growing vegitables in a west coast summer, without irrigation

This morning petrichor was heavy in the air.  Petrichor is a smell so strong; you can almost feel the texture gritting against your skin.  It's a mixture of ocean and dust.  But more than that.  Petrichor is the smell rain makes after dry, grimy, hot summer days.  

It's unusual to experience petrichor here, as it seldom rains in summer and never in June.  At least not since we moved to the farm nearly ten years ago.  It is an unusual year for weather.  I expect unusual will soon be the new norm.

Most years, the rain stops on or before May first.  There are a couple of rainy patches near midsummer and again at the end of August, but these showers usually miss the farm.  It will rain at the neighbours and across the road, but not here.  One of the things we strive for is low maintenance farming; farming without irrigation or rain in a Mediterranean climate.  Most of the experiments on the farm have been focused on the assumption it won't rain in the summer.  We've had great success with this.  There are a few parts of the farm that are entirely irrigation-free and produce a decent crop even on poor soil.  

We've grown chickpeas, peas, soup peas, kale, squash, hot peppers, sunflowers, woad, flax, and tomatoes without irrigation or rain.  Pretty darn neat.  This year, we've been experimenting with different row and plant spacing as well as potatoes.  But the rain has skewed our results -  not that we mind - so we'll have to try it again next year.  

How are we growing these without irrigation? 
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