What’s in the ground:

As I always shamefully admit, even though I work for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, I am really weak in the field of horticulture, as my strength is in agriculture. But that doesn’t mean I’m not learning. This past week we transplanted the 48 sunflower’s we started in egg cartons. We plan on doing another forty eight, and are planting them on our fence line. After planting a beautiful bed of tomatoes right next to our fence, we remembered we live in the city and even the most ethical of my fellow Philadelphians can’t resist a local heirloom tomato. Since we don’t want to invest perennials in our rental, a wall of sunflowers, and the pollination that will come with it, we hope will make good neighbors.

What’s going on in sustainability:

What started out as only a dream three weeks ago became a reality on our homestead this past weekend. About three weeks ago, after lugging my dirty clothes around the corner to the laundry mat and then coming home to see the washing machine whose water line was never hooked up and was now becoming a dumping space for tools and other lost kitchen items, I thought to myself, “Something doesn’t make sense here.” Hence, the concept of my gray water system was born.

I’d heard about it before from others, especially in the South West (Of America, not Philly). I did a little research, but really, it was easier than I thought. These were the steps.

1. I found a rain barrel from a local source. It was completely solid so I drilled a hole six inches from the bottom, got the hardware and attached it, sealing the nozzle in place with plumbers goop.

2. I built a stand right outside of my window, that is conveniently placed below a rain spout that needs to be replaced anyway. We basically built a table top three feet off the ground so gravity can drain the water into our hose while the barrel is one foot below the window so the water from the machine can drain into the top of the barrel, and we buried the legs into the ground.

3. I bought an industrial plumbing hose at the hardeware store, attached it to the tube coming out of the washing machine with a hose clamp, and ran the tube out of the window.

Things to Think About:

-The first load I ran didn’t drain because the hose was pinched by the tightness of the window. You want a clear path running to the rain barrel.

-You also want the water to drain in, but you need to place a screen where the water spouts out. Although I think of myself as pretty clean, a load of clothes can produce a lot of muck that you don’t want sitting in your barrel and clogging the spigot.

-You need to mind the PH of your water. You can find detergent at a health food store, Trader Joes, Whole Foods (Dr. Bronners works great) that is safe for gray water. But even if your spent water is non toxic, it can still get your PH to a level that will disrupt your soil and make growing things like night shades and berries very difficult. You can buy additives, but you can also just cut the water with rain water. It’s sad to say, but our industrial atmosphere in the north east produces a very acidic rain water. By using this system, you can balance out the PH of acid rain while cutting your energy and water consumption and reducing stress on the plant.

As I said, this was a very exciting project and I’ll keep you all updated. If you have any questions, please write to me on this blog. Until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.