#greywater

In this video we check out Brad's personal residence and the efforts he has undergone to harvest rainwater, his solar Oven and his solar water heater, among some of the native Sonoran Desert edible plants he grows.

For more on Brad and his community's work:

• Subscribe to his YouTube channel:

   / harvestingrainwater  

• Check out his "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands & Beyond" books and website:

https://www.harvesting...

• Check out his community's rain-irrigated native food forestry website:

Water is more than a resource — it is life, connection, and reflection. To live in balance with nature, we can embrace mindful, sustainable practices that honor each drop. 🌱

Collect rainwater from rooftops, recycle greywater to nourish gardens, and create small constructed wetlands that filter and sustain ecosystems. Aquaponics and hydroponics allow plants and fish to thrive together, while careful irrigation ensures no water is wasted. Watershed management reminds us that every stream and river is part of a larger network, and our actions ripple far beyond our immediate surroundings.

1. Soap* up/scrub your dishes:

2. Put a big pot in your sink:

3. Start rinsing your dishes:

4. Mmmm, dirty dish water**:

5. Let cool a bit if you used very hot water, then water plants of your choice***:

Do look up the grey water regulations in your area, at least so you know them. Read up a bit more on greywater systems. This may or may not be legal in your area, but understanding why it is or isn't can help you decide how to safely incorporate water reuse into your life.

One of the common big ones is that your not allowed to just let the water sit there, or pool on the ground. A common tactic is to divert the water below the surface of the soil, which can be accomplished easily. Some people don't want you to use kitchen grey water because of concerns around bacterial contamination from raw meat, etc, so consider how you're going to deal with that.

* don't use chlorine or borax (I don't know anyone who does for dishes, but you can't be sure on the internet). If you're quite concerned about your soap, get one that's labeled environmentally friendly or whatever.

** I'm a vegan so I don't have to worry about this, but if you're not, make sure you don't use waste water from dishes that had contact with raw meat or eggs. Because of potential bacterial contamination.

This sort of thing is actually SO SO important. I worry a lot of time that the idea of "permaculture" is one which most people sort of intuit as inherently primitivist--an infeasible utopia of shepherded biodiversity, an impossible dream until we achieve a form of global anarchic upheaval and restructuring to permit it to happen.

And sure, admittedly, there are aspects of climate change that absolutely will need that on some level--you as one person can't deal with the pollutants being produced by oil and coal companies, can't singlehandedly fight off habitat loss for strip mining and pipelines.

But that defeatist thinking also ignores the other aspect of climate activism that flips on the other side--you don't have to save the world. You just have to change your surroundings. Worry less about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and your disposable strawlessness; start looking into your local greenspaces and nearby preserves, start learning how to recognize invasive plants in your area, start reaching out to your apartment complex about container balcony gardening, talk to your HOA about fundraising a community food garden. These systems are built to make us feel like even the smallest change is impossible, and that's how they win.

Is the phosphorus in the dish soap not a concern? I was told in school that there’s a lot of phosphorus in detergents in dish soap, and that phosphorus buildup from detergents causes problems in the ecosystem, but iirc that was more about like, large scale rather than small. But still, do you know anything about this?

What a great question!

Yes, phosphorus buildup can cause problems in ecosystems, specifically algal blooms in bodies of water. Yes, dishsoap and detergent have contributed to these problems.

However, depending on where you are, there may not be any phosphorus in your soap. The EU and Australia have banned them, some US states have as well, with lots more places putting restrictions on them too. Even if they haven’t been banned in your area, there is most likely a phosphorus free soap you can get.

Furthermore, even if your soap does contain phosphorus, it isn’t much. Agriculture uses far more as a fertilizer, spreading it on fields where it can run off into streams and rivers and then out into places like the Chesapeake Bay or the Great Lakes, where it causes massive algal blooms.

Also, it is used as a fertilizer. Small amounts tossed into garden beds will help boost your plants! And most soils will filter out the phosphorus long before it reaches groundwater.

So, I wouldn’t toss soapy water directly into a stream, but the phosphorus that dish soap may contain isn’t likely to cause any environmental problems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphates_in_detergent  (check out the sources on here)

This may not look like much my friends, but I'm extremely pleased. You see, one of my clients had me remove 6(!) Blueberry plants because they were getting less than 4 hours of sun a day and weren't producing. I very gladly brought them home.

Had to walk through the goat pen to get them to their temporary resting spot, and the goats were very disappointed that they didn't get a nibble. These were tucked under leaves for now, because we'll need to move a shed and a disease-prone tree before they get planted.