I don't really know anything on this topic, but there was a brief discussion on it recently in the Horticulture and Permaculture tribe, you may find a few useful tidbits wildthymehorticulture.tribe.net/th...00f

Cheers

Caveat: I haven't done this myself.

What I do know, though, is that washing machines have pumps that circulate the water during the wash cycle, and pump it out during the spin cycle. The drain portion works by virtue of having the drain hose go up above the water level of the washer before attaching to the household plumbing.

That said, clearly the washing machine's pump has enough "oomph" to get the water up at least a small distance. Adding a check valve to it would probably be a good idea to prevent backflow into the wash tub.

You could always add another pump to the arrangement. A simple way to do this would be to have the washing machine drain into a sump, then use a simple submersible sump pump to push the water up hill to where you need it.

Hmmm. I dont know how to get it up out of the basement, actually. But my stepdad and I have been draining greywater into our garden for years, using biodegradable soap and such, and its awesome. Never have to water the garden, etc. You want to make sure you have a good layer of rocks for drainage below the garden, and most likely use a porous pipe to disperse the water as evenly as possible.

You will need a tank/barrell with its own pump.

Either, the tank needs to be big enough to take the entire pumpout, or the pump has to pump faster than the washing machine empties.

The tank pump will also need to be of sufficent power to lift the water out of the basement and along whatever length of hose/pipe from there.

The rec for greywater is to use it within 24 hours.

Washing mashines do have pumps, and they probably can pump up a height of about 10 vertical feet. If you dont have enough head pressure to get it outside a reservoir and submersible pump would be the way to do it.

Maybe you could move the washing machine out of the basement??? Put a barrel on a platform and pump it to an elevation higher than your garden. You'd probably definitley want to store the water in a container of some sort in order to use that water when the plants needed it rather than watering your plants every time you do the laundry.

Look out for borax, you dont want it in your detergent.