How do I use water from my laundry to water my garden?

Chase
by Chase
How do I get the water from my basement washer to the outdoor barrel? Can I use it to water vegetables?
  6 answers
  • Jane Butler Jane Butler on Aug 05, 2015
    Not if it has soap of any kind in it. Soap contains sophates, which will kill all plants.
  • White Oak Studio Designs White Oak Studio Designs on Aug 05, 2015
    Many communities have laws against using gray water. I personally would not use my wash water for plants; think soaps, bleach, solvents and fibers. Our washer water goes into an underground gray water tank. If you need a way to gather water think of collecting water off of a roof. This is our rainwater collection system, collects off metal pole barn roof.
    • York Gardener York Gardener on Aug 05, 2015
      @White Oak Studio Designs There are many communities that treat their sewage water and then pipe it out to be used for landscape purposes. I would think that they actually know which detergents/soaps/etc are okay and don't have to be removed.
  • Janet Pizaro Janet Pizaro on Aug 05, 2015
    What would make you think you can use washing machine water? Rain barrel in this case would work safer.
  • York Gardener York Gardener on Aug 05, 2015
    My grandmother used her laundry water all her life to water her plants. That was in the days of lye soap and she had beautiful plants. You might want to have two or three potted plants and try an experiment using water from various sources to see if modern day laundry water would work. You might even try laundry water with different soap/detergent agents. It would certainly be a way to get double use out of the water. I know water that is used in the sink to wash dishes or hands or such can be used. We will have to go back to using all those methods that our forefathers (and mothers) had to use when they had to haul water by hand or had minimal wells. Rain barrels only work when there is rain to fill them.
  • Proudtbnana Proudtbnana on Aug 05, 2015
    I use my kitchen sink water at least several times per day, I've been doing this for 40 yrs. never had a plant die on me yet. I just carry my wash basin to the garden & empty. Flourish, yes!
  • Kimberly Bruhn Kimberly Bruhn on Aug 05, 2015
    I actually used this for 2-3 years while we were remodeling our home. I simply hooked a hose (garden) to the back of the washer where the water comes out of the drain and ran the hose out a door and into our groundcover and other landscape plants. Caveat: we never used bleach, only used natural detergents and soap. Really, if you look at insecticidal "soap" that is essentially what it is: detergent! We are in a drought here in Southern Oregon so I wouldn't hesitate to do this again if I could. We built our laundry room in our basement so it would be difficult for the our HE washer to pump the water all the way up almost one and a half stories. Best of luck!