Gardening to the Max: How To Garden in a Drought

Part 1 of my summer series on organic gardening. Follow along as I plant, pick and prepare fruits and vegetables for a variety of gluten-free, delicious meals!

My mom really likes gardening so this summer I decided to make a garden. We have already bought about 20 plants and seeds. During the summer I’ll be cooking all of this organic food and making recipes. For this post, I want to focus on gardening in a drought. Here are some tips!

1. Never water when the sun is out.

When you water when the sun is out, the water will evaporate more quickly. Best time is at night or very early in the morning. We water our plants about every other day. Our drip irrigation is set on a timer and waters the plants at night.  Anyway, if you water when the sun is out the sun might blaze in your eyes and when you try to water them you might not even be able to see what you are doing.

2. Be thoughtful about the size of your plants.

Seeds and seedlings need to be kept moist because they have shallow roots.  Bigger plants have deeper roots and need less water since their roots go down deeper into moister soil and the plants are stronger. Some big plants for example are tomatoes and peppers.  It’s kind of like how kids need more and healthier food than adults.  Adults still need healthy food but they aren’t growing any more so for growing children it’s very important.  And they will grow taller than tomatoes and peppers.

3. Drip irrigation is better than spraying.

Drip irrigation, which is water that comes out of tubes and drips slowly into the soil, is better than spraying water because when you spray some of that water evaporates before it gets to the plant and is lost. In case you don’t know evaporation is when the water like just disappears.  I learned that in school when we studied farming.

4. Know what kind of soil you have.

If you have clay soil it holds water better than sandy soil which the water runs through more quickly.  The kind in the middle is called loam. We have loam soil. The best place to buy soil is at the nursery. Make sure it’s organic. You don’t want to get free soil on craigslist because that soil is from construction sites and it’s not clean and has chemicals you don’t want to grow food with.

5. Put compost in your garden soil.

Compost helps retain moisture. It behaves like a sponge. Plus it is good for your garden because it is like feeding your garden vitamin soil!  In a future post I will tell you all about my worm compost!!!

You can click play to see the start of our garden!