What to Do With Your Vegetable Garden during a Drought?

by Aliyah Rogers

If you have been gardening for a long time, you would know there are some natural conditions in season that no one can prevent. One of the most prevailing conditions is the drought that most gardens get. When rainfall is scarce and the level of scorching heat rises, your vegetable garden shows signs of suffering. Even these signs continue to grow if you do not take proper care of them. 

It would help if you adopted some healthy tips to prevent your garden from dry conditions and take steps to develop a healthy foundation. Besides, you need to plan carefully the vegetables that are drought tolerant and can manage infrequent water resources.

I admit that it is not easy to plant your garden in drought time. Plus, you can never see your struggle goes waste in drought season. I also faced dry season for some years continuously. However, I followed some tips to prevent its drastic effects and moved to grow some drought-resistant vegetables. 

Here are some helpful tips to help you grow vegetables in the garden during a drought and grow nutrient-rich food. This post will provide insight what to do with your vegetables garden during a drought. Plus what vegetables you can plant and how to water vegetables in drought conditions?

The Season for Drought

This season does not start at a similar time in each country. This season causes water scarcity, so you fall into a problem with growing vegetables in your garden due to insufficient water supply. But every issue has some way out, the same for preventing your garden from drought.

You can plant vegetables that need less water. Also, you can plan an ingenious irrigation system so it will require less water. Even you can follow water conservation guidelines. 

What are Drought Tolerant Vegetables?

Are you aware of what drought-tolerant vegetables are? These establish in-depth root systems to manage heat and low water levels. Surprisingly, these vegetables take less time to grow and have more minor water requirements. You can select these vegetables by checking for labels if the plants can manage hot temperatures and have low or moderate water needs.

In some cases, it might happen that you have passed half a drought year. At this point, you can purchase young plants rather than buying seeds and planting from the initial seeds. No doubt, you will find a wide variety of drought-resistant plants. 

If you want to be quicker, choose vegetables that take less time to grow, like zucchini that usually takes 60 days to grow ultimately. 

Here is the list of drought-tolerant vegetables you can opt for planting in drought season. These plants have the quality to bloom in hot and dry climates. 

  • Corn
  • Cowpeas, black-eyed peas, and field peas
  • Pole beans
  • Lima beans
  • Quinoa
  • Mustard greens
  • Edible amaranth
  • Heatwave II tomatoes
  • Sunflowers
  • Summer squashes
  • Some herbs
  • Black Diamond watermelon

How to Water your Vegetable Garden in Drought Season?

Here is the answer that how do Vegetables grow in drought. Read on the following tips.

1.      Water your Vegetables in Early Season

First thing first, one of the most crucial steps is to water your vegetables in the early growing season. Keep in mind to provide your plants time to make their roots strong. If your garden is in an area with enough rain in the spring season in that case, it will ultimately help you to start with a good gardening experience. 

2.      Mulch your Vegetable Garden

Secondly, you need to look for what mulching is. It helps block the soil's moisture and saves it from being backed dry from sun and wind.  For this purpose, you need to spread a layer of 2-3 inches deep on your garden surface. For mulching, you have several choices, like using a straw, wood chips, and grass clippings. Additionally, you can prefer using sheet mulching to strengthen its ability to maintain moisture in the soil.

3.      Weed your Vegetable Garden

Weeding vegetables requires using valuable nutrients and moisture from the soil that each vegetable needs. In this way, your plants will have the strength to access water and food in the plants. 

4.      Limit Commercial Fertilizers’ Use

It is a fact that commercial fertilizers are appealing, and you may agree to use them to grow your vegetables faster. Remember that they consist of some harsh chemicals that can harm your garden. These fertilizers have enough chemicals and salts combined in the soil and damage its natural composition.

How to Manage your Plants in Drought Condition?

Typically, there are three types of drought conditions; No water restrictions, Watering restrictions, and, No watering allowed.

Here is some helpful advice you can follow to prevent your plants from these severe conditions.

  • If you face watering restrictions, you can focus on water conservation and use organic material along with good irrigation practices. Primarily, you need to check your soil before watering to prevent any uncertain conditions.
  • If your soil becomes dry, so soil's efficiency gets decreased. So, it is exceptionally essential to check the soil regularly. 
  • If you face a condition of water restrictions, at this point, your garden needs good maintenance, and it will stop restrictions. Your garden will be safe from drastic impact. If you can manage to water after every two to three days, in that case, your garden with proper mulching along with good organic matter will produce somehow good results. 
  • As discussed above that if you face water scarcity each year means no water allowed, you must plant vegetables that need less water, like sweet corn. 
  • Besides, you can have another option for watering. You can water with rain harvested from rain barrels, but you may face difficulty if drought conditions are severe. 
  • If water restrictions are common in your area each year, you can plant small indoor container gardens. Additionally, suppose you face continuous drought conditions. In that case, you can plan your vegetable gardening according to the current circumstances for the following year.

Bottom Line

Overall, drought condition is seasonal in many countries. The above tips can help you what to do with your vegetable condition during a drought. Putting simply, be aware of all common symptoms, grow your plants accordingly, and prefer to plant drought-resistant vegetables to get a fruitful outcome.
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