Growing a vegetable garden in a drought may seem reckless if not impossible, but Contra Costa Master Gardener Janet Miller says there are ways to lower your water use and still have a healthy, fruitful summer garden.

Miller, speaking at the opening day of Our Garden, a demonstration garden that is a joint endeavor of the master gardeners and the Bay Area News Group in Walnut Creek, says home gardens use less water than commercial growers.

Here are some tips:

Don’t spare the compost. Add 3 to 4 inches of compost to your garden beds and work it lightly into the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy plants, which need less water.

Mulch. Add 3 to 5 inches of mulch on top of beds to help reduce water evaporation. Mulch can be almost anything including dried leaves, aged horse manure, extra compost or straw, not hay. Mulch also will repress weed growth.

Install a drip irrigation system. Drip systems use much less water than any other form of irrigation, and the plants like it better, too.

Be selective. Plant only what you like and only as much as you’ll consume.

Consider planting early maturing and short-season crops, which will use less water.

Plant seedlings close together on an offset pattern, rather than in a row. This configuration uses less water and as the plants grow, they will shade the soil and reduce evaporation.

Grow high-yield vegetables, such as beans, squash, egg plant, peppers and tomatoes. You’ll get more for your water buck with these plants.

Keep your beds weeded. Weeds not only are annoying, they compete with your plants for water and nutrients, and they are much better at grabbing them.

When given a choice, plant determinate varieties. Determinate plants grow to a certain size and produce for a specific amount of time. Indeterminate varieties will continue to grow and produce until frost. The determinate types, with their shorter growing season, will use less water.

Instead of planting seeds and watering the entire bed, start seeds in a tray and then transplant the seedlings into your garden. We typically do this with certain plants, such as tomatoes, in order to get a head start on the growing season, but consider doing it with the big seed plants such as pumpkins, corn and squash.

Use shade cloth to help prevent soil evaporation and prevent sunburn.

Try dry farming. Many plants, including tomatoes, can be dry farmed. Our Garden will have two demonstration beds this year, growing a number of different tomato varieties. For successful dry farming, you want to create a spongy growing medium that will hold water. The best way, Miller says, is to grow a cover crop over the winter and then cut the plants down and work them into the soil. If you didn’t have a cover crop, then prepare the bed with lots of compost. Plant your tomatoes and water them as usual for the first few days to get them established, then water only once a week. Once the tomatoes flower and set fruit, cut off all water. The plants may not look great, but they will produce and some say the fruit will taste better. Other tips

The key to a productive, healthy vegetable garden is location, soil and planting the right plant at the right time. If plants require a lot of sun, be sure to plant them where they’ll get the most. Amend your soil to make sure it has plenty of nutrients to feed the plants, and don’t try to grow crops that aren’t in season. Getting a soil test will help you to know what might be lacking in your soil.

Just because you can buy a plant at a nursery doesn’t mean it will grow. California gardeners can have year round crops, Miller says, but you can’t grow everything at the same time. Grow cool season crops, such as leafy greens, beets, turnips and peas in February through April, include. Warm season crops — egg plant, beans, squash and tomatoes — are grown from April through July. August through November is the time to plant cold season crops such as broccoli and cilantro. December and January are “no plant” months, Miller says.

If you have trouble getting your squash to produce, you likely don’t have many or any male blossoms on the vines. Crush a leaf on the plant to trigger a hormone in the squash to produce male blossoms.

Stake tomato and pepper plants early, otherwise they can quickly get too large to properly support.