Selfsufficientish.com

Following on from just reading the dishwasher water thread, I have recently wondered if it is worth adding the contents of my washing up water (I use Ecover) to my water butt? Or would straight onto the lawn be best? Many TIA

Ratty

I don't think I would mix it with other water - especially if it's likely that it hangs about for a while. There may be traces of organic matter in there that start a life of their own after a while... I use it straight away, if I need to. (Often enough it's so wet here anyway that you don't want any extra watering - but at the moment we are going through a very dry spell, so the washing up water goes straight to all my containers out there.)

Hi Ratty, I really wouldnt do that if I were you.

O.H. (being helpful) put a bowl of greasy washing up water into the water butt. It was revolting for ages afterwards with greasy scum all over the pots and watering cans. Untreated grey water is not supposed to be kept but should be used straight away. However I find that shower water or rinsing water, stuff thats just got a bit of soap in, keeps OK for a short while.

I keep meaning to try growing tomatoes and peppers in trays of gravel whereby the bits of food in the washing up water feed the roots instead of compost. Anybody had a go at that? ww.

Not had a go at the gravel stuff, but always chuck non-debris washing up onto my herb bed and have peppers and toms in there - I just tell my neighbours that the forks and spoons are an english garden decorative thing!

I chuck the debris washing up - i.e. it has foody bits floating in it - under the apple and quince trees as all the little wild birdies seem to enjoy picking out what they fancy for their dinner from it.

my gran used to pour washup water on the garden for the plants and said it helped see the greenfly off.it was a pretty small garden all flowers. Veg and stuff came from the allotment

Many thanks for the helpful replies. Given that it has tipped down here all afternoon & evening, I've had to throw out today's dishwater.

I really like the idea of the birds picking over the debris, although there's not much left as I scrape all plates & bowls out into my bokashi bin!

OH reckons there's no need to conserve water as we don't live in the South! Not too sure of his logic there!

Thanks again

Ratty

tiggy wrote:my gran used to pour washup water on the garden for the plants and said it helped see the greenfly off.it was a pretty small garden all flowers. Veg and stuff came from the allotment

... which, according to my daughter who was a biology student and knows EVERYTHING is true. I think she said aphids breathe through their skin and washing up liquid takes away their waterproofness and they drown .... or something like that. Anyway I use a weak solution of Ecover washing up liquid in a spray on aphids and it seems to work. ww.

I've decided to move away from Ecover after I finish this bottle, after a chat with the lady who runs The Green Box Shop yesterday (at Nottingham's Green Festival, which was a wash-out due to all the rain ), apparently Ecover might be in lovely recyclable bottles but it doesn't contain all nice things!

Thanks for all the replies.

Ratty

Ratty i too looked at the ingredient list. which one will you change to?I wonder if its a bit like voting where you try and work out which one is less evil.one "green" own brand big supermarket washup liquid contains nastiy preservative.saying that i dont think any of them are without preservatives
oxfam shop in worcester sells bio D.
modern life seems to see us swimming in a chemical soup

Tiggy - I like the 'ingredients' list of this one http://www.thegreenboxshop.co.uk/stockhse.html#wualm, Ecover has started to dry my hands out so its worth a change I think!

Ratty

Ecover is evil now? Dammit! I really don't want to ask, but what is the not nice stuff it contains? I've been using it for years now, and even use the washing up liquid as a base for mixing my own shampoo and stuff...

I'd like to know that, too - what is the "bad" ingredient in it? I have used other stuff - Bio D, I think, was the last washing up liquid I tried, but I needed twice as much of it... SO that in itself creates more waste.

Anyway, I happen to have large containers of ecover in the house - so they'll be used, come what may!

I'm sure it's still a lot better than most other things that are on the market. My boss bought some washing powder for work (boilersuits etc): Fairy washing powder, particularly for sensitive skin, babies etc. With optical enhancers (or whatever they call that), perfume, and some other nasties. And to my nose, it stinks.

Anybody got more info on Ecover? I'm so disappointed it as I've trusted it for years. Sometimes it seems like you can't win don't it? ww.

On reusing grey water, my scheme is to make use of that for the well established shrubs and flowers in the garden, reserving rain water (and, if necessary, tap water) for the edibles. My theory is that if you keep those plants well watered, it makes them less likely to throw roots out towards the herb and veg areas.

Wulf

I agree with wulf and others - we have always used washing up water for the flowers - especially the roses!

As to ecover - I emailed them when the subject came up on another thread recently. They replied promptly that they absolutely do do use any GM products or anything tested on animals.

They've even gone as far as to use the CEO's donated blood, 0.5 millilitres per test, instead of rabit blood from rabbit farming for one of their tests!