Good day!
The ongoing dry spell has brought up a topic again that I have postponed several times: Where should the water for garden irrigation come from? Until now, I have been using water from the public supply: always available, consistently good pressure, and fairly cost-effective thanks to separate metering. But it probably isn’t sensible to let high-quality drinking water soak into the garden soil.
Is there a general rule of thumb about which form of garden irrigation is best from both financial and ecological perspectives? Essentially, there are three options: water from the public supply, collecting rainwater from roofs in cisterns, or drilling a well (if permitted).
To make the use of rainwater worthwhile, you would need to store a large volume, at least 20 to 30 cubic meters (700 to 1,060 cubic feet) to cover dry periods. The costs for cisterns and the associated earthworks would accordingly be high. Then there are ongoing expenses, such as electricity and maintenance for the pump. Drilling a well also involves costs, plus electricity and pump maintenance. The advantage of a well is that you don’t have to worry about storage capacity.
My garden irrigation system (drip hoses under mulch) consists of four zones, each of which requires one cubic meter (35 cubic feet) per hour. During prolonged dryness, I would ideally run each zone for one hour every two to three days. That adds up to about ten cubic meters (350 cubic feet) per week. With 30 cubic meters (1,060 cubic feet) of storage, this would last just about three weeks. We are increasingly facing situations in Berlin where it doesn’t rain for well over three weeks.
Has anyone here already worked through this in detail?
Matthias
The ongoing dry spell has brought up a topic again that I have postponed several times: Where should the water for garden irrigation come from? Until now, I have been using water from the public supply: always available, consistently good pressure, and fairly cost-effective thanks to separate metering. But it probably isn’t sensible to let high-quality drinking water soak into the garden soil.
Is there a general rule of thumb about which form of garden irrigation is best from both financial and ecological perspectives? Essentially, there are three options: water from the public supply, collecting rainwater from roofs in cisterns, or drilling a well (if permitted).
To make the use of rainwater worthwhile, you would need to store a large volume, at least 20 to 30 cubic meters (700 to 1,060 cubic feet) to cover dry periods. The costs for cisterns and the associated earthworks would accordingly be high. Then there are ongoing expenses, such as electricity and maintenance for the pump. Drilling a well also involves costs, plus electricity and pump maintenance. The advantage of a well is that you don’t have to worry about storage capacity.
My garden irrigation system (drip hoses under mulch) consists of four zones, each of which requires one cubic meter (35 cubic feet) per hour. During prolonged dryness, I would ideally run each zone for one hour every two to three days. That adds up to about ten cubic meters (350 cubic feet) per week. With 30 cubic meters (1,060 cubic feet) of storage, this would last just about three weeks. We are increasingly facing situations in Berlin where it doesn’t rain for well over three weeks.
Has anyone here already worked through this in detail?
Matthias
H
hampshire8 Apr 2020 17:11In the old house, we dug a well shaft – the soil and groundwater level allowed it, and 9m (30 feet) was more than enough. We installed a simple submersible pump into the slotted pipe, and that was it. It cost less than 500, including two helpers with the drilling equipment.
Now we would have to drill through about 30m (100 feet) of greywacke rock, so we’ve decided to skip that and collect rainwater instead.
Now we would have to drill through about 30m (100 feet) of greywacke rock, so we’ve decided to skip that and collect rainwater instead.
guckuck2 schrieb:
With this, I could pour tap water here for 20 years. ??? Small garden???
1,000€ (already generous) at 1.50€/cbm is about 650 cubic meters. In summer, with around 600sqm (6,460 sqft) of garden area, we watered 2-4 cubic meters per day (generous lawn + flower beds). We officially ran the well water through a water meter. In the three years we have been using the house, around 200 cubic meters passed through the meter.
Having a well makes you more flexible and you could even fill the kids’ pool quickly (and if the water goes bad, multiple times a year). That takes huge amounts of water and/or you can water as much as you want.
P.S. Our well cost only about 550€ a few years ago (2015?), 9 meters (30 feet) deep including piping and a submersible pump. We would have made back the cost of the well after 8-10 years (without big pool parties).
haydee schrieb:
What kind of gardens do you have that you water so much? Of course, new plantings need more water, but after that?It depends on the size. Just imagine running a sprinkler for half an hour every day in summer (like in recent years). A sprinkler uses about 1 cubic meter per hour (for 250 square meters (2700 square feet) of lawn). If user guckuck2 waters their 250 square meter (2700 square feet) lawn on 50 days during summer, that’s already 25 cubic meters of water. More lawn means more water. Plus watering flower beds.Take my former 600 square meter (6500 square feet) garden. Using 1,000 liters (250 gallons) per day in summer is no problem. I just run two sprinklers.
Of course, it’s possible to use much less water. But lawns and plants appreciate it. And if I can do it, I just do it. It’s like everything in life. Why do you do it? Because I can.
Similar topics