Well water and gardening question

Does having to use well water restrict your watering of the garden at all?
A house recently came up for sale in the country and it's a real gem. It has a well and since I know nothing about wells, I was wondering if you have to be extra careful with how much you use for gardening & general use. Also, when the water comes out of the ground, does it go through a filter of some sort? Can you drink it safely enough? Geez, I'm so "city" that's it's embarrassing..
This house also has Geo-Thermal heating....never seen that before!

Tks
Erynne

Hi Erynne,

I can't answer all of your questions, but I can give you some info. I was raised in the country as a child (looooong time ago) and we had wells. Some things that it is important to know are:

How deep is the well?
Has it ever had to be redrilled? When? Why? More than once?
Has there ever been a problem with silt or sediment?
Is there a high iron or other mineral content in the water (rust stains, etc.)?
Is this the only and/or original well on this property? If not, why?
At what level is the water table normally? During periods of drought?
Is there a history over the past 5 - 10 years of wells running low or running dry in the area?
Has *this* well ever run low or run dry? For how long? During what month(s) and year(s)?
Has there ever been contamination of the well, groundwater, or water table here or in the vicinity? If yes, what was the contaminating agent? Has it happened more than once?

That's about all that I can think of right now. Don't let the nature of the questions scare you. They just represent due diligence - what you should know before you buy. Kind of like making sure the used car you're looking at buying wasn't written off and repaired at some point in time or a house you're interested in doesn't have a history of basement flooding.

--Ginny

Erynne,

You could call any Dept. of Health to see where you can take the water to get it tested. We used to get sterile bottles from Dept. of Health, let the cold water run for a bit, fill the bottle without touching the tap, and take it back to Dept of Health. Think we had to get the bottle of water filled and into DofH office quite early in the AM so they could send it to the lab.

Ask how deep the well is drilled. Get a couple of pop bottles from the house and taste & smell the water (to make sure it isn't sulphurous or anything. Ask them about the iron or lime in the water (thinking kettles getting bunged up and washing machines etc stained)

See if they have a dishwasher in their kitchen. We didn't have one - plenty of two-legged ones around our farm.

I loved our well water. Only thing we did was get kids teeth painted with fluoride once or twice a year when they went to dentist.

We managed very well on one well with 9 people (think 5 teens before we moved). We did get the pool filled with a tanker a couple of times - years when we had major drought.

Geothermal. Very cool. Think of a low low heating bill -- forever.................... Good luck.

inanda aka Ginny

More thoughts. Ask when the well was drilled and what the water rate was (gals per min I think). Maybe they still have the bill. If they don't, ask who drilled it and talk to driller. He will know answers to most of your questions.

Make VERY SURE there has been nothing polluting dumped /buried near. (Thinking of farmer who finally won his case last couple of weeks ago)

This message was edited Feb 1, 2008 8:06 AM

Erynne, We moved from the big city to a house in the country and have been here for 18 years, and had gardens here for 17 years, so my comments will reflect only my experiences. lol

We are fortunate to have very good well water. Clean, pure taste and colour, not too 'hard' or 'soft', and NO chlorine! Hard water requires either a softener, or use LOTS of detergent, lol. Soft water will lather up the littlest bit of detergent. Rainwater is soft.

There are many water filtration/purification systems out on the market, depending on your needs. We don't use anything, our water always tests good!

I have never used the well water on the gardens. Ours is too COLD straight out of the tap.

Ours is an older house, and the well is not very deep (45') Depending on the ground water supply, and rainfall..... You don't know if the well water supply will tolerate the large volume that is used to water lawn/gardens.

In this area, I have heard of people who have drained their wells by watering their lawns. That is one risk I'm not willing to take. lol Our lawn goes crispy every August, but bounces back with fall rains. ...... but the flowers/veggies are always happy! lol

Some wells have water softeners, and I think that water would not be the best for gardens.

Some wells have unpleasant tasting/smelling water, so before you buy, check out the quality of the water. Some houses on well supply are forced to buy bottled water, not meant to put you off, just make you aware...

