Do you ever get rain in the fall or winter? Missouri is lucky to have several months of good rainfall that we can collect enough water to get us through, but the kind of heat we had last year, you’d need an air conditioned greenhouse to have a hope of growing your food.
Which reminds me, we get 10 gallons daily of water from our air conditioner, due to the high humidity here. We collect it and use it to water our plants.
Smart idea. I didnt realize how much water the A/C unit (inside evaporator coil) throws off from condensation until I had a leak last month. Wish my drainage was to the outside rather than down to the sewer pipes or I would do the same thing. Also if a clog develops can hook up a shop vac to the external drain and suck that crud right out to help prevent leaks too as maintenance.
In 2011, Texas endured the worst single-year drought in its history. - http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/drought/
Texas is now in its third year of drought... In many rural areas, farm and pastureland soils are dry, and grasshoppers, which eat crops, have become a problem. (The insects’ populations increase during droughts because the fungus that naturally limits their growth does not grow without moisture—although an extreme drought can prevent grasshopper eggs from hatching.)
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2013/07/12/where-we-stand-the-texas-drought/
Earlier in the spring, we had a couple of gully washing downpours but not enough to help. At least we're not NM.