In the ground? In the containers? Both? Success during drought starts long before the drought arrives, with soil improvement being the most important thing. Just let me know if your questions are aimed at container or in-ground growing, because the answer would vary depending on what we're talking about.

well both.my strategy is sort of to try and plant in the ground things that get tall enough and or large enough to need that but let me pick easier.first year to use containers.using large ones like we cut a 55 gallon food grade barrel in half and have a couple of mineral tubs and some smaller pots.jeff is doing drip irrigation to one bed and some containers this weekend.i bought some bags of Black gold organic soil with vermicompost to add to the bed and the containers.....

I'd have the containers on their own drip irrigation line and the in-ground plants on a separate one since containers normally need more frequent watering. If your containers are in full sun in the hot summer months, they could even need to be watered more than once a day during the hottest summer weather. In-ground plants should not need to be watered that often---you can water them less frequently but more deeply since the roots can stretch farther and more deeply (since no confined within a container) in order to seek and find available moisture.

Plants grown in containers have different nutrition needs and must be fed more often since the more frequent watering leaches out nutrients, and this is very difficult to get "just right" if you garden organically. I always put a lot of old, half-rotted wood and compost in my containers in an effort to create a heathly "flock" of microbial life within the container. I think this helps the plants use the available nutrients better than when I didn't use old, half-rotted wood in the containers. If I see a couple of them hanging around, I add earthworms to the container too and then make sure there's always mulch and other organic matter for them to eat and break down. I also like to regularly top dress with Espoma organic fertilizers because they contain some of the microbial life your soil needs. By regularly adding it, I am hoping to make up for the fact that soil-less mixes in general are sterile and come with no microbial life.

If y'all go on vacation for even a couple of days during the heat of the summer, you can put the drip irrigation lines on a timer (actually two timers since the in-ground plants wouldn't need to be watered as frequently as the containers) to ensure the plants survive your absence.

Since you'll have containers of different sizes, the way to compensate for that with the drip irrigation lines is to have more emitters in the larger containers so that get enough water, and to have fewer in the smaller containers so they don't get overwatered. I know this sounds like common sense, but I've seen plenty of people give the larger containers only 1 emitter.

I check my containers the old-fashioned way to see if they need water....I stick my finger down in the soil a couple of inches. I only water if it is dry or nearly dry. Later on the summer, when it is hot and dry, I don't have to check the soil moisture----I can tell from looking at the plant and the dry mulch that watering is due. Just remember that with all plants in containers that produce a fruit (tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons, cukes, etc.), your goal is to have evenly moist soil at all times. Fluctuating back and forth from very wet soil to very dry soil constantly will affect how the plants' vascular system takes up moisture and distributes it within the plant and can lead to Blossom End Rot.

I bury my containers about 3/4 of the way down. It helps with conserving water. I run drip emiters off the main line to the containers. My main line has a 1 gph emitter every foot. In the containers I put at least 2 if not 3 gallon per hour emitters. Works well. The roots can still get through the holes in the container and seek out additional nutrients. The next year you can pull out the plant and a little soil, add compost and do it again. So now my garden has very low raised beds and buried containers. I guess it's about what works for you. This works for me. Less weeds to pull to.

thanx dawn and scott.will have jeff read this thread.he is turning 62 on April 30th.how the heck did we get this old lol so while he is supportive of my efforts he has his hands full with old house repairs and lawns etc so once he gets me set up i am on my own.therefore highly invested in his session of setting up watering for sure.