In order to water my gardens, hubby and I have put together a 'rainwater collection system', and I love that. Total of 8, 45 gal recycled olive barrels. 4 at the house, (set on stands in pairs, one pair on each side of the house. both barrels in each pair are connected by a hose, and the tap connection on one of the barrels in each pair is a "Y", and a hose connects both pairs) I can connect a hose to either pair of barrels and water the gardens on both sides of the house.

The other 4 barrels are at the greenhouse/veggie garden. One barrel in on a stand behind the greenhouse, and collects the rainwater from the roof. This barrel is plumbed thru the wall to gravity feed inside the greenhouse using a tap and hose.

I can gravity-feed water everything around the house with a hundred-foot hose, or move water between the barrels at the house to the greenhouse. A little pond pump moves the water from barrel to barrel at the greenhouse and veggie garden.

The barrels all have lids, to keep out beasties and leaves. Benefits of having the rainwater in barrels, is it's always as warm as the weather....The barrels at the garden can be dipped out of with a watering can. My veggie garden is laid out 'square foot' style.

FWIW!

Hi Erynne! The water supply for our house comes from a well, and goes through a filter to remove large particles. We have the water regularly tested for bacteria , and it is only "marginally safe", so we use it for washing, but not for drinking (unless boiled). One day we might get around to installing a UV filter to destroy bacteria. Our well water also contains a lot of iron and lime, so we soften it with salts. Adding the salts makes it no good for watering plants. My DH installed a faucet in the basement for me to draw unsalted water, after my houseplants began dying from salt buildup. In the garden, I water with pond water, as we are lucky enough to have a stream-fed fishpond.

At our previous house the well water was acidic, not limy, and was treated to neutralize the acidty to the point where it did not eat away at the copper pipes. The neutralizer did not hurt my house plants, and I used the well water in the garden. However, when watering we could not run the well pump continuously for more that half an hour, or it would overheat. Running the well dry in a prolonged drought was also a possibility, so we were sparing with the water.

Questions you should ask when buying a house with a well: How deep is the well? How high is the water table? Are there lots of houses nearby drawing water from the same source? Have any wells in the area run dry? What is the bacteria content? Is the water hard (limey) or soft (acidic)? Is there run-off from farms getting into the water source? Are there any toxic garbage dumps in the area? Now I've probably scared you off! You'll love living in the country, honestly.

Oh my .....I'm so glad I asked you all about this as you've given me more info than I thought to ask! Ginnylynn, that is a great checklist of things to ask further about!

My MIL had her well run dry earlier this year and I figured it was due to them using too much water with their pool, dishwasher, bathing 4 dogs constantly, watering her veggie garden etc., but I really got to wondering if water underground can really just quit like that! I mean wouldn't it build back up over time somehow? I guess the answer to that is maybe it would but not enough for household use. All I know is it cost her 10 grand to have a new one made....the drilling went on for ages.

Good idea Inanda...I will run the water when we go there for a second visit and test it with my senses. Now you mentioned the washing machine being stained somehow....should I be looking for a "ring around the tub" inside the machine? You know I never even noticed if there was a dishwasher, lol. That's not a selling point for me as I like to do dishes by hand. I best go over the listing sheet again.
The land surrounding this property is protected/conservation lands and farmers beyond that. The perimeter of the backyard is forested and across the road is the starting of a trail. The Geo Thermal thing is neat and the house was so warm which I was a little skeptical about initially. And the costs are peanuts!

drivenbonkers, I'm so glad to hear about your thoughts about going from city to country and how you've adapted water-wise. We are very spoiled in the city with all of the services but we do pay for it. High speed is something we would no longer have either. The rain barrels are a great idea and I don't really care if my lawn is not perfect. So long as I have enough for my hostas that's all that really matters.

June, you said your hubby put in a faucet to have unsalted water.....where does that water come from? The house we're looking at is in Erin which is a lovely community. Even if we don't end up with this exact house, that is the area we are focussing on. First we said we were going to move, then we thought we should move next year but the heck with it...I can no longer stand being woken up by airplanes landing at 1am every three minutes. The airplanes come down so close, you can see people's heads in the windows of the plane from my door. I remember standing in front of this house in Erin and before we went in to see it, I said to hubby, listen.....he said what? I said exactly....not a single sound.

