Water catchment for rain is important. Currently I use hugelkultur [1] (might not work in your context), swales of various widths/lengths/depths to hold extra rains from running off.
I've modified my driveway to pull water off the road and into my system.
I also use grey water; I have a sink in the garden where I wash produce and it drains into a mini-swale to feed strawberries, onions, and a couple plum trees.
I'm also considering rigging up an outside shower for the same reason to water another area.
My goal is to eventually get some IBC totes to hold roof runoff. I'm also considering purchasing a small pump since I have access to a fast flowing 15 foot deep stream.
One other thing to note, you'd be surprised just how resilient trees, srubs, and plants are to water stresses, if you use enough mulch. The soil life will thank you as well.
Additionally, once you establish a system it tends toward self-renewal, planting perennial trees, shrubs, vines, and ground cover resolves water issues in most contexts. The biomass (both alive and dead) will accumulate and help with water retention.
Yeah! Hugelkultur is on my list of things to explore. Sadly we are not allowed to take the gray water outside or capture any water outside of what falls on the roof, nor are we allowed to divert any streams or anything, so if there's a longer drought we'll likely run out. Indoor water is not a problem it's just that we're limited on what we can do outside because outdoor water usage results in the water leaving the local water system and that water already has senior rights attached to it. We're also not allowed to create and kind of water runoff storage system like a swale or redirect water from the driveway.
We do have a ton of trees and shrubs and bushes and I'm going to be making some gardens with native wildflowers that should be able to resist the local weather machinations but I'd like to find some drought tolerant vegetables.
I've modified my driveway to pull water off the road and into my system.
I also use grey water; I have a sink in the garden where I wash produce and it drains into a mini-swale to feed strawberries, onions, and a couple plum trees.
I'm also considering rigging up an outside shower for the same reason to water another area.
My goal is to eventually get some IBC totes to hold roof runoff. I'm also considering purchasing a small pump since I have access to a fast flowing 15 foot deep stream.
One other thing to note, you'd be surprised just how resilient trees, srubs, and plants are to water stresses, if you use enough mulch. The soil life will thank you as well.
Additionally, once you establish a system it tends toward self-renewal, planting perennial trees, shrubs, vines, and ground cover resolves water issues in most contexts. The biomass (both alive and dead) will accumulate and help with water retention.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur