I'm getting to know my local weather patterns well, I am not expecting any rain any time soon. They keep suggesting it will rain in a few days, but as the day comes the forecast miraculously changes to sunny weather.
It's d**n dry here, even when it is raining just down the road it often just stays cloudy here.
We've had one day of rain and a few showers since May and only about 8 days with any rain since Easter.
I grow differently here than I used to grow things elsewhere. Squash and corn I grow in hollows in the ground, these craters help retain moisture and ensure when it does rain the water runs into the root zone and not simply off down the slope.
My main tip for gardening in dry soil is avoid watering young plants as much as is possible while still keeping them alive, when you do water really drench the surrounding soil. This way they send roots down to hunt for water, reducing watering needs later in the season.
When I do water; which I do infrequently and only if plants are showing stress; I really soak my plot, I'm talking maybe the equivalent of several inches of rain across the entire plot.
Tomatoes and potatoes I plant deeply, though tomatoes and lettuce I do water frequently.
Curently my soil is bone dry for about a foot down. A whole foot before you hit any moisture at all. yet my corn and squash are healthy and green and my strawberry plants are lush and productive.
I'd far rather garden in dry soil and water if need be, than deal endlessly with all the blights and mildews of wet weather.
The advantage of my comparative dry microclimate is apparent in my blight record, in two seasons I have suffered no significant blight until the very end of the season deep in to autumn. With no real impact on my crop yield at all.