Thanks again everyone. I feel more informed and will ramble off these questions for the realtor to find out for us.

Erynne

We too have a shallow well about 48 ft. The water is clear and clean. I have it tested about once a year. We are going to the rainbarrels to help support the garden. This is the first time in many moons that I'm going to have the time to do some "serious" gardening and I'm thrilled.
Btw, can you get satellite? If so you can get high speed, am not sure about the costs, but seems to work just fine.

We drove through that area last summer and what a nice area that is, Erynne!

You've received some great advice and I can't add any more. We're lucky to be tapped in to a good water vein at 75ft and have never had a problem with quantity. We have rain barrels and let the lawn go dormant and also don't water during a drought.

Sounds like a great spot - to be surrounded by Crown land and forest and no more noise pollution.

Sandy

Erynne - how exciting!

The only other thing I could add, based on the experience of a friend, is to recommend finding out from the municipality whether or not you would be restricted by any by-laws from using the water from your well for watering plants.

My buddy lives on an acreage north of Cochrane in Alberta, and they and their neighbours are not allowed to water their gardens with well water (I presume they're all tapping the same water source with their wells).

No personal experience myself and I also don't know if the laws might differ in Ontario, but it's definitely a question I'd be asking...

Joanne

Looks like a nice area, Erynne. When do you hope to move? And how far into the city do you need to commute? Will you be able to place divisions of your Hostas with people depending on when you move?

Ann

Erynne, in answer to your question about the source of my unsalted water. It's the same well water, but I draw it off before it goes through the salting process.

Erynne
My Mom and Dad are on a well and they have watered their garden for 10 or more years, no problems but their neighbor didn't water and all the plants died! They also support with rain water. They can drink their water out of the tap so it must be good.
I think if you get it tested is the trick that works the best.
Enjoy your new opportunity.
Ann

Nobody so far has mentioned rain barrels, but it would make sense whether you are on a well or not to have a rain barrel and use it when possible for watering.

Ann

Hi All!
The realtor wants us to see another house in Erin just in case. Guess it's always good to compare as much as possible and it's also on a well. But oil for heating....hmmm, something else to think about.

Ann, we would be commuting 45 mins since our business is on the Malton/Brampton border. Apparently, a good many people from Erin commute to Mississauga, Brampton & Guelph for work. As for my hostas, I would be including a clause to the effect that the majority are not included with the sale of the house which the realtor said we could do and is quite common. I would dig them up a bit at a time and they would live in pots for a while or a temporary/makeshift garden is all I can figure. Thank goodness, I have enough pots on hand! We hope to move within the next couple of months but that's dependent on our house selling which might take a bit because buyers in this area like to fit 3 or 4 families in these houses according to our realtor and we're not really set up for that. Personally, I can't see fitting more than one family but that's how many people around here live believe it or not.

June, thanks for answering my question.....you had me pondering that for a good while I tell ya, lol.

Sandy, ain't it a purdy area?! To look out my front door and just see green is constantly on my mind but then you've heard me go on about this before. As it stands, I've got sketchy neigbours to the right, grumpy German dude to the left and across the street is a delusional fellow who's been charged with impersonating police numerous times. He's 34 and wants to be a policeman when he grows up, roflol. I've had enough thanks.

Erynne

Don't have much time to talk right now but just wanted to tell you all that our offer was accepted! Closing would be in mid-May. So excited I could burst!

Here's one pic for now that the current owner's took last year. I see a hosta walk in this spot,lol.

Wow, Erynne. Endless possibilities for your Hostas. Congratulations.

Ann

That is wonderful news for you. You must have been on tenterhooks between the time you signed and the time it was accepted. Looks like tons of space. I'll have to go back and read to see if you said how big your garden will be. As for geo-thermal, you'll have to tell us all about it, how it works etc etc.

That gives you time to pot up all you want to take out of your garden and so on and so on.

inanda aka the other Ginny

Erynne - congrats! That looks amazing!! All that space...

Joanne

S-U-P-E-R-B! So happy for you.

