Conservation of Water in the Vegetable Garden Part One Plant Spacing and Storing Water in the Soil Most vegetables and fruits that grow in a Kitchen Garden are not low water use plants in the Pacific Northwest. This is due to the fact that many of the plants we automatically associate with a vegetable garden are summer annuals.
Annuals have a short growing season to harvest, often measured in mere days.
This requires them to have a ample supply of water and nutrients to achieve the maximum harvest. And summer annuals are further burdened by the lack of natural rainfall we receive in the Pacific Northwest from May to September. There are farmers and gardeners who grow dry farmed or non-irrigated vegetables and it can be done on a home scale but it may not be for everyone. One advantage farmers have is they usually have good agricultural soils that recieve more water in the winter and hold more soil in the summer. I will assume most urban gardeners do not have this blessing.