My Kitchen Drainage Bog Turned Into A Gray-Water Reclamation Garden!

When we first moved into the house, a whopping 7 months ago, we knew it had been remodeled inside and out about 7 years prior. Unfortunately, the house was only used occasionally during those 7 years and none of the -shall we say- Oopsies came to light. That is, until we moved in & started -god forbid- using the house to live in.

That tall tuft of grass is at the beginning of our moat! It's early in the morning, so not much water is present yet.

The most apparent to guests has been the Moat out in our font lawn. It seems that the kitchen sink and dishwasher had been set up to drain into a metal barrel buried about 6" under the front lawn, just in front of where we had people park their cars. As you might have guessed, a LOT can happen in 7 years, especially to a metal barrel that is prone to rusting. ...and rust, it did! By the time we got here, there was not much left of that metal barrel except a metal skeleton that we have to assume was a metal barrel at one point. That being said, it was still there enough to be a problem. Water had begun to spill out of the top of it and pour into the lawn... hence our moat was born!

Not only was this an eyesore, but it had taken on the odor of rot and our guests had to traverse it in order to make it to our front door, usually opting to walk behind their own car and ours.

So we had to find a solution that we A) could afford, B) could maintain, C) could make a garden in front of the house possible. If we had the original contractor "fix" his previous error (the kitchen SHOULD have drained into the septic system with the rest of the house's plumbing), it would cost us in the area of $2k-$5k, despite the fact that this was supposed to have been done in the remodel. We couldn't just leave it be: we already noticed lily pads starting to grow!

The only option, really, was to do it ourselves! No labor costs! No challenge of our ideas! PLUS, we know that WE would do it right! SO, we set out to design our solution. It had to make use of the water being dumped out front every time we washed our hands, ran the dishwasher or poured things down the drain. We'd seen gray-water reclamation projects before, so we thought it may just work to put a garden in and use the kitchen drainage to water AND fertilize it.


We found some large PVC pipe on the farm in the refuse left behind by previous occupants/contractors/dunno who, and decided to re-purpose it. We had piles and piles of green wood-chips (i.e. freshly chipped trees & branches kindly left for us by the electric company) and enough calories to burn for the labor!

You can find similar pipes below:

An old metal tub I found on the property will make a lovely planter and focal point in the garden.

Sunday, we had purchased a trailer we could tow behind the lawn tractor or the Cub.

So, Monday, we set to work!

We dug out around the beginning of the bog to see what we had to work with and found this old pipe.

Then we measured the PVC we found and started digging a trench that it would fit in. It had to be deep enough so the PVC would sit UNDER the drain pipe from the kitchen.

The water from drainage pipe pours directly into the PVC.

Next, we got some wood chips from the piles across the farm so we could level the pipe in the trench we dug.

Riding in the trailer to the wood-chip piles.

Approaching the piles & piles of wood-chips. (Thank you electric company!)

Gathering the Wood-Chips in the trailer.

Hubby drilled holes in the PVC to allow the water to drain through and water the garden area, placing stones in either end to prevent it from filling with dirt or wood chips and allow the water to continue to drain out.
Then, we situated the PVC in the trench, covered the gap between the metal pipe and the PVC and began to cover it with more wood chips.

Covering up the PVC.

Then we pulled the dirt back over the trench and raked to mix it with the wood chips.

Not the prettiest thing, yet, but well on it's way!

Since the wood chips are green (i.e. freshly cut), we'll need to allow 3-6 months before we plant anything there so that the resins from the wood don't kill our plants. The wood chips should decompose, leaving nutrient rich soil behind for the garden plants to thrive in. The detritus from the sink and dishwasher should also break down and provide more nutrients for the plants. We'd switched our detergents to eco-friendly versions when we first got here, so we shouldn't pollute or kill the plants (or us, for that matter). The water from the kitchen drains should keep the garden green and lush despite any future droughts. It's a win-win the whole way around!!!

We hope to enjoy my reclamation garden that Hubby and I built with our own 4 hands and one day of some intense manual labor! If you, too, take on a reclamation project, I wish you the best in your endeavor!