Why grey water use makes our hearts and plants happier
March 20, 2017
Maintaining an interior is as easy as changing up a few fabrics and a lick of fresh paint, or asking an interior designer to maintain it for you! Sustaining our gardens is not so easy, especially during a drought.

Fortunately there is a relatively easy solution called “grey water recycling”.

Grey water is a term used for recycled water that is not fit for human consumption, but can be used very effectively to water gardens, wash the dogs, flush toilets and generally help you to do your bit for eco-living. It is a term used for water that is not fresh, but is not black water – a term used for water that is heavily polluted such as sewerage or toxic water.

Grey water is commonly recycled from bath water, the washing machine, your basins and even showers and used to irrigate lawns – because a little bath soap on your plants and grass may in fact, be good for them! Soaps contain nitrates and sulphates that, when diluted, provide nutrients for plants that may even be better than fresh tap water.

If you need to convince your family and neighbours to consider saving water, then throw out these grey water uses and advantages in conversation;

  • You can still use fresh water for showering or bathing, but you save it on watering your garden
  • You can connect it up to an existing irrigation system
  • You can re-use almost all water waste
  • Septic tanks run much more efficiently
  • Plants love the nutrients in (most) grey water
  • Water restriction penalties

There is one grey water area that makes plants very unhappy though, and that is kitchen grease, so using grey water from kitchen sinks is not advisable. Also, if you are going to use washing machine water then switch to a biodegradable washing powder. Your clothes will still be clean, but so will the earth.

It’s actually relatively easy to set up a grey water system

The re-useable water is simply fed through a filter that goes to a pump chamber. From here, water is directed to a drive pump which attaches to the sprinkler system.

One household of four people in South Africa can use up to 300 litres of reusable water a day. If a small amount of money is invested in creating a greywater irrigation system, you could save up to 35% on your water bill, help save the planet and rightfully call yourself an “eco-warrior”.

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By Kyra Harper August 15, 2023
Back in March of 2020, Bianca and Jana were dusting off their Fez’s and grabbing the pashminas out of storage in preparation to Rock the Casbah! However, as we all know and vividly remember - with March, came the eventual Covid shutdown, and instead of frolicking down the Moroccan streets, we all shut ourselves inside and watched the days tick by… 3 Years later, and now we can finally say - with conviction - that they’re going to Morocco at the start of September! This blog, filled with excitement and curiosity about all the weird and wonderful curios they might find, and endless sourcing they’ll do, stays as a reminder that sometimes plans change, things go awry and there’s not much you can do about it other than persevere - and that we did! So, here’s Bianca and Jana’s innermost thoughts about the trip, 3 years before it came to fruition, enjoy :) We've got our passports out and Jana has already picked out what she's going to wear each day… Come March [September] we'll be heading north with Air France to the Kingdom of Morocco, bright eyed and bushy tailed as we make our base in the ancient city of Marrakesh (also known as Marrakech to the French, but we're not French, so we'll go with the English version until all that fuss about Brexit is sorted out) - This turned into a year long negotiations trade, and now us outsiders would pay nearly double what we used to if we visit the UK - thankfully our flight is direct!! We'll be looking for inspiration and will be investigating what's there that we could possibly bring back to The Hoed. We can't wait to experience the atmosphere and afro-arabic influences of this amazing place as we visit the celebrated souks and off-the-beaten track artists and craftsmen that make Marrakesh so special. We're desperate to see the beautifully hand-crafted furniture, textiles, fabrics, rugs, carpets, objets d'art, accessories, lighting… anything that catches our eye and could possibly be brought back south. Berber mats and rugs are definitely on our list, as are the kind of furnishings you might find in a gorgeous Bedouin tent. If you think about it, the Bedouin refined the art of "glamping" into an artform - fabulous carpets on the ground, soft, billowing fabrics hung here and there, plump cushions spread on the ground, intricate leatherwork and carved wood, patinated metal… Total Glamping vibes! We just love all of it and will be tracking as much of it down as we can. We'll also have an eye or three out for wonderful ceramics and glassware and wonderful lamps that give off soft, filtered light.  For us it's about workmanship, so we'll hopefully be finding the people who make furniture and ceramics using techniques that have been passed down over countless generations meaning that everything we look at will have its own, and its own special story. Our mission is to share those stories with you and, if it's feasible, bring some of that special workmanship home to the Rainbow Nation. We're most definitely inspired and are sure this is going to be a truly special trip! Counting the sleeps till then! Less than a month to go now - we will be keeping the updates going on our social channels as well as another few blog posts to explain in detail our wild adventures - Stay tuned!
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