Yeah basically I do not water. I use hugelkulture (buried logs) and deep mulch no till, and the top soil is already black prairie gold that goes three feet deep before the B horizon of more clayey soil starts. The soil is almost never exposed to air and can stay mesic for nearly a month with no rain. I don't water after the plants are set in the ground and growing because once they reach this sponge layer they are usually good to go for a normal season like they are tapped into a tiny aquifer.
Used to be we only had a 2 week period or so in high summer to get through with no rain and really hot dry weather. The hugel is perfect for that bc it acts like a sponge that absorbs heavy downpours and slowly releases that reservoir with the help of deeply rooted plants like parsnips to wick up the moisture thru the soil profile. Anymore, we have two and this year three separate 3-week-plus drought stretches with drying winds so it is not as successful in these extremes, and my hugels are aging so they don't hold quite as much water as they are more broken down now after 10 years. To build the main hugel, I used an old woodpile of already partially decayed wood too rotted to burn, so had I used green timber the setup would probably still be cooking along on a slower breakdown schedule.
It's a great system I have highlighted for garden tours. Really dramatic to show how in July I can pull back the mulch and stick my hand right into moist tilth vs an untreated bed that is a foot of cracked concrete blocks in comparison. Highly recommend it. Also a great way to deal with storm debris on site if you are like us and have derechos and tornados and front line winds coming through on the regular.
