MC, call Ken out or search his post for drip irrigation. Good stuff to learn. He is the master!

Do you drink that well water? If so, what does it taste like?

I'm hoping to eventually switch the majority of the overhead watering system to drip but it's going to take time. Meanwhile, as I develop the woods, the watering there will be drip for sure. I can move the most badly damaged types from the overhead system.

We do drink the water but not until it's gone through being softened and then purified. It's perfectly safe, just full of minerals. When we first moved here and had the water tested there was a scale of hardness 1-7. If your water was hard, at 7, you needed it to be softened (so the sales pitch went). Our water was 27. The spots on my plants, windows, shower etc. are the downside.

The upside is that we have unlimited water and I can water as much and as often as I want. I often leave the water on for days on the west side. There were drippers set up do to the roses and lavander planted there. It gets into the 100's and because we are on a hill, the sun's up until almost 10. I moved 25 hostas between the roses last year. Because I can leave the water on, they all did fine.

Just an add-on comment to McT's comment about hard water being safe to drink. I grew up drinking well water, which was hard water, and it tasted good AND was safe to drink. Minerals are generally 'good' things, for us and our plants. It's other stuff (contaminants) that get into our water that can be dangerous.

Hard water spots just look bad and they can build up on surfaces (like in your coffee pot and water lines) and damage them because they get all gunked up. I don't think that hard water (like cholestoral) will build up in us. Of course, I could be wrong about that.

Just my 2 cents worth :-)