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For me when designing a new site there’s always a relationship between water and access, often it’s negative but with intention and a design mind it can be very positive for land, people and all life.

I’m set to inherit a fairly large farm from my parents. However, they believe it’s important for me to obtain a related degree before taking over. Lately, I’ve started to question whether getting such a degree is truly meaningful. Is a college degree really necessary for running a farm?

I’ve been working on a design for the dream house and farm that my fiancée and I want to build. A lot of our focus is on eco-friendly and efficient solutions for living.

An important part of our plan is having livestock. The research I’ve already done has shown that even chickens can be very thirsty animals, much less the pigs and other animals we plan to have. So I want to harvest and salvage as much water as I can. First, I thought of water collection. We live in Western WA, so lots of rain and snow to collect. But that isn’t very much given the thousands of gallons of water that we will need. My previous experience as a pipefitter exposed me to the idea of greywater recycling, which brings me here.

My idea is to build a tandem set of tanks, set into the ground, to filter greywater and use that as an additional resource for watering our animals and plants.

Both tanks would be sized to handle a heavy flow: 5 feet deep, 13 feet wide, and 22½ feet long. The first tank would be filled with various sizes of gravel, the second with sand. Both would be planted with wetland plants for additional filtration (especially since we get snow, so I’ll be researching native all-season plants for that aspect).

Is this a feasible method for cleaning greywater or is it overkill? If it is overkill, then I’d call that acceptable. Given that the rainwater from the house and barn will join the cleaned greywater (and normal rain) to feed a constructed pond on the property that acts as a reservoir for the barn, orchards, gardens, and other tasks across the property.

If it is not feasible, then I’d love to understand why it isn’t feasible and how to address the deficiencies identified.

This water will not be for human consumption. At all. This is working water that is for animals and plants, and very much not for human consumption. At the same time, I want to give the animals in the plan good water without requiring twenty thousand gallons a year from city mains. Better to recycle what I have than to just keep buying more and more.

I look forward to your feedback. Thanks in advance.

My backyard is something of an edible forest. I have grapes, quince, apricots, figs, currants, strawberries all over the place, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, rhubarb, pomegranates, hazelnuts, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, tarragon, saffron, and sweet bay. Additionally there are a couple of medicinal herbs: St John’s Wort (bush form) and echinacea growing everywhere.

My plants are really starting to put on fruit, and I’m becoming aware of the fact that my yard is probably a rodent’s paradise. I keep it VERY tidy. Everything is pruned and maintained. The beds are mulched, lawn mowed weekly, etc. it looks like a garden you’d see at a chateau or something. Despite this, there is food everywhere and I’m sure it smells insanely good to rats and mice.

My question is, if I add a few more herbs to the landscape planted in between my fruiting stuff, particularly more rosemary & sage, will that repel rodents? I guess I’d be willing to plant a lot of sage because I love it, but I want to be sure it’s functional. I currently have 3 sage plants in different areas and that is already more than I realistically need for consumption, but if it’s serving a purpose by repelling rodents, I will definitely add more.