Senda Verde Permaculture Eco Center

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Greywater irrigation system

Recycle and reuse materials

Ive been very grateful for not losing the lot during last years wild fires, you can check out some photos of the fires here.

Drip feeding my greywater to the animal feed terrace

My caravan miraculously survived the blaze and post apocalypse, on analysing the site, I realised that it was my greywater that saved it. The caravan is sited just above a small terrace that the greywater pours onto through a simple black 50 mm irrigation pipe. An apple, a plum and a few vines were all it held, but the fruit trees were high yielding even though I didnt get to taste their delicacies, cremated pre harvest.

Cleaning the prepared bed with chicken tractors

Ive been thinking on how best to process the greywater and maximise this terraces use. Obviously I didnt want to have food crops growing in the greywater but a self irrigating terrace is just too good to waste. Ive decided to use the space to grow animal feed and bedding, thanks go to Josh and Veronica for the donation of a bag of organic Rye seed.

Recycle and reuse are my maxims. With some half burnt 60mm irrigation tube and a 3 meter piece of PVC guttering donated by Tom and Lynn Ive put together a nice drip system that should even out the flow of greywater so the whole terrace gets a better share.

Manuring the bed before seeding Rye

The soil looks in excellent condition and im going to scatter some corn on the turned land over the next few days and let the chickens tractor it through and pick up any weed seeds. Perhaps I can get two grain crops a year from the patch, this first one will Rye, good for animal seed feed and the straw will do for bedding. Ill figure out the next crop when I see the harvest timeline on the Rye.

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2 comments:

  1. really enjoy your blog which I have just rediscovered.Glad you were all ok in the summer fires and good luck for this year!

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  2. Thanks Michele, sorry to see your selling up, good luck, Best Fraser

    ReplyDelete

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