Erin manages a small farm in Celina, TX and posted a brief but informative member blog about their greywater bog pond. We applaud their goal to “use everything and waste nothing”. Thanks for sharing, Erin!
This month’s project has been making a bog pond in order to utilize our gray-water. We already make our own hot water by way of our solar-waterheater, and we make our own laundry detergent. So it seems only natural for us to use the water after it cleans our clothes.
Here’s how it works…After the washing-machine is done the water empties into the first blue barrel, to cool it down if hot water was used. From that barrel the water goes through a few pipes to the bog pond. The bog pond is full of gravel and will be full of water loving plants. The organics (the lent, dirt, etc) will be eaten up by the plant roots and filtered by the gravel. This filtered water then pours into its first pool and the over-flow proceeds to the “brook”. This is where the bacteria in the water will die from exposure to both the sun light and the oxygen in the air. After the “brook” it empties into a small pond where we are hoping to keep some fish.
Our other gray water that’s not so useful is also filtered. It is carried down the hill in different pipes and filtered through mulch-beds and more gravel. It can’t house fish, but it waters the trees down there nicely.Water conservation is becoming second nature around here! Our bog pond is just another way we are trying to use everything and waste nothing. Our next project…a compost producing chicken run.
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