welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Thursday, July 18, 2013

graying greying greening

GRAYING GREYING GREENING
is it gray or grey
i never can remember which is correct
do i gray or grey as i get older
is it greying or graying in america
well in america its graying
but
in england its greying
but
either way is acceptable

i do have readers from england south africa new zealand
and australia so i think they would be pleased with the use of
grey

im glad to know that so now it can just write whichever i want
and its ok

gray water is the water sometimes soapy that is tap water thats
used in bathing or in the washing machine
here at the country n grey water see its ok to switch the spelling
also includes the water used to wash dishes and the water used
to rinse the dishes

so here the gray water is shower or bath water washing machine
water and the dish waters

now our washing machine water line goes underground to a
a catch basin that eventually waters a couple of our oak
trees
you can tell the one has had extra water since i planted it
as a little scrawny 1 gallon monterey oak and the same time
i planted a 10 gallon 10 ft tall monterey oak
the little one thats been getting the grey water is much bigger
that the 1010 oak tree

at aggie land agrilife thats the new name for ag extention office
research looked at whether it was safe to use gray water
for irrigation
i hope so since weve been doing it now for 12 years
its kept several of our trees and shrubs alive during the drought
time

they did their studies in the greenhouse for now but the next phase
will be eventually be on a landscape outside

this study is important as using grey water in our landscapes can
decrease our use of our shrinking water sources
50% of the average household water consumption is from use
in the landscape

using grey water in the landscape could save 10-25% of our water
consumption for landscaping

in this study the only washing component that made a difference was
the use of gray water and bleach which caused some yellowing of the
leaves on certain plants but not all

bleach is not a problem here at the country n since we dont use it
in our grey water at all

we also are careful what detergents soaps conditioners etc
we use

all the plants in the study were native plants and included shrubs
flowering plants and some succulents

so heres our gray use here at the country n
i guess you have to really believe this is important to do it
as it takes some effort
thank you my wife she for your persistence in all this

so if you come to visit us and you take a shower youll find
a color coordinating bucket 2 or 5 gallon in the shower
which will fill up as you shower and on yes youll notice the
water flow of the shower is reduced
sorry about that one

that water will be carried outside and left in a spot where i
will later decide where to use it
i dont use it in the veggie garden unless i know it just tap water
which at the country n is rainwater

right now i leave the bucket there for a few days as those damn
grasshoppers for some good reason try to swim in the water
but dont make it
then i pour it in the landscape

after washing dishes in the sink as my wife she didnt want a dish
washer since she had one already-me
the water is scooped out and placed in a five gallon bucket and
placed outside to provide a swimming pool for the hoppers
also i figured they would decompose or compost down to
some nutrients for the soil

usually ill use the rinse water in the veggie garden or inside plants
since its mostly just rainwater

then the washing machine gray water goes to the oak trees as
mentioned before

so when you get your water bill this month and its high from
all the landscape watering think about using your grey water
in the landscape
unless you use bleach then dont use it
we do fine without the bleach
the sun bleaches our clothes as they hang on our outside
clothes line

i expect i if we lived in town my yard would have no grass or
very little grass and i would be doing all this there
including rainwater collection and we would have a low
water bill
which means a low sewage bill also
and yes we would have a hidden clothes line somewhere

so think about using gray water or grey water in your landscape
and be green while your doing it

the organicgreen doctor

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