Useful links and tips for gardening with greywater
The following links provide good resources to help you decide on the best approaches to plant selection, safe use of greywater on gardens, and learning about the impact of greywater and detergents on both plants and soils.
- Ideas about saving water in the garden and using greywater in your gardensavewater.com.au has a variety of useful information including a plant selector tool, garden design ideas, and a number of other water efficient garden ideas
- Australian Government – LivingGreener (also see the section on creating a water smart garden)
- Sustainable Gardening Australia – Greywater
- ABC Gardening OnlineABC Gardening Online provides a wealth of information on dry climate gardening, and gardening/ landscaping, planning your garden design using greywater
- South East Water advice on gardening and water management
- Gardening with Greywater in Queensland – booklet from Environment and Resource Management Queensland
- Alternative Technology Association Victoria Greywater trial: Installation, operation and evaluation of six greywater systems within Metropolitan Melbourne (PDF)
- The potential impact of powder laundry detergents on our environment - Lanfax Laboratories
Publications and further reading
Urban Greywater Design and Installation Handbook by the National Water Commission and RMIT.
Laundry grey water potential impact on Toowoomba soils (2005) - final report by: Howard, Evan and Misra, R. K. and Loch, Rob and Le, Minh N. Project Report. University of Southern Queensland, National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture, Toowoomba, Australia
Good Gardens with Less Water, by Kevin Handreck, CSIRO Publishing (2008)
It is possible to have a great garden anywhere in Australia, even with water restrictions. Amongst others, covers section on rainwater harvesting and use, and how to avoid problems when greywater is used in the garden.
Create an Oasis with Greywater (5th ed), by Art Ludwig, ISBN: 9780964343399, Copyright Year: 2006
Create an Oasis with Greywater fifth edition describes how to quickly and easily choose, build and use a simple greywater system. Some can be completed in an afternoon for under $30. It also provides complete instructions for more complex installations such as how to deal with freezing, flooding, drought, failing septics, low percolation soil, and radical plumbing that uses 90% fewer resources.