Iâm investing in a new water system for my garden in the Berkshires this spring. Our well, although it furnishes a perfectly adequate supply for our household needs, does not produce enough flow to support garden irrigation. With the increasing frequency of droughts â a feature of our changing climate in the Northeast â Iâm finding that just depending on the rain that falls on the garden is no longer enough. Instead, Iâm installing a 500-gallon cistern that will be fed by run-off from the roof of our house. Coupled with a gravity-fed drip irrigation system, this should be enough to substantially help our complex of raised bed vegetable gardens through at least the shorter spells of rainless weather.