How can you grow a home garden in a drought?
First, it depends on WHERE you are. What zone, how much rain you get annually in the drought, the heat levels and evaporation rates, and the soil. All of these can change what works best in your garden. For example, you can check out keyhole gardens in areas where the temperatures aren't frequently up into the 100's (farenheit) in the summer. You can look up how to do these - used in Africa right now and very nice way to grow plants if you can swing it. If you live somewhere like Northern New Mexico, you might try something like the Zuni waffle gardens, which help utilize lower water amounts. If you live in a hotter, drier desert, you probably want to dig down and have recessed gardens (even if it's more work in hard soil) as this collects more water during the rains and when the soil is below the level of the surround ground, the wind blows across it less and that lowers evaporation rates. Mulch can be very good, but too much mulch when you have too little rain, and the mulch absorbs all the water and the soil gets very little (this in areas where there is very little rain, about 12 inches a year or so). some large rocks over your garden, where the plants aren't growing, will keep moisture in the ground under the rocks. But if it gets too hot where you are at, the rocks can raise the closely surrounding temperature about 10 degrees or more which could stress the plants. heirloom seeds and drought resistant varieties can be very useful, if you make sure they work with your climate. The more local the seeds, the better.
Most people do not realize that you can garden with little water. I read this great article and it opened my eyes to all the things that could be done. I hope this helps you with your garden.
Most people use aqua phonics for gardening that have problems with water shortages. It only uses about 10 percent of the water supply that you would use in a regular garden. It is like raising fish and recycling the water through the garden.
I don't know from what you wrote just how much water you have or what restrictions your jurisdiction might have. But what I did when we had watering restrictions (every second day). I would water twice on the day we could water: once after 12 am, and then again the same day at 11PM. This keeps water from evaporating and also spreads out your watering about 23 hours.
Plant drought resistant plants. Most silvery leafed plants take heat and dryness when established, plants such as Rosmarinus, Lavendula , Santolina, Festuca glauca, Agapanthus and Convolvulus cneorum will look effective when the design works. Myrtles and Olives are effective for height.
