Photosynthesis shouldn't cost that much!!

So with photosynthesis on my mind, I called the bore man. He was a nice guy. Came and had a look at our place ("wow, you sure have a lot going on here", says he) and gave us a ballpark figure. We smiled, shook his hand and said we'd discuss it and get back to him. Then I came inside and started brainstorming alternatives!

With every one of our financial decisions, we weigh the pros and cons and decide if they are a worthy investment. The solar power for instance - it was expensive, but will pay for itself over the years and gives us green power so we don't have to support the coal fired power plants - it was a worthwhile investment. But between $7000 & $10,000 to water our plants?  I've done the sums every which way (spent some time cursing the day we lost access to the bore water we had) and I just can't justify the expenditure - even if I have to buy rainwater every year, I can't see it as a sensible investment. 

So we'll continue to be water frugal around here, and are looking at some alternative options for the garden. I'm planning to convert our four main veggie beds into wicking beds as the summer crops finish. Ornamental plants that need to be watered through the summer are going to be replaced with drought hardy plants. I'm going to invest in some good seeper hoses to gently water our fruit trees using the water in our tank that was installed for the purpose and grey water too. And we'll look into a more user friendly system for getting our grey water to the garden (there has to be easier ways than me carting it out in buckets!). 

Would love to hear from any readers with experience with wicking beds or grey water systems or other watering ideas that I might not have thought of (though I've thought of a lot!). And we'll just keep on working hard to keep the garden chugging in the meantime.