How can you grow a home garden in a drought?

Will it work?

With prior planning, yes. within limits. The key is to stockpile water IN THE SOIL BEFORE THE DROUGHT. And do everything to conserve it.

Now, if you are trying to start in a drought you have to use every drop of water wisely. Mulch well and very controlled watering, using grey water and any other source you can find. But that is assuming you have well/muni water to use.

If you are in a drought and don't have a water source and didn't get your earthworks done and charged before it started, then you don't have a lot to work with.

Can you legally harvest rainwater in your area?

I have high hopes for beds with buried wood in them. I have soaked the wood before burying in the past, next time I'm going to soak it in urine. We'll see how that goes.

Assume that every year will be a drought and plant accordingly:
Cultivars/Species Selection: Drought resistant maybe with a name like southwest kale.
Root system: at most weekly to encourage deep root system
Spacing: With less rain you will have to give each productive crop greater spacing than say in wet Georgia.
Water conservation: Use mulch to cut down on evaporation, use N-fixing ground cover, palm over story.
Water storage: buried root system, wood (hugleculture) to water, swales, etc.
Increase mineral: plants mainly use water to as a medium to carry soil nutrients, so increase your mineral.
Mineral Absorption: a fungal network can do efficient mineral mining, so will adding biochar and humus, mineral accumulator

These are just a few ideas I am sure other can give more and expand on the ones I listed

S Bengi wrote:Assume that every year will be a drought and plant accordingly:
Cultivars/Species Selection: Drought resistant maybe with a name like southwest kale.

Do you have suggestions for other drought resistant vegetables?

You can garden in a drought. Just to list a few ideas of what you can do:

-Gabions work by the thermal mass of the rocks storing the coolness of the night over into the day which allows for condensation to collect on the rocks. Here is a link to Geoff Lawton explaining how gabions work: http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/63007-gabions

-Swales essentially work by slowing the water down, when you do get it, enough that it will percolate into the soil and hopefully raise the water table. Once again, Geoff Lawton is amazing! Here is a great video on YouTube with Geoff Lawton talking about swales.


-Air wells work by the same principal as gabions, just maybe a little cooler looking. Here is a link to a discussion on air wells on Permies.
https://permies.com/t/23408/homestead/Air-collecting-water-air

Lastly, I would like to direct you to Geoff Lawton's Desert Oasis video. It describes how a person can use permaculture methods to grow food in the desert.
http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/62176-desert-oasis

I hope you enjoy these and become inspired! Best of luck to you, Tony!