Infiltration pipes distribute the grey water through a mulch basin and beds where it
percolates into the root system of the plants.

First, two inches of foam is placed on the compacted earth. Then 8 x 8 welded wire fabric
(rebar mat) is placed over it. We then attach Pex radiant heat tubing to warm the floor
of the greenhouse. Supplemental heat will be supplied to the greenhouse using a commercial
grade steel finned baseboard, recycled from a job in Newton.

Both mulch beds and basins are constructed so that varying plant sizes can be used to
optimize the system.

The final layer is the finished floor. A patio and walkway are built using Ryerson steel
landscape edging to separate the planting beds from the hard area.

A typical mulch basin detail for an ornamental tree.

The greenhouse is built off of the back of our barn,
which serves as our shop with office above.

Interior greenhouse, framed and stone dust floor added and leveled.

Next a layer of foam was added for insulation, and
radiant heat tubing was installed above (not shown).

During the winter, our mason Jeff Baer built this beautiful walkway.

After the DEP review of our plans, we were asked to line the planting beds with an
impermeable membrane. We had to remove most of the loam, and take out some of the walkway in
order to do that. This will make the system "zero discharge" in that none of the grey water will
escape the system. We also installed drains (white caps in photos) so that when the beds get
saturated, the water is then drained into a sump pump and recirculated back into the plant beds.

We had to dig deep under the foundation of our existing barn to put in the sump pump,
so that it would be below the plant beds. Carl did almost all the work, but only Sara was small
enough to get in and do the last digging.

Here the sump pump is installed.

After completing the rubber lining, we filled the plant beds with a combination of peat moss,
vermiculite, loam, and compost. Peat will hold moisture for the plants, vermiculite keeps the soil from
compacting, compost adds nutrients, and loam fills it out. The first three was an idea borrowed from the "Square
Foot Gardening" method by Mel Bartholomew. Then we laid out the dousing lines--the irrigating lines that
bring the grey water to the planting beds.

After several attempts, we finally were able to pitch the lines to enable water to get to all
areas of the beds. There will still be some areas that will be more heavily watered, but we don't see a problem
with that, since all plants need different amounts of water. We will probably need to move plants around until
they are happy with their water supply.

The grey water leaching field is complete, and the first plants are in! We'll post an update as we
see how well they do at absorbing the grey water.

Most plants love the greenhouse and the grey water "watering", with only a few exceptions.
We started with plants from our summer garden (low cost, easy to replace if they didn't work well).
Geraniums are the happiest and have multiplied from eight plants to approx. fifty (using cuttings
and replanting). We've lost only a few plants to bugs and over-watering, but the surprise is how
tolerant most plants are to water temperature, fluctuations, soaps and detergents.


We were not achieving balanced dosing of the planting beds, so we increased our infiltration lines from
two to five. The five lines now come off a common manifold (see left in photo), and each line is
controlled by a ball valve allowing us to increase or decrease effluent flow as desired. We also
installed a Schrader valve (similar to a car tire valve) so that in the future we could use compressed
air to clear a line if needed.

Thank you for visiting our "Alternative Septic System" page 
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact us:

Warren Design Build
268 West Street
Berlin, MA  01503
Tel:/Fax (978) 838-0022

Email:carl@warrendesign.com