[Stonehenge]

My kids are goofy.

If they're playing in the yard and I tell them I'm going to pick a purple carrot they practically will crawl over each other to get to the carrot first.

Take the very same carrot and put it on their plate at dinner? Crickets.

I love that they get excited about eating healthy things from the garden and so I want to expand ours next spring. Problem is, I suck at remembering to water. Something to do with the whole "cobbler's children are shoeless" syndrome, I would imagine.

So I'm wanting to automate the process. Without investing in automation. Enter my sump pump. We live in a spot where our sump pump runs pretty regularly - enough that I needed to place a quick-change fitting on the pump, have a spare sitting mere inches away, and have an alarm that goes off when the water level gets too high.

Right now that water just pumps into the creek running at the lot line of our front yard. I'd like to make use of that water instead.

Can you think of any reasons why it would be a bad idea to use sump pump water in our vegetable garden?

I look forward to your replies.

[brooks]

The only thing I can think of off hand would be to test it for heavy metals first. No telling what debris was left in the backfill of your foundation.

We just dug out for a new foundation for an addition on our 60 yr old house and there was a household garbage dump in it, covered by some really great topsoil.

[Terre]

Enjoy. It's illegal here.

[dan deutekom]

Go for it. We have to pump out onto the lawn or garden here. It should only be ground water anyway.

[jimindm]

If your pump is running that much, i wouod be worried about washing the seeds out in the spring. To much water is as bad as not enough.

Were you thinking some kind of sprinkler system? You would have a hell of a flow rate, but how long would it be on?

I think that you could make it work by flooding the middle of two rows. I just think that is a lot of water around the clock. Maybe if you could run some sort of a bypass to the garden for a couple of hours a day other wise down to the creek.

In my home, I want the sump pump to pump the water out and as far away as possible. I do not think I would do anything to change that concept. The possibility of the damage caused by a wet basement would far out way fresh produce for me.

[Stonehenge]

For clients I've set up a sump pump dispersal "system" that releases the water more slowly to bedding plants - it's just flexible pipe with holes drilled in it. I would do the same at my place.

I'd forgotten about Colorado. California owns your water, right Terre?

I might check to see if there's a DIY water quality test at Home Depot (they have radon and mold tests there, so maybe they have water, too).

Ok. Garden design moving forward. Thanks for the input.