Adventures In Desert Gardening

Mods move this if need be. I did try and find a suitable forum, even in BTS and this looked like the most likeliest suspect.

Right, here goes. First, some pics to let you know what I am dealing with.































I figure a few hours a day until the middle of next week and I'll have as many rocks and dead weeds out of there that I am going to get. I only have the tiller for another week, give or take, so I gotta get rows all set up and ready to go. I've got seeds for carrots, radishes, peppers and cantaloupe. What the hell, if I can makes some stuff it's gotta be better than buying it in the store, right?

I have a few bags of mulch to mix in when I'm ready in a few days. I don't have the room indoors to start the seeds but I threw a few seeds in the ground late last year, some peppers, and grew them for a while until it got too cold so I will just have to see what happens. I'm hoping this turns out well.

It's where I live but not my yard so I can only do so much. The ground slopes up towards that back wall so the rows will have to run parallel to that wall. I may end up finagling a small wall, a planter for some flowers or such, against the back wall, about three or four feet high. I think flowers would add a nice touch and also bring around the bees and such, little critters that make it like a organic farm. Won't be organic, of course, but I can try and do what I can with it.

I'm not sure the exact dimensions but I figure about three sets of rows, with room to get in between about ten feet long. Three, four deep. That sounds about right but until I actually do it I won't know.

The chain link fence holds a dog run and in there are a dozen or so palm trees that have sprouted up. I'm going to transplant those in the yard, strategically.

Strategically where and for what purpose other than to look good and break it up, I am unsure but I will figure it out. Bummer about those is that they can only grow so much because of the caliche underneath. I have a couple of feet of dirt to grow in which is why I chose the stuff I did, stuff that grows not too deep. 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. We lost a tree in the front yard last year, a dust devil kicked it out of the ground, and much of that was because it couldn't get it's roots down because of the caliche.

It is the desert.

So, I'm doing what I can. Will I get infested with bugs? Who knows? Will my cats tear it up and try to make it their sandbox? I'm going to try and build something around it but I'm unsure of how big this is all going to be. Have to get it started then go from there.

Hey man, best of luck. I'm looking forward to the updates.

If ya get stuck, plant some cactus.

I suggest you research the "raised-bed" garden design at this stage.
It's more suited for your yard and climate, soil too.
Goggle it.

reply to post by Granite


Brilliant! I was thinking a different route, making rows and build them up with dirt, as I have plenty of that(and rocks if needed) and if they can build a dam out of dirt I figured I could shore up some radishes.

Raised bed sounds better. Plant grass around the beds to keep the weeds and dust down. I had thought of using straw, simple and easy, to keep the weeds and dust down but a little grass wouldn't be hard and would make it all nice and pretty.

All I really need are some planks and some stakes so that should be swingable. Thanks so much!

Really, it's quite a simple idea. I was thinking so differently that something like that never occurred to me.

SteveR, yeah, there will be updates. This might turn out to be a failed experiment but I'm gonna work at it, try to not fail. We shall see.

Cheers!

good sun and raised beds will grow anything...put organic matter like crazy into the dirt...it doesn;t have to have time to degradew....leaves, lawn clippings busted up styrofoam...anything to hold moisture or more important, to let the roots travels down

You're gonna need a lot of organic matter to get anything to grow well there. That dirt looks like it has absolutely nothing in it.

The raised garden bed is the best way to go, that way you can put in your own soil.

For veges I'd use lots of manure and straw, sheep or chicken is best but whatever is available to you will do.

If you can too, start a compost heap, throw in all of your food scraps and green waste, if you want I can give you some links on how to make one.

For around the garden beds maybe put down wood chips, sawdust or whatever is available locally, that should keep the dust down and reduce the reflective heat from the sun.

I don't know what state or country you are in; but to be honest, I've never seen soil that sterile except from a passenger's window.

