We use lots and lots of water to wash cloths- Pay for using the water and disposing it. Due to the high price of water in BUTLER COUNTY (OHIO), I am thinking why not use this water to drain out into flower beds. Has any one done this? Any precautions to be taken? Do I need to 'filter' the water?
Redirecting the discharge of the washing machine can be good for plants that like alkaline conditions. Remember the washing machine also cleans out our pipes so once in a while use it to flush your sewer lines.
Do you regular detergent and liquid fabric softener? How do you deal with loads that use hot water and chlorine bleach?
In some of the places I've lived I've used the gray water to not only water my flower beds, but even my lawns and no matter what I had in the water, it gets so deluted between the two cycles that it didn't bother anything. And as that one user says, her canna ( what color? get seeds? ) love the water.
liquid concentrated stuff I get at Sams, and yes, whatever gallon of softener they have cheaper. no water softener, I have well water. and my kitchen sink also empties out this same pipe, and if I were to shower in the teensy weensy shower downstairs for apparently the tiny little woman who originally lived here, that would go out the pipe too, and the utility sink water. but just the kitchen sink and washer. How do you deal with
doesn't seem to affect the plants that I know of. The canna's seem to adore cleaning this sludge and stuff up. It doesn't stink like you would think. It's just mucky and boggy. And since my kitchen sink empties there too, I tend to mush up the stuff and hot water it down the drain. I don't use drain cleaner, but if I do grease, I cut it with Dawn first and that breaks it up to rinse down the pipes and outside. So far, so good..........my next experiment will be the Cardinal flower I got today in the trash at work. It adores boggy places.......will let you know if it thrives. maddie
Old fashioned Indian shot canna (green leaves, gets up to 15 foot high with red flowers, seeds are hard enough to be fired outa a muzzle loader rifle., which they did back in the Civil war days) and Bengal Tiger or Praetoria that has adjusted to my zone. Alas the Tropicanna Canna said screw you this winter and never returned but provided some nice humusy remains to feed my two large babies. Holler at me and I'll send you current pictures.......I'm tempted to plant another hardy canna there just for contrast. A dark leaf variety that has a red flower.............digging in that muck is interesting. And I dig canna's double shovel deep. maddie (if I get seeds, I'll holler)
zone 7, Eastern Tennessee, you see lots of varieties of canna's around here that are left in the clay soil. planted even around mailboxes. and nope, but I did lose the Tropicanna I put in with the big boys........I'm trying another kind that has a dark purplish red leaf named Futility? Futurity? red flowers, AWESOME visual. maddie
pictures.......I'm
I had a lot of that canna at one time, but I left them in the ground and they didin't survive. They are increadible growers. If you are looking for a nice red one with dark leaves, I would recommend Black Knight. Mine just started to bloom this week. Here is link to a picture:
I have seen acres of cannas planted in the medians of freeways in Eastern Tennessee.
maddie
I had yellow futurity and it grew like crazy, multiplying four-fold in a year. I dug them but failed to get them out of the garage before a very early cold snap occurred and killed them.
Hay, got a deal for you, if you tell me you'll save the seeds for me this summer, and send me your address is personal e-mail, I'll send you a start of the Omega canna I sell.
pictures.......I'm
Dump a load of leaves over the area for winter and if you have a water hose on the drain, send the water to another part of the garden so the canna rhizomes don't freeze. Out here I cove'm with leaves,straw,steer manure and come spring and good warm temps they reach for the sky.
we use all our grey water here, it all goes to plants mostly fruit trees and pumpkin vines etc.,. we have found that even wioth normal wash detergents we can cut down the recommended rate of use to about
1/3. we now make our own pure soap based detergent that works very well indead. but from our experience you don't need filters, i would suggest that you not run it in the same place all the time move it about to share it around.len
snipped
The BT & PT canna don't do well here at all, they get sunburned. I had a good plant of BT and after the first hard week of our desert sun, it was toast. I might have the dark one, some where sent to me last year and they bloomed. This year the high winds we had ripped them up a lot and they are just starting to show life again. That green with orange flowers I don't have.
My addy is real too, it's just a 3rd party spam filter/good mail forward outfit that's free.
First off make sure the plants you are watering like alkaline conditions. Lint is part of the discharge so every once in a while you have to pick it up. One thing to remember is washing machines flush out your sewer lines so reconnect it every couple of weeks to flush the lines especially the kitchen line.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.