Adventures In Desert Gardening

reply to post by TheLoony


Don't give up, you put so much into it! It is looking great, you have not failed, give it some time, you will see. The hard work is over with now, just keep watering and they will grow.

I know how you feel I have failed at lots of things and just give up and walk away, but give it some time and they will grow

thinking of you
cheers

Originally posted by TheLoony
I'd love to plant a orange, grapefruit, lemon, whatever type of tree but I can't. Need a bulldozer for it all, I do believe.

If it isn't your property then buy smaller trees and put them into large pots. You can get large pots for free from any landscaper you know. They grow real slow anyways, and this way you can take them with you might you move or if SHTF. Most things perennial are long term investments so I'd plan it as such, and its still important to get them into your inventory now.

And starting citrus along with many other fruiting perennials from seed is a gamble. Read up on them before you get involved via seed. Planting an orange seed might just give you a good tree, but you'll be waiting years to find out... and large trees are expensive.

The only catch with jumbo pots is you need to stock a decent rubber tire dolly to not be trying to drag them across grass.

reply to post by TheLoony


Please don't give up. Not just yet.

"Much time is wasted for the sake of a little more."

Originally posted by TheLoony
It's over. I failed, just like everything else I have ever tried.

I'm killing the radishes trying to thin them out and the other areas are infested and there isn't even any growth.

I'll just cover it all over and give up.

Nonsense!

You might try a different approach...

A formula for success... except you'll need some luck... but how I do it in Florida is...

CRAIGSLIST: Essential!

POTS: Go all pots. Get free pots from landscapers. If you dont know any you'll have to 'bribe' them to give you all the pots they use that they get for free with no deposit. Pots are nice because you can reconfigure their layout for best results, and if your soil mix doesnt work good you can dump it out into a pile and change you forumula. For you reason alone I think it helps to really get a more scientific understanding of good soil.

This will also save you from building raised beds, and you can take them and all your soil with you need be...

SOIL: I get loads of manure compost from horse ranches / people with horses, bags of specialty soils from Home Debit, tried some soil from a landscape supply, and get various local FL sandy soil...

I get it all incrementally. It took me a year but now I have lots of soil spread amongst my planted pots, plus a good half a yard or so extra on hand for more fun.

I've been lucky with access to most of my take, except for when I get bags of peat or related specialty stuff. I bought a couple yards of "planting soil" from a local landscape supply and it sucked, but that dont mean soil at all of this venue are crap. I've ended up mixing tons of other stuff into it as I've recycled my soil and stuff grows good in it now.

IMPORTANT: In FL the native soil is very sandy, so for us adding compost and I'm now realizing CLAY derivitives is what we need to do. You'll need to consider how much actual sand is in your native soil. Does it clump and get sticky when wet (clay)? If you do need to add more sand I'm not too sure what creative way you might need to get it there for free.

THE YARD: Grass, native edible groundcover, or mulch.

There's always grass, but mind you that vegetation makes a nice host for insects of all sorts.

With a little research you might find some good edible or otherwise useful native ground cover plants. If you're going to harbor insects, might as well have some use for the vegetation.

Or you can mulch the whole thing... perhaps for free. I dont know how many trees you have there but down here you can find tree trimmer guys on Craigslist that will deliver wood chips and dump them in your yard for free. This way you wont have worry about damaging your groundcover dragging pots around. I even mix some of the wood chipper material into my other soil mixes as needed when I recycle the soil.

So after a year of plugging away at all of this I have a good 10 or 12 yards worth of soil spread amongst lots of containers of all different sizes, mostly large and jumbo pots. The larger the pot the deeper it is, which is important if you want to plant several plants per pot.

[edit on 5-4-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

Thanks, all. I was in a seriously piss-poor mood the other day. Then seeing all the bugs on my newly planted areas sent me over the edge.

Life can be a bitch at times. Mine seems to be like that most days. Anyway......

I covered the new areas with manure, hence the bugs. I've been told it will work but at this point, it really doesn't matter. I'm leaving on Friday for a month in Colorado to retrieve the last of my belongings from my ex-gf and take a little trip(work for her, vacation for me) to South Dakota and Wyoming. Since I have never seen either it will be nice to get away from the endless crap that is Las Vegas. At least for me, Vegas is the worst place I could ever be. I'm probably the only person in the world who actively loathes, abhors, outright HATES Las Vegas, as I have spent thirty some odd years here and nothing good ever happens. Crikey, I don't even get laid here, how messed up is that???

So, whatever, I'll go and do what needs to be done away from here and hopefully come back with a better attitude. The garden will still be here as Mom will water it. If anything grows, then fine. If not, then fine also as it will be here for me to work when I get back.

I've been thinning out the radishes, here's a pic from a few minutes ago.




I believe there is room for them to grow. We'll see. Too bad I won't get to reap any of the initial rewards but that's the way it goes. It's typical of my life to not have things go the way I want them to but I keep on keeping on, for some reason.

Hi! Don't give up you've just been preparing the soil...some times this takes years to enrich it. Start a compost pile for food leftovers, weeds,
grass, egg shells, fish leftovers, coffee grinds, shrimp shells, grass clippings, etc... Cow manure is my favorite. I buy it by the processed composted bag. Everything I plant has cow manure going into the hole first, and around the plant. Mulch keeps moisture around the plants. This can be straw, pine needles, wood chips, grass cuttings, etc. Get a rain barrel started to help collect rain water, you could put this under your house's downspout gutters. My grandmother used to grow tomatoes in the cracks of her concrete patio, so anything is possible. In the south east USA we have rocks in our clay sand soil which is orange from the iron content. We have a burn pile and we use the left over ash to halp
ammend and enrich the soil. Keep up you efforts! Eventually you get it all going your way!

I really enjoyed this thread! We live in the high desert, but your ground looks a LOT like ours. That's why we went with raised beds and LOTS of compost.

I'll just place some links so you can look at them if you want:

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Good luck!

I remembered there is a nice horse farm just outside of Vegas in the Mojave dessert for tourists to go riding. I did this in 2003, I don't gamble.
Anyways, they had alot of horses 30+ so they probably have a manure compost plan and would probably be able to give you a truck load.
I liked Vegas. You've got fabulous restraunts, Art museums, horse back riding, the Grand Canyon, neat Architecture, shopping! It is an entertaining
place for the non gamblers!

The Looney--You didn't fail! Don't give up, just try a different approach! There are so many different ways to garden, so many different techniques, and it just turns out that this one didn't work. I would suggest raised beds. Give it another shot, seriously.