How to water a garden economically?

[BedarHelen]

Hello helpful people!
We are planning to restore the terraces on our plot of roughly 2500 square metres, and put in about 10 orange and lemon trees, some decorative trees and shrubs and some big tubs for veggies or decorative planting. Not looking for anything exotic, but will stick to the native plants. My question is about watering! We plan to have an irrigation system on a timer. But are there any economic alternatives to using tap water? I know some people have access to balsas or agricultural water but don't know how/if I can get this. Also I think non-drinking water can be delivered, although I'm not sure by whom, but for this I will need a storage tank and I don't know if this is viable. I have thought about guttering and water butts, but I don't think the amount of water this would gather would be worthwhile. Would very much appreciate some words of wisdom on the subject from all you environmentally-friendly gardeners out there.

[Enrique]

Hi bedarHelen,

Welcome to The Forum.................

You look to have a similar average rainfall to us...........so some of the Following might work for you...........

Look at some serious "water Butts"..............Depósito IBC 1000L

https://www.leroymerlin.es/fp/16438044/ ... -ibc-1000l .........."you can't be serious" they are €50 up this way.

Ours filled up very quickly from the roof.

[Wicksey]

Delivered water is very expensive from our experience. Agricultural water in our area is also expensive to set up. We buy it from our neighbour and it is our only water supply, but if we wanted to get our own contract for it it would cost thousands, and as it's not on all the time (just a few days a week) we would also need a storage tank. Our first house here had gutters and large 1500L storage tanks but back then, 20+ years ago, we used to have an awful lot more rain. In fact that was our only supply of water for the house! I would certainly have water butts though as it would collect precious water when it does rain for use on the garden when it's dry.

Most people we know say that one lemon tree is more than enough. We have several orange trees but only a couple are really productive. We get so many oranges on one of them we cannot eat them all, so perhaps you won't need so many fruit trees? When we lived without a water supply we recycled as much as possible, but it was a bit of a pain at times. However, we did end up with a fairly lush garden by planting oleanders, yuccas, succulents, bougainvillea and olive trees which all did well on minimum water. Good luck!

[El Cid]

I agree with Wicksey. You do not need to grow a load of fruit trees unless you are selling the produce.

If you want an agricultural water supply the water is cheaper but buying into the system is expensive (we paid over €5000) and we pay an annual fee of about €130 plus the cost of the water. The depósito to store it was €15000 and you would have to pay for a building licence on top of that.

Unless you are going to live on the sale of what you produce, don’t bother. Leave it to the farmers and let them pay for it.

Sid

[BedarHelen]

Thank you all, that was useful. I will look for water butts, hopefully can find one cheaper than Leroy Merlin. And will rethink the citruses - perhaps 2 oranges and 1 lemon, but as I have room for more fruit trees, which ones would you recommend? I am told limes don't do so well here. Perhaps fig and apricot??

[Wicksey]

Leroy Merlin do cheaper ones, 510L for 67.79€ https://www.leroymerlin.es/fp/13854463/ ... 510l-verde

I would try your local ferreteria or garden centre to see what they have.

[El Cid]

Bearing in mind that it hasn’t really rained yet since last June I can’t see a water butt working. 500l of water wouldn’t last a week in the summer for the number of trees you are talking about. That is about the amount of water a full sized avocado needs every day in summer.

The only solution is a proper agricultural supply if you want to do it properly.

We have about the same sized garden as you are talking about and the same number of trees. In summer we use up to 100000 litres every 6 weeks.

Sid

[spanish_lad]

Second hand tanks are cheaper, the vivero by me sells ibc's for 50. I've got a 5000L tank feeding the house, plus 4 ibc's, and 2 or 3 other tanks for the garden.. on a 1000m2 plot.

[Wicksey]

Bearing in mind that it hasn’t really rained yet since last June I can’t see a water butt working. 500l of water wouldn’t last a week in the summer for the number of trees you are talking about. That is about the amount of water a full sized avocado needs every day in summer.

The only solution is a proper agricultural supply if you want to do it properly.

We have about the same sized garden as you are talking about and the same number of trees. In summer we use up to 100000 litres every 6 weeks.

Sid

We've got about 30 trees but only irrigate for an hour on each of the 2 terraces 3 times a week in the summer. No wonder the only things that crops well is the oranges, barely never had a mango and the trees haven't got any bigger since we planted them 10 years ago. We probably use about 200,000l per annum.