Sandy

Congratulations Erynne! How wonderful and exciting for you. Your idea of a hosta walk for that spot is great.

Thanks everyone! My house is on the market as of yesterday and already we have a showing for today...Good!
Inanda, we didn't end up going for the geo-thermal house in the end and it's not that I didn't love it, but the other house she wanted us to see won out in the end and I'm so glad I kept an open mind. I would have less bush-whacking to do for gardens and the kids have massive lawn area to kick the ball around. And ...this property is one acre surrounded by cedars which makes it incredibly private. The geo-thermal house had 2 acres but the seller didn't point out one very important thing and I only noticed it when I went over the pictures again from when they had taken them in summer. There are reed-like plants near the house in the back and I know for a fact those only grow in wet. I inquired further and found out that it gets almost swampy which means to me, mosquito breeding ground. I wondered why there was such a huge screened in deck and now I know.
This house we're getting was once a farm and it is older, I'll make no secret of that and may be a century home. But it has amazing character and has been very well kept. The nooks and crannies and details in the moldings....oh my! You just don't see that anymore. The basement scares me a little and has a cold room that gives me the creeps but I'll chalk that up to my wild imagination.
The well/water has been inspected this past month and they have a water softener and uv filter in there which is a good thing. They drink their water right from the tap all the time!
Well, now I'm dealing with showings on my home and I can't stand trying to keep up appearances but what do you do. And no seed sowing for me either right now....sigh.

Erynne

This message was edited Feb 8, 2008 11:17 AM

Is the creepy room a cold storage? Sounds like a busy spring ahead for you, Erynne. Let us know how it goes and what you do with all your heucheras and hostas.

Sandy

Just stumbled on this thread Erynne.
I am so happy for you! Looks so beautiful and peaceful in that photo.

It will be a wonderful experience for you and your family.....
but there will be a learning curve when it comes to water when you live in the country.
Sounds like the family there has it pretty well covered though. You will have to learn about Sump pumps now..

I have a shallow well..25 ft. I am very careful with water..I too have a rain barrel to water my plants in pots..and most of the time the plants in the ground must rely on the rain.
I have a UV sterilizer and filter and a water softener too.

My advice is to make sure you use a submersible sump pump..not the tower kind.. If it quits you have a flooded basement..so make sure it is a good one.


Cheers,
Carol

Wonderful news Erynne. Enjoy your wide open spaces. I know very little about wells. We don't use ours as it is saline. I think it used to be used for cattle, years ago. We have river water, but also collect rainwater in an old water hauling tank, which sits on the old cement cattle trough/well.

A hosta walk would be lovely there. When you get your beds organised and need some seeds(not talking hosta), let me know.

Hi All,
Just hiding out here at work today because there is much work to do and there are showings at my house.
Sandy, the creepy room is a definitely a cold storage room and I'm not sure what I would use it for. I found out that the house is 99 yrs old but the addition is much younger. The addition is not heated though so that is something that will have to be addressed. It's currently being used as a mudroom and storage but I just know it could be so much more with the right fix ups. As for my hostas and heuchs, I will divide and pot us as much as I can without leaving the place totally barren. They can have my undulatas, haha.

Carol, I know absolutely nothing about sump pumps and not sure if I've ever seen one,lol. DH says he doesn't remember seeing one in this place but we're going back there on Wednesday for the inspection. When we were in the basement, I made sure to look at the walls all around for tell tale signs of water damage and I didn't see anything but that's not to say that they've never a had flood there. I have two rain barrels right now and I'm going to take them with me when we move. Unless a gardener moves in my current house, I can't see anyone else having the need for them.

The well water flows at 4 gpm or something like that. Is that good? The water tests just came back as well and everything is zero.

Brenda, thanks for the offer! I have a bunch of seeds from last year but don't know how viable they will be by the time I get around to them. I wanted to start these this winter but can't have a grow op while showing the house and don't relish the idea of trucking a bunch of seedlings to a new location along with everything else I have to move. As long as I have my hostas & heuchs to start that would be great. Then I will go with my other faves, like Echinacea, daylilies, Campanulas and Rudbeckia. Oh geez, this does remind me to dig up my Brunnera Jack Frost which has become a lovely size. And some of my daylilies too.....I think a list is in order and thank goodness I know exactly where everybody is in the garden!!