Radishes just might work, they are up in 3 weeks and are about the easiest thing to start with. Edit - PS - you can eat the radish greens! Rinse them, add a spritz of cider vinegar and sugar. Not tasty; but, okay for survival. Do NOT eat the greens from the other items mentioned here - even in a survival scenario.

Carrots - well they are cheap - besides, the exercise won't hurt you even though you won't get a carrot bigger than a digit.

Cantaloupe and carrots like alkaline soil - you just might have alkaline something or other there, though, I wouldn't call it soil.

Certain kinds of peppers can be pretty forgiving - particularly the smaller peppers.

I presume you have city water - CHEAP city water. If you are counting on rainfall to water a desert garden - well - go for landscaping instead and check out Xeriscaping!

If water is an issue - plant in the furrow, not on top like usual gardening! Furrows need to be dug double deep when tilling. The advantage to planting in furrows is water conservation AND it deters some of the excess air-drying on the rows.

MULCH, mulch, mulch!


[edit on 7/3/2010 by Trexter Ziam]

Yeah, I'm gonna start a compost pile also. Gotta keep it away from the dogs so I'll have to do something about that. I'd like to get the planter built against the back wall and use part of that. I juice a lot so I get lots of pulp and peels and such so that gives me lots of starter material. I've been throwing it right into the dirt as it stands right now and tilling it into it.

The dirt isn't as bad as it looks. If I had taken a picture right after it's been tilled it looks quite different. It's not the greatest but things can be grown there. Like I said, I had some pepper seeds last year that I just threw in the ground and they grew up until the point where it got cold and I gave up on them. A little test run, so to speak, to see if something regular with no compost, no fertilizer, no mulch, anything, would grow. They grew nicely.

My sister lives not far from here(I'm in Las Vegas, btw) and she grows peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and has grown carrots right in the ground. Same dirt I have, basically. So it can be done. I'm sure it wont be easy but it can be done.

Water isn't a issue as I have a hose. Not the greatest water but it will do. I'm not starting a organic farm here but maybe I can start to stop buying the crap in the store. Be nice if I had a huge filtration sytstem to clean the water but that's not going to happen.

This is a response to a couple of posts so thanks all, I do appreciate the words!

reply to post by TheLoony


Looks just like my yard when I lived in Arizona. Some people I know had raised bed gardens that worked out pretty well. Good luck with it. I'll be curious to see how it turns out.

The ever growing pile of rocks. My back hurts a bit but I do believe it will be worth it.






There is no money in the till to buy wood for planter boxes so it's been a load of fun tilling, shoveling, screening the rocks out slowly with a screen door which is not very durable and dumping on the patio. My back is even getting sunburned and it's not even in the 80's yet.

I'm enjoying myself through it all.

If I keep going, eventually it will get done.

I'm going to start small with just a few rows for now. I'll add more as I get more rocks pulled out. I'm concentrating(more, I should say) on one area - there are so many rocks I can end up wandering around the yard and that's nearly futile. I have to get a small area done and move on from there.

I should have a area done by tomorrow or the day after. I'll start mixing in fertilizer and food into the dirt I have cleaned out, a few hundred pounds, and fill in the hole I have made. I still have more digging but it doesn't need to be too deep. I have yet to come across caliche which I would assume is there as I found a huge chunk in the front yard.

I'm very cool with that.

I took pictures of the hole but you can't really see anything more than the other pics. The hole just looks like more dirt. When I have some decent ones in a few days I'll post them.

Once I get this all worked out I do hope this will help with "survival", as the forum is supposed to be about that. I know I should have slightly better veggies and fruits than I can get in a store, and cheaper to boot plus the added factor of not having to have them shipped to me.

Because my back hurts, that tells me I have been working, and that's a good thing. I may not make money off this but I may not spend much for many things in the future. I hope. The guys at the plant store were cool, helped me get good "organic" fertilizer and food, the right stuff for around here although that sounds kind of stupid since it's all desert here.

I'll be back soon with more updates. Thanks for the kind words!

Cheers!