I just bought a piece of property with a flowing artesian well on it. The old house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. At the time the well was not flowing and the previous owners just left the pipe sticking out of the ground. Its now flowing again. Interestingly enough there are 3 other similar wells within a half mile doing the same thing. They just run into the ditch and into the marsh. We are on the Mississippi gulf coast just a mile from the beach.

I want to plant a garden on my new property and rig up my artesian well for Irrigation with an off-grid set up. I do not have electricity out there. Here is my idea. I'd first pipe the water into a big tank, maybe a 55 gallon drum. Then, install a toilet float to prevent the water from overfilling the tank. I guess I would need to build a platform for the tank, to get it up off the ground to provide gravity fed outflow. I could then pipe this through the garden with soaker hoses. And maybe add a battery powered garden hose timer to water at regular intervals.

I have a few variables I'm not sure about. If I shut off the water will it start flowing again? I'm not sure why none of these wells were flowing out of the broken off pipes 11 years ago, and now they are. Also, I'm not sure how to calculate my expected water pressure from this kind of set up. I only assume I'd have more pressure, the bigger the tank, the higher I place it, and the more I restrict the pipes coming out.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? Will it work? I'm new to this, and any experience, advice, insight, suggestions, and/or encouragement would be appreciated.