ᐅ Is an automatic garden irrigation system worthwhile without a rainwater harvesting tank?

nordanney schrieb:

Honestly, I never use paint. I just have plaster as a wall finish – that’s more than enough for me. Unfortunately, I have to add "sarcasm" here because you’re not supposed to wink.

Seriously though, the dried-up lawn (which has still been manageable over the past few years) hardly interests anyone here in the Lower Rhine region. The plots are generally larger, and we don’t want to waste water unnecessarily. The lawn isn’t harmed by it either.
So I still maintain that brown grass is totally irrelevant. I prefer enjoying the beautiful flower beds and blooming plants. THAT makes a garden, not just a plain green (or brown) and boring area.

I think it’s the balance of both that makes a garden. For us, the flower beds surround and are between the lawn. When the lawn dries out (which happens quickly here in Brandenburg on sandy soil), it just looks awful.
However, we only water the areas we spend a lot of time in; in the back part of the garden, it’s allowed to turn brown.

We have a 652m2 (7,015 sq ft) plot of land with no irrigation system. Apart from dry summers, I haven’t really needed to water much. The lawn just turns less green over the course of the summer. Newly planted shrubs get support during the first few years, as do the fruit trees if it gets really dry. Everything else just has to survive. Only the vegetable garden is watered occasionally, but since it is heavily mulched, this is rarely necessary. If plants can’t handle it, they simply die off – only the tough ones thrive in the garden.

I prefer to garden according to the new conditions. I focus on drought-tolerant plants and heavily mulch the vegetables, as well as the raspberries and others. Watering is done using about 2,400 liters (634 gallons) of rainwater storage capacity, which I have distributed around the garden in several rain barrels. Rainwater is generally better for plants than tap water. If I’m feeling lazy and the weather is very hot and dry and I need to water more, I use my submersible pump to bring the rainwater to the garden hose.

Overall, I’ve concluded that it’s easier to adapt to the new temperatures than to water the garden with hectoliters of drinking water. It’s also more relaxing, more environmentally friendly, and much more cost-effective.

Do yourself a favor and at least prepare the basics with a hose so you can later install pop-up sprinklers. If you don’t want that, at least lay a hose through conduit pipes at a few points in the garden. Nothing is more annoying than dragging a 50m (165 feet) hose around the property to every corner. It gets caught everywhere, knocks down plants, and tangles up. A real hassle.

We have just planted a 50m (165 feet) photinia hedge, with a strip of lawn next to it along the boundary and a small earthen berm, plus about 15 shrubs—I’m not exactly sure which ones...
Now one of us spends 1.5 hours every three days watering all of it with a watering wand.

Sure, later when the plants are well established, it will be less, and I’ve already installed a soaker hose for that... but in the first year, this stuff needs water, water, water. And it’s best to water deeply but infrequently to encourage deep root growth. This applies to lawn as well.
And even later on. No one can convince me that they’ll let their carefully planted garden completely dry out during a drought summer like 2021 or 2022, only to tear out the hedge the next year and start over from scratch.

That’s why we will only put down 100-150m² (1,070-1,615 square feet) of lawn on about 400m² (4,305 square feet) of undeveloped area—for the children. Honestly, I wouldn’t need any lawn at all. Lawn is ecologically worthless and a real waste of water.

I also don’t know what’s supposed to be expensive about automatic irrigation? A sprinkler costs $30 to $35. Hose costs about $1 per meter (3 feet), soaker hose $1.30 to $1.50 per meter (3 feet). A Gardena controller with three timers costs around $100.
The advantage is also:
You can water at night, around 3 or 4 AM. It’s coolest then, and in summer much less water evaporates than if you water in the morning or, worse, late afternoon.

The question of whether irrigation is worthwhile is completely unnecessary.
Since you are neither running a golf course nor a football field, a perfectly watered garden is a luxury.
Luxury is something you have to want and be able to afford. It’s like KNX or a garage.
Do you want it? Can you afford it? Then go for it!

We are currently considering whether it would make sense to prepare it at least under the terrace in advance.

The disadvantage is, of course, that only the garden would be watered; we cannot connect the front yard.

We have a 25m (82 feet) hose, which reaches everywhere in the garden and even to the front yard.

I think for daily watering, we would need about 20–30 minutes.

Do you think an additional water meter on the outdoor faucet is worth it? It always has to be calibrated.

FrankChief schrieb:

We are currently considering whether it would make sense to at least prepare it under the terrace in advance.

The downside is, of course, that only the backyard would be watered; we can’t connect the front yard.

We have a 25m (82 feet) hose that reaches everywhere in the backyard and even to the front yard.

I think daily watering would take about 20–30 minutes.

Do you think it’s worth installing a separate water meter on the outdoor faucet? It needs to be calibrated regularly.

You’ll have to calculate that yourself. Try tracking how much water you use over one year. Then check with the water utility about the cost of a separate meter. In our area, you can buy it yourself at a hardware store, have it installed, and then it must be officially approved. This has to be done every five years.

By the way, you don’t have to stand there while watering, since there are sprinklers available in many different types.