater use.
Good luck.

[kappydell]

EPA is a bunch of killjoys. Yes, you can irrigate with wash water, it is called 'grey water' and back in the day when water pollution was going to kill us all, quite a few folks did it. The only thing they did NOT do was use water from the toilets (called black water) due to high levels of germs possibly contaminating things; although with care (see the book Humanure) it can be done. You can use the water you wash dishes in, also - in fact, my grandmother told me she used it after washing to scrub the porch floor, and it ran off and watered the herbs planted along the porch edges. She also used it to water her berry bushes.
My Kitchen sink wash water still does go out to a gray water 'dry well' much to the disgust of the local DNR - it is old it got grandfathered through the more recent regs....

[brokedownbiker]

We used to use the wash water, before we had to move to town. We ran the drain hose thru a fishtank filter and then into a pickle barrel & watered by hand from there. I had planned to set up a gravity system to do the garden but never got around to it.
Try doing a internet search for greywater use.
Good luck.

This. Or run the water into a sump of some kind to allow settling of debris and caking of any soap residues, then either water by hand or attach a spigot and use a hose to reach your garden.

[mtnmom5]

I have washed outdoors as well and the water can't be too bad for stuff as everything is always lush around the washer. I am thinking,too, if you stored it in a container of any sort, the scum will rise and you can dish it off the top. It could become stinky though if it's stored too long, unless you use a very mild soap of some kind or even a homemade soap.