Would lowering plant density as much as this book suggests equally lower the yield of the plot?  Surprisingly, the amount harvested does not drop proportionately.  In most cases having a plant density one-eighth of that recommended by intensive gardening advocates will result in a yield about half as great as on closely planted raised beds.

Internet Readers:  In the print copy of this book are color pictures of my own “irrigationless” garden.  Looking at them about here in the book would add reality to these ideas.

Chapter 3

Helping Plants to Need Less Irrigation

Dry though the maritime Northwest summer is, we enter the growing season with our full depth of soil at field capacity.  Except on clayey soils in extraordinarily frosty, high-elevation locations, we usually can till and plant before the soil has had a chance to lose much moisture.

There are a number of things we can do to make soil moisture more available to our summer vegetables.  The most obvious step is thorough weeding.  Next, we can keep the surface fluffed up with a rotary tiller or hoe during April and May, to break its capillary connection with deeper soil and accelerate the formation of a dry dust mulch.  Usually, weeding forces us to do this anyway.  Also, if it should rain during summer, we can hoe or rotary till a day or two later and again help a new dust mulch to develop.

Building Bigger Root Systems

Without irrigation, most of the plant’s water supply is obtained by expansion into new earth that hasn’t been desiccated by other competing roots.  Eliminating any obstacles to rapid growth of root systems is the key to success.  So, keep in mind a few facts about how roots grow and prosper.

The air supply in soil limits or allows root growth.  Unlike the leaves, roots do not perform photosynthesis, breaking down carbon dioxide gas into atmospheric oxygen and carbon.  Yet root cells must breathe oxygen.  This is obtained from the air held in spaces between soil particles.  Many other soil-dwelling life forms from bacteria to moles compete for this same oxygen.  Consequently, soil oxygen levels are lower than in the atmosphere.  A slow exchange of gases does occur between soil air and free atmosphere, but deeper in the soil there will inevitably be less oxygen.  Different plant species have varying degrees of root tolerance for lack of oxygen, but they all stop growing at some depth.  Moisture reserves below the roots’ maximum depth beecome relatively inaccessible.

Soil compaction reduces the overall supply and exchange of soil air.  Compacted soil also acts as a mechanical barrier to root system expansion.  When gardening with unlimited irrigation or where rain falls frequently, it is quite possible to have satisfactory growth when only the surface 6 or 7 inches of soil facilitates root development.  When gardening with limited water, China’s the limit, because if soil conditions permit, many vegetable species are capable of reaching 4, 5, and 8 eight feet down to find moisture and nutrition.