pond vs city water for drip irrigation?

[lhfarm]

I've built a half dozen raised beds for my wife and will probably do that many more. I want to automate the watering to the beds. There is "city" water to the garden already, but I have a pond at about the same elevation some 200' feet from the garden. I feel like I'm wasting resources using treated water on a garden.

I've been searching here and else where and it seems that proper filtering is absolutely necessary for drip irrigation. I'll have to trench a line to the pond, buy a small pump (don't need much lift or pressure). I'm not sure if I'll need a pressure tank if I want some sort of filter in the water line (and before the drip filters).

So I guess my questions are 1) how elaborate does the pond pumping/filtering system need to be and is it doable for a reasonable amount of money. Or 2) should I go with the easy solution (use the existing city water source)?

Comments, theories and suggestions welcomed.

 

[SandburRanch]

I've built a half dozen raised beds for my wife and will probably do that many more. I want to automate the watering to the beds. There is "city" water to the garden already, but I have a pond at about the same elevation some 200' feet from the garden. I feel like I'm wasting resources using treated water on a garden.

I've been searching here and else where and it seems that proper filtering is absolutely necessary for drip irrigation. I'll have to trench a line to the pond, buy a small pump (don't need much lift or pressure). I'm not sure if I'll need a pressure tank if I want some sort of filter in the water line (and before the drip filters).

So I guess my questions are 1) how elaborate does the pond pumping/filtering system need to be and is it doable for a reasonable amount of money. Or 2) should I go with the easy solution (use the existing city water source)?

Comments, theories and suggestions welcomed.

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I often look at things the way you are looking, but it also looks to me as if you would need to have some idea of the gallons required to determine if it was in the economics to use pond water.

 

[LD1]

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I often look at things the way you are looking, but it also looks to me as if you would need to have some idea of the gallons required to determine if it was in the economics to use pond water.

I agree. How much water are you planning on using???

In my neck of the woods, with my city water prices, 3000 gallons of water per month only costs me ~ $20 per month. And it actually gets cheaper the more you use. That is 100gallons per day for $20 per month. It would take a very long time to recover the cost of filters/trenching. Not to mention the hassles of keeping the filters clean.

And then you have the electricity usage of the small pump. Which you will probabally need to run constantly. I have a little 200GPH goldfish pold pump. One of the ~$30 kind at lowes. It still uses 60watts of juice. That amounts to about 43Kwh per month. Rates at 10cents, that is $4.30 right there for electric. So that cuts into it a bit as well. And odds are, you arent going to be using 100 gallons per day either. Probabally half that. So $10 to the water compant for an easy fix, or an elaborate setup with a pump and filter to save 5-6 bucks a month?????

But your prices for utilities can be different too.

 

[dmccarty]

Do you really need drip or other irrigation?

When we started the garden I first used a lawn sprinkler. Worked but a pain.

I looked at drip irrigation but it was going to be a lot of work and some money. Since I did not have time I put down soaker hoses. Round is much better than flat by the way.

We had a couple of years of drought where I used the drip hoses but by last year I had stopped using them. They are easy to cut. I have not replaced them because even though we still had dry summers we got usually got enough rain each week. I only hand watered the garden a couple of times last season.

Do you think you will really need to irrigate?

I found a couple of multi headed water faucets at Lowes and screwed them together so I have one hose from the well to the "manifold". From the manifold I can control which rows get watered. Pretty simple, cheap, and parts available locally.

Later,
Dan

 

[lhfarm]

All good points. I wasn't really considering the total cost of the project. More an issue of I have a pond and a BH. It is snowing outside and my wife is looking at all the seed catalogs. Just more thinking of a nice spring project.

But I do need a good watering system for the raised beds. The land around here is heavy clay. So the garden is in raised beds that need to be watered on a regular basis. We've had enough experience to know this for a fact. I've been watering all the beds at once with sprinklers, but that wastes water and different plants have different needs.

The beds aren't huge - 4 x 8 x 12" or 24". Currently have six, going to 12. We do have other areas planted, but not sure I'd use this method for them. So I'm not talking a lot of area to cover. I've been looking at this site Drip Irrigation - DripWorks Drip Irrigation Systems & Supplies and watching some videos and I think I can set up a nice system for not a lot of money. One of my hobbies, if you can call it that, is home automation. So I'll probably set up the system to water based on weather data (has it rained and how much), as well as time.

I'll do some more research, but suspect I'll just start with city water. Still, there is that BH...

Thanks,

 

[RobertN]

We have everything on drip. The key is filtration. Our well has a lot of sediment. I have multiple filters. They have to be cleaned regularily.

The drip emmitters clog very easily.

We get our stuff from John Deere Landscape. They carry good quality stuff, not the box store stuff. While we had a little landscape business and did repairs, I had nothing but problems repairing stuff from the box stores. The pipe is small, thin, and does not hold up.

The drip is working great for our raised beds. But, we are also out in California, with the dry warm Mediterrainian summers.

We have multiple circuits on the drips, because some plants have different needs.

 

[ultrarunner]

I agree. How much water are you planning on using???

In my neck of the woods, with my city water prices, 3000 gallons of water per month only costs me ~ $20 per month. And it actually gets cheaper the more you use. That is 100gallons per day for $20 per month. It would take a very long time to recover the cost of filters/trenching. Not to mention the hassles of keeping the filters clean.

And then you have the electricity usage of the small pump. Which you will probably need to run constantly. I have a little 200GPH goldfish pold pump. One of the ~$30 kind at lowes. It still uses 60watts of juice. That amounts to about 43Kwh per month. Rates at 10cents, that is $4.30 right there for electric. So that cuts into it a bit as well. And odds are, you arent going to be using 100 gallons per day either. Probabally half that. So $10 to the water compant for an easy fix, or an elaborate setup with a pump and filter to save 5-6 bucks a month?????

But your prices for utilities can be different too.

The other side of the coin is what I've experienced... water is allocated at 100 gallons per day per household with severe price escalations when usage exceeds allotment...

Having your own source of irrigation water gives you alternatives...

My neighbor is retired and has lush vegetation... they built their home and are very proud of it... they made the decision to keep watering and were paying $650 dollars water bills every 60 days... increased water usage also triggers increased sewage fees.

He spent a lot of money developing his own source and said it was money well spent...

 

[WayneB]

I think that if you check the temperature of the pond water you will find it would be very good to use for your gardens. City or well water is much colder and will shock your plants.

I would figure a way to use the pond and watch things grow..

 

[jeffinsgf]

In a perfect world, you would have it set up so that if the pond goes dry, you can switch to utilities water. That may not be an issue for a few raised beds and an enormous pond, but it's something to put a pencil to.

I have drip and/or low-flow sprays throughout my garden fed from my well. I've never seen or trapped any sediment in the filters, but I still get a clogged head from time to time. Research your filtration situation closely.

 

[lhfarm]

In a perfect world, you would have it set up so that if the pond goes dry, you can switch to utilities water. That may not be an issue for a few raised beds and an enormous pond, but it's something to put a pencil to.

I have drip and/or low-flow sprays throughout my garden fed from my well. I've never seen or trapped any sediment in the filters, but I still get a clogged head from time to time. Research your filtration situation closely.

Since I have city water in the garden already, I could make it easy to switch. The pond by the garden is small 1/4 acre or so. The house water came from a driven well and another pond at one point. The well was unreliable in dry weather. As soon as utility water became available, they switched.

Just don't know how much filtering I'll need for the pond water.

Thanks,