But we've been watering, every other day Hubby soaks the flower beds good. Worked too darn hard moving all of the well established perennials last year from our old house....refuse to let them die! The heck with the lawn, except for a patch in back Hubby's been letting the sprinkler run on so the geese have grass to eat.

Lee Anne, I can't use the well water on the garden in case I run the well dry. I do have a stream-fed pond, but no way to extract the water from the pond except by dipping buckets. After I wrecked my knees and broke my wrist carrying buckets of water for the garden I vowed never to do that again. When DH's legs were OK, he would dip buckets in the pond and fill a couple of large barrels close to the garden for me, but now he's not able walk much, let alone carry anything. These days, the garden is on its own. Luckily, it was all planted years ago.

I worried about running the well dry but the guy that originally renovated the place from a school house says we're on an artesan well...no worries.
I would think that as long as there is water in your pond your well would be fine...it's well below the water table that feeds your pond....but I hear ya about carrying buckets of water though, hard work, sorry you're unable to do it still

I have discovered that with a "regular" well, there are two things to take into account. The first is how much water is above the level of the pump, the second is how much water flows into the well as it is being emptied. In a drought situation, my worry is that the water level has dropped and also the inflow of water has decreased. Our well collapsed last fall, possibly because the domestic water-treatment equipment drew too much water when it was doing its overnight maintenance "flushing", and it was also a dry year. We had to get a new well drilled. It was quite a traumatic experience, and I'll never take water for granted again! Having said all that, I am pleased to report that our drought has broken. Rain began before dawn and has been falling steadily for hours. The garden is sucking it up. I hope you get some rain too (but not a flood).