Gardening Without Irrigation: Or Without Much, Anyway

The problem: your vegetables need water, but water is becoming scarce. The solution: everything Steve Solomon learned about growing food in the Pacific Northwest's paradoxically dry summers. After moving to Oregon, Solomon faced a dilemma familiar to many gardeners: his water supply was dwindling, yet his vegetables thirsted. Rather than surrender, he experimented. What he discovered was counterintuitive and brilliant. By spacing plants differently, mulching heavily, and working with the soil's existing moisture rather than fighting it, he grew abundant vegetables through weeks of summer drought using only a fraction of the water a conventional garden demands. This isn't theoretical gardening advice. It's the hard-won wisdom of someone who learned by doing, failing, and trying again. Solomon writes about his own failures with the same detail as his successes, making you feel like you're learning from a patient neighbor who has made every mistake already. Whether you're a weekend gardener with a small plot or a homesteader seeking true self-reliance, this book offers something rare: a realistic path to growing food that doesn't depend on the tap.