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Grow Food with Greywater

Edible Baja Arizona

09/05/2014

Outdoor shower Three Simple Systems for $50 or Less

By Lisa Shipek

WHEN YOU USE GREYWATER, you can turn the drudgery of household chores into gardening. My husband and I joke about doing dishes: “Whose turn is it to water the pomegranate?” I love hearing the sound of dishwater draining and knowing it’s going outside to our garden.

We wash our dirty laundry in batches in the morning or evening hours—the best time to irrigate our fruit grove filled with Kino Heritage figs and pomegranates, peaches, and grapes. In the winter when some of the trees are dormant, the greywater grows gorgeous Sonoran wheat.

Summer showers are my favorite—I bathe in my outdoor shower while enjoying the beauty of a huge Meyer lemon tree that is soaking up all my bath water. Added bonus—this outdoor shower doesn’t need to be scrubbed clean.

By harvesting greywater to grow food, I am conserving our most precious resource and saving money on my water bill.

You can start using greywater in your garden today. Here are three simple ways to begin using materials around your house or simple parts from a hardware store—all for less than $50.

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