Drought gardening

A recent spate of rain has greened the landscape. But so far it's only window-dressing over drought.

With rain volumes still at half their norms, water officials are uneasily looking at depleted reservoirs and warning that rationing may be imposed by summer. If you're a residential user worried about curtailing showers and keeping your parched landscape alive, how could you possibly think about growing a vegetable garden?

It's a painful dilemma coming at a time when more and more people -- whether interested in better eating, more socially conscious consumption or simply cutting down their grocery bill during a deep recession -- are interested in growing their own food.

Gardening experts, however, say you don't have to give up on your kitchen gardens, even if spring fails to deliver enough rain to ward off water shortages and voluntary or even forced rationing. There are many shortcuts and tricks, folk wisdom and trade-offs so you don't have to live entirely without your fresh garden goodies this season.

"Now is the time to be thinking about dry gardening. Even though we've had relatively scant rainfall, a home gardener can still capture the rainfall we are having, just like a farmer would," said Stephen Albert, author of "The Kitchen Garden Grower's Guide" (available at Amazon) and editor of the garden blog HarvestToTable.com.

"If you can harvest just some of that rain, you can reuse it later in the season. People that do think about that are really going to be just steps ahead of other people."

Gardeners can draw on some of the principles of "dry farming," which has been practiced for millennia by native peoples. It doesn't mean farming without water completely, Albert said, but rather using water more efficiently. Many of the farms and vineyards of the Napa and Sonoma Valley were dry farmed as late as the 1960s, when irrigation was introduced, he added.

We asked Albert and other area garden experts for ways to cope in a dry year.

PLANT SPRING VEGGIES NOW: Water is always at a premium in summer when the rain dries up. But there are sure to be rainy days over the next few months. Why not plant a vegetable garden that won't need irrigation? At this time of year you can be growing broccoli, lettuce, chard, snow and sugar snap peas, spinach, chard, arugula and other leafy greens and let Nature take care of the watering for you. If the rainfall over the next few months is normal, you should need no additional irrigation.

CONSIDER CONTAINERS: Plants grown in smaller containers do need frequent watering. But if you grow your veggies in pots, you also are using less space. You can concentrate your watering right on the plant without waste and grow just what you know you can eat. Growing in pots on a deck or patio near the house also makes it easy to use re-captured water.

"I capture the cold water in my shower before the hot water gets to me. And I pour that on the containers we have on the front deck," said longtime Santa Rosa wholesale nurseryman Bill Gaddis. "I'm getting two and a half to four gallons every day. Over 10 days that's up to 40 gallons of water. And yet people are letting that go down the drain." One can similarly catch cold water from sinks.

Gaddis said some people wrap their containers with insulating blankets to keep them moist longer. "It sounds hokey, but it works, he said. "It keeps the container a little cool so the sun is not baking it."

PREPARE SOIL PROPERLY: Kirsten Tripplett, nursery manager at Harmony Farm Supply in Sebastopol, said this is "profoundly important." Plants and trees given the kind of nutrients they need to get established will be better able to handle the stress of a low water season later. Albert suggests adding aged compost and aged manure -- "the more the better." Add at least ¼ to ½ inch of compost twice a year in autumn and spring. Organic matter not only will improve your soil but help it retain water.

GOPHER CAGES: In a dry year, these notorious garden thieves will be hungrier and therefore an even bigger threat, said Tripplett. "They'll be eating the roots of trees that in the past they would normally have left alone," she said. In-ground baskets of ¾-inch wire will thwart even juvenile gophers.

MULCH AROUND MATURING PLANTS AND WEED: Any good gardener sings the praises of mulch. In a dry year it is even more essential to help the soil retain moisture and keep cool. It will also block weeds, which compete with vegetables for water, nutrients and light. Albert recommends hand-picking weeds when they are 2-3 inches tall or lightly cultivating them to expose their roots to drying wind and sun.

DOUBLE DIG TO LOOSEN SOIL: This technique, if done properly and at the right time, will turn your soil into a "sponge," according to Albert. But you don't want to do it when the soil is wet; that will harm the texture and structure and compact your soil. You also don't want to do it with bone-dry soil. But if we have two to three weeks of dry weather it should be just about right. Grab a handful of soil in your palm and make a fist. If it is tight and wet and glistening, it is too wet, Albert said. If it crumbles, it is too dry. "Double-digging involves turning the soil a spade's length deep (about 12 inches) and then loosening the next 12 inches of soil with a spading fork."

"By double-digging, you've allowed your soil to capture more water and you have also made a better home for plant roots so they can easily navigate through the soil and find moisture," he added.

MAKE A SMALLER GARDEN: This may sound like a no-brainer, but how often have you been left with far more tomatoes than you could even stew and so many zucchini you couldn't even give them away? Cathy Williamson, who teaches public classes for the Sonoma County Master Gardeners, said a healthy tomato plant can produce 10 pounds of fruit in a season. Most families, she said, would do fine with 5 to 6 plants. Check the seed packets as you buy them and choose a mix of early and late harvesting varieties so you're not overrun all at once but instead have a nice steady supply over a longer period. Or choose only early maturing cultivars this year and then wind down your garden when the summer is hot and water at its most precious. Plant only what you really love to eat. And choose varieties that may use less water. Forego those big thirsty watermelons for smaller, more flavorful little sugar-baby watermelons.

SPACE FARTHER APART: This is a basic dry-gardening concept, says Albert. By spacing plants at least one and a half times the distance recommended on the seed packet, fewer plants will compete for the water available in the soil. But he points out that seeds must receive moisture to germinate, so water until they are well established.

DRIP IRRIGATION: Albert recommends covering drip irrigation with straw or black plastic to slow evaporation and then putting it on a timer. Drip is more efficient than sprinklers because you're targeting water only to the plants you want to receive it.

WATER DEEPLY BUT INFREQUENTLY: By watering plants deeply at a trickle you're allowing water to seep down into the soil, rather than running off, Albert says. Plants grown this way will develop roots deeper into the soil. And when you water, do so at night at the base of plants, or in the morning. Don't water in the heat of day.

DON'T OVERWATER: Juicy doesn't always mean more flavorful. Many gardeners routinely overwater their tomatoes. But less is more -- leading to more flavorful fruit.

Meg McConahey, a staff writer, can be reached at 521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@

pressdemocrat.com.