Some situations you prep for and hope they don’t come (I’m looking at YOU, major EMP!). Others situations you pretty much know are going to happen one year or another. Drought? It’s going to happen. Water collection for home use is discussed elsewhere. This article is about the biggest volume user of water for a self sufficiency inclined household: food production.
If you get a dry year when everything else is going fine, with well-stocked grocery stores and you in funds to make use of them, drought is not that big of a deal for most people. It’s worth watering perennials enough to keep them healthy, but a missed crop isn’t catastrophic.
Apple tree at The Place mulched with grass clippings to keep moisture from evaporating
If you get a dry year when you really need food from that garden, you’d better be ready to deal with it. The biology is inescapable: Plants need water to do photosynthesis. The question will be how do you supply it and how much do you need. The answer comes in four parts:
Plant selection with drought in mind:
Some plants deal with drought well and won’t need much help. In a theme that also starred in the article on perennial selection, variety is good because it you are likely to get something no matter what life throws at you.
Corn is a naturally drought-resistant grass. It will do better than many garden plants in a dry year, although production starts dropping once the leaves start curling into spikes from dryness.
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Mulch:
Several inches of mulch on the soil around your plants helps reduce evaporation and thus the need for watering. Concerned that the mulch might soak up too much of the rain you do have? Well, so was I, so I asked around among master gardeners I know, and they assured me the mulch is definitely a net gain. This is especially true if you do drip irrigation. Bonuses: Mulch reduces splashing of soil onto your leaves, so fungal spores in the soil are less likely to affect the plants. It also reduces weed growth.
Companion planting, such as planting viney squashes under tall plants to shade the soil, is a sort of live mulch.
Two birds with one stone: Spice cleans up and creates mulching material
Drip irrigation:
Drip irrigation is the gold standard of watering. It requires less water because the water applied soaks into the soal instead of evaporating much or running off, and the water is better targeted to where you want it. It also takes less attention than hose watering. Sound daunting? I thought so too, but last year I bit the bullet and studied up on it and designed a system. It’s been wonderful! I still need to water from the city in extended droughts; but every little cloudburst is stretched into a useful watering (or two from the barrel draining the biggest roof area).
Another advantage is that if there’s no rain at all, I can fill the barrels with tap water. Last year I filled one barrel from the inside-the-house storage that was several years old and needed to be rotated; then refilled the inside storage with fresh. The outside barrel then delivered the water in the efficient, drip irrigation method.
Soil amendments:
Sandy soils drain water quickly and need watering sooner after a rain…or so I hear; in northern Missouri sandy soils are more a legend than reality. Gardeners in sandy soils report that adding fiber helps considerably. Coco fiber and peat are popular if you’re buying. If you’re on the cheap … well, shredded paper is high in fiber and they’re now using non-toxic inks. I use it in my clay soils to reduce stickiness.
Our garden gnome Calvin stands in a raised bed box surrounded by shredded paper mulch.
Rabbit “berries” are a great soil amendment too. This and soil from our compost heap, ground egg shells, and coffee grounds, are our only fertilizers.
Mulching is key. We use local hay, very thick. 6-8″ initially for mulch. It will compact as you go. Little weed management required.