Tell me, do you all really need golf-course lawns in your gardens or do you have 4000 sqm plots?
I have 1600 sqm of land, of which at least 1000 sqm are undeveloped (the rest is residential building, driveway, double garage, shelter, garden shed)
I have several fruit trees, (still small) about 22 sqm of berry bushes, a raised bed and almost 100 sqm of vegetable growing area.
For that I only need 1 IBC container with 1000 liters each. So far, I have never run out of water in the last 2 years. I have also never had to use tap water (I only use it sometimes when there are only small things to water because I'm too lazy to start the pump for just one watering can).
The lawn is not watered, you don’t need that; if you never do it, it will root deeper. Only in the summer of 2018 did it look less than optimal for a few weeks, but it recovered really well.
And the bed is mulched, so you don’t have to water it much there either.
So I can’t quite understand this 6-10 sqm cistern.
Back then I even considered getting a third IBC to reach 3 sqm. But as I said, I have gotten along great with it for the last 2 years. You just must not spoil the plants too much, then they root properly deep.
And last year I couldn’t keep up with all the vegetables from the garden, so even with little water it yields a lot. Over 200 kg of tomatoes and countless zucchinis, pumpkins, various cabbages, chard, lettuce, strawberries, etc.
I agree with this opinion. I used to have 900 sqm and had everything laid out with lawn, trees, flowers, etc. I watered whenever I thought it was necessary. I lived there for 30 years and all the plants grew excellently despite my occasional watering.
When we built a new house, we concreted a rectangular basin under the concrete basement stairs into the garden, coated inside with waterproof slurry, and that was it. Inflow from the roof, overflow on the other side. Nowadays there are cheap plastic or ready-made concrete versions. The size was about 5 cubic meters and the cistern was never empty.
We operated it with a standard domestic water system. You have to be a bit careful here and somehow "package" it because of freezing in winter or just let it run empty. We are building again now and a cistern will definitely be installed again, 4-6 cubic meters, like the ones available for purchase.
But ultimately, as always, it depends on the dosage.....