With Middle Eastern terrorism so much in the news these days, perhaps many of you are wondering how gardening is done in the desert. Gardens are subject to a multitude of threats, including plague, pestilence, say, in the form of bean beetles, squash vine borers or deer, drought and flood. It is clear that the writers of the Old Testament were indeed familiar with the challenges of gardening. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Middle Eastern gardener is drought. As the late summers of North Carolina and Georgia become drier and drier, there is much we can learn from our counterparts half the world away. Because a stable food supply lies at the very heart of homeland security, let’s explore some of the ways in which you, a typical suburbanite with a green thumb, can turn your backyard Sahara into a veritable Garden of Eden.
Our gardens do not exist unto themselves, but are rather small parts of an overall ecosystem. Water is one essential of our garden’s ecosystem and is provided by nature in the form of rain. This water is absorbed by plants’ roots; drawn right through the plant and back into the air as the sunshine beating down upon the leaves sucks it right out of the plant. Some is held within the body of the plant, say in a tomato or a leaf of lettuce, until the plant is harvested and the water is added to our kitchen compost or passes through our bodies and back into the ground.
Water not absorbed by the plant is either evaporated back into the air or follows a downhill course to the closest ocean. How well do you know your watershed? What route does a raindrop follow from your garden to the Gulf or the ocean? Have to think about it? You don’t have to think about how to get to the closest Baskin-Robbins, do you? Get in touch with the cycles that your little raindrops follow.
The problem for us, this time of year, is getting the water to stay put. We want moisture in our garden soil for as long as we can keep it, and to keep it we must make it feel welcome and show it as much hospitality as we can. To do this, keep your soil happy and healthy. Soil in good health retains water better than poor soil. A garden with plenty of compost and earthworms, and with a good soil structure, will hold water more effectively than a patch of lawn that is simply turned over and left to its own devices. Add plenty of compost! Humus can hold 5 to 6 times its weight in water, and will hold onto this water with a tenacity, especially when well mulched. It will then release this water slowly, allowing the plants to take a good long drink, even after a few days without rain.
To further assist your soil in holding its water: mulch. We get a little bit of rain, the clouds roll away to reveal the sun, and any moisture in the soil is drawn right back into the sky. This process can be slowed by mulching, perhaps the single most effective thing any gardener can do to keep the soil moist. Mulch comes in a variety of forms. The cheapest to buy and the easiest to spread is straw. It can be bought at almost any garden center by the bale, and a few bales go a long way. Cover your garden with it. Spread it everywhere. Tuck in your little plants with it. Cover any bit of exposed soil with it. Lay it down. Not too thick, or rain water won’t be able to trickle down to the soil. Not too light, or the sun will hit the soil and you will not accrue the benefits by going through all this trouble. Lay it down just right and the soil will be in the shade. The plants, standing tall and proud above your mulch carpet, will be in the sunlight and will grow blue ribbon winners.
Using, conserving and maintaining what is already in our gardens is a good approach to solving any dilemma, and mulching conserves water. Be that as it may, there are still times when we must supplement what is there. That means watering, or, as we farmers say, irrigating. How big is your garden? Is it of a size that one or two of those cheap little plastic lawn sprinklers will cover it? That’s a quick and cheap way to go. Run a hose out to the garden, hook up your sprinklers, and let ’er rip.
You may want to get a little fancier, or your garden size or dimensions may not be conducive to the lawn sprinkler method. Garden sprinklers, found in many agricultural catalogues, are the next step up. These are permanently stationed at various points throughout the garden and connected with inexpensive black plastic pipe. The whole system is connected to your faucet and again, let ‘er rip! You can get really fancy and install a timer, so your garden with be watered automatically on a regular basis. I recommend taking advantage of free, natural rain to meet as many of your garden’s aquatic needs as possible, and using an irrigation system only as needed. Remember, keep it simple and take full advantage of what nature has already provided you before building giant, complicated contraptions. Water only when you have to. Turning on the faucet will necessitate keeping track of your soil’s moisture level by sticking your hand under the mulch in a few places and feeling the dirt, watching leaves for signs of wilting, and keeping track of interruptions in plant growth. It may sound like an awful lot of trouble, but it will keep you touch with the way your plants grow.
Drip tape is a fancier way of adding water to your soil. Flattened plastic tubes with specially designed channels are unrolled along a row of plants and slowly drip water into the ground, right where the plants are going to use it. No, you can’t just punch holes in a garden hose. Water will squirt through the holes and go every which way instead of slowly dripping down to where you need it. Planning a drip system can be complicated and, because you may need special filters and pressure regulators, may be the most costly of the irrigation systems we’ve discussed. However, a drip system also makes the most effective use of the smallest amount of water, and may eventually pay for itself, economically and environmentally. Those with wells that are prone to going dry, or living in municipalities that frequently issue watering restrictions, may want to consider a drip system.
These basic steps should keep your garden happy and healthy in a prolonged period without rain. And those prolonged periods seem to be more and more prolonged. But never mind. You’ve thought ahead and can feed yourself and your neighbors from your own garden.

Frank Teneralli owns and operates Let It Grow Organic Gardens in Spring Creek, North Carolina. He is the vice president of the Mountain Tailgate Market Association, a member of Carolina Organic Growers, and sells at the French Broad Food Co-op Tailgate Markt in Asheville, NC on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

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