My gut feelings say that when watering lawns, quite a bit of chlorine
dissipates because of the fact that the water is sprayed, not poured. For
the vegetable garden, though, that's not the case if you're watering by
hand. The holding basin is a nice idea, except that you'll want to put some
sort of fine screen over the top so mosquitoes don't make a hotel out of it.

As long as you're thinking of these things, you might also think about a way
of catching run-off from your roof gutters. That would solve your chlorine
problem.

"tmtresh" wrote in message
m...
In my area, there is no irrigation water. Everybody waters their
lawns, and other plants with chlorinated city water. Because of the
fact that chlorine kills the beneficial bacteria in the soil, I've
been thinking of some alternative ways of watering. Do you think it
would be worth the time and effort to build some sort of holding basin
(or pond) to hold water for long enough for the chlorine to dissapate,
then using a drip system attached to the basin to water my small
(probably 80-100 ft^2) veggie garden? Do you think I'm just being
paranoid? How much actual harm does city water do? It seems that all
the neighbors' gardens don't grow very well either. I've never had
such a problem growing things before, in other places I've lived-- but
then we always had irrigation water-- so I'm wondering if the water is
what has been affecting my garding. The main problem is that the
plants don't grow very fast, and when they finally start fruiting
(much later than they should), the fruit is undersized (regular
tomatoes looking like little hard cherry or grape tomatoes). Is this
because the beneficial bacteria is gone, or something else? Has
anybody else noticed problems using city water?