Water

Your kitchen sink should have a grease trap. Simply take a 5 gallon bucket cut 2 holes, one on either side near the top the size of your input and output plumbing (say a standard 2" line). Leave room for the lid. Insert a piece of plastic of a width equal to the diameter of the inside of the bucket and apply a non-toxic waterproof adhesive to seal it, making two halves in the bucket. Leave about 2" to 4" (depending on the depth of the bucket) from plastic piece to the bottom of the bucket. The effect: all grease, oils, fats, etc. as well as any debris or solid material will be kept in the bucket, on the one side where it goes in. Make sure everything fits well especially the pipes, but where the pipes must be able to be removed so perhaps once every month to three or so you can dump the bucket in the compost pile or mix it in the worm bin of large size. Be sure that the bucket contains nothing harmful or toxic.

For your shower you may wish to do the same. But if the shower is located near the planting beds (since you are hopefully not putting vegetable scraps and greasy dishpan water down it) where the plumbing lines are at a steep enough angle you may feed directly to the beds. Whatever the source for the gray water, once the plumbing reaches the planting beds the pipes therein should have plenty of holes top and bottom and be of a diameter at least 4", flexibility helps too! Get the large black flexible pipe with the holes all ready in it. The pipe in the bed should be buried at least 8" down but still have some 6" of soil underneath. (This will thoroughly drench the soil without exposing the pipe. What is neat is you may notice after a shower lots of steam rising from the bed. Plant those plants at the beginning of the pipe that like it hot. Cooler or drier loving plants toward the very end.)

If you should decide to run your gray water outside to a garden or improvised wetland area, keep the similar black pipe only without the holes until you get to the intended area, at least 10 ft. away from the home, downhill. The pipe should leave the house through the foundation if need be at a depth of at least 2' or below the frost line to avoid freezing (this will vary depending on where you live). Basis Guidelines: to move water adequately have a drop of at least 1" per 100". For the shower direct setup make about 1" per 10" drop, but then back a 1 to 100" for slow, even flow. If you are worried about your drain clogging get a bigger pipe and try not to impede any flow. Or have a drain to catch most of the hair and stuff, remove it and throw it in the soil regularly.

Offered by Steven.