Erynne

Erynne, you'll have to send a list of what you have so I can can send a housewarming Hosta your way - preferably something you don't have if that's possible.

Ann

This is going to be fun following your story Erynne.
Maybe your new home doesn't have a sump pump..anyway..it is going to be a great adventure for you and your family.

Keep us posted..hope your "Old" home sells fast. Do you have a conditonal offer on this new home?

Cheers,
Carol

Hi Carol,
Yep, there are conditions and so far all have been met with the exception of our home selling. We've just been through a ton of showings this weekend and no takers that I know of....very stressful. The agents have said that the bad weather isn't helping the real estate industry and everything is slow all around so it's not just our home that's "sitting". Please everybody, send some positive vibes that someone will buy our home before March 10th! I want to be a country girl!!

Erynne

Sending good thoughts your way..
Hopefully someone will make an offer soon.


Cheers,
Carol

Thinking about you Erynne. Must be a major drama always having to have your house tidy for would-be buyers. Nailbiting time for you.

inanda - holding thumbs for you.

Yessssssss! I'm shouting......SOLD!!!!
Thank you for your thoughts and they worked! We learned for certain this morning that our house is sold so there won't be anymore keeping the house in perfectly spotless condition. There were 4 showings scheduled for today but our realtor cancelled them. Thank goodness! I got to do some piecework for a dresser topper that I'm going to quilt for one of the bedrooms in the "new" house, put in a few more stitches for a cross stitch piece that will be hung in the entry area and I started a crochet throw for the living room. Can you tell that I'm excited????
Inanda, I don't have any nails left and there wasn't much to start out with,lol!

Erynne :o)

Congratulations Erynne! What a relief that everything has finally come together :-)

--Ginny

What GREAT news!

oh, Erynne, that is GREAT news!

moving day will be here before you know it.

enjoy!

Erynne
Looking forward to seeing your new garden grow with all your dreams!
Ann

Thank you all! We are very excited! May 16th will be the big day!

I pretty much will have another clean slate to work with for gardening.
When I looked through the summer photos of this property, it was all grass and trees.....very clean looking but devoid of colour. But get this, there is one lonely big hosta out by the willow tree (very far down from house).....seemed a strange spot to put a hosta where nobody could truly enjoy it.....tsk, tsk, for shame.
I think I'm going to need more shaded spots for my hostas but on the flip side, I can now have a proper veggie garden and the kids are wanting to grow their own pumpkins.

Oh man, my head is swimming with ideas for the outside. Time to start drawing.

Erynne

Oh, almost forgot to mention, the well is inside the house and not in the basement either! It's freaky!

Yay! Yay! I'm so happy your sale went through and you will be a 'country girl' this summer. Well, we know what you'll be doing this spring! You'll be busy getting ready, making plans and moving!

Sandy

Tks Sandy!
I think after this weekend, Gary is going to start packing little things here and there; he is looking forward to that for some reason.
Ok, I'm being brave and showing you a pic of the kitchen that is in the country house.
It is actually longer than in the pic but the realtor's camera made it look short!
I love the windows but man, those cupboards .....oh I don't want to be mean but ei yi yi! They're the colour of foundation makeup for pete's sake! I don't think I could live with these cupboards long term and may go with a shaker style that would still suit the house. I'm also thinking I should paint the ceiling white as well as the trim around the windows but there's a part of me that says to keep the wood looking natural. Oh, I just don't know what to do!
C'mon everyone, what's your honest opinion on this kitchen? Do you think it's just ick?

Erynne

love the windows, I don't think a kitchen can have enough!

I agree that the cupboard colour looks like makeup, but a coat of paint would cure that. A coat of paint would be an interim measure, until you found the 'right' cupboards. Even the hinges/handles could be swapped out and change the look.

I'm of the thought that wood should be left 'au natural', but it's a matter of personal taste.

Your kitchen has great potential!