I was asked the above in another thread but will answer here to prevent too much thread drift.So how do you collect your shower and laundry water? Is it stored or moved directly to the garden?
I am really interested in how this is done. thanks!
We have friends who have a crawl space beneath their house and they hired a plumber to divert both shower water and laundry water into their garden - which was fortunately on a slope. Easy-peasy. Works well. But I don't have that good fortune so I go more primitive.
The system has evolved but seems fairly easy now, though it does take some work. In the shower stall, I keep a large plastic box. When I shower, I stand in that so the water is kept contained. I use as little soap as possible to get clean. That water I dip out and put into a heavy-duty, no leak 32 gallon trash can. I wait till that is fullish, then I use a submersible pond pump (plugged into gfi outlet for safety. If your house is old as ours is, you can purchase these separately on Amazon.) onto which I've put a non-leaking hose, and drain it out the closest window into the yard. I will either water plants directly, or direct the water into another trash outdoors can to be bucketed out later.
For laundry water, the procedure is similar (I direct the outflow into a trash can and then into the garden), but you need to know how much water your machine uses lest there be an over-flow. And use very little (if any) soap/detergent or only 'green' stuff. Or only direct the rinse cycle outside and the wash cycle down the drain. You can ruin your soil with 'product'.
I never direct this 'used' water on to any plants that are eaten raw, only things that will be cooked, or onto trees so they don't die.
Check to see if diverting grew water is legal in your area. Locally we are encouraged to do it since water is so very scarce.
I would prefer to only use fresh water in the garden, but in our severe drought, extensive gardening would not be possible without using every available drop of water. The 'ick' factor quickly falls away.
The negative impacts of droughts (and ever-increasing California population) are only going to get worse as the climate continues to change.
Oooooh... it's raining right now. Gotta go check the rain collection set up. We do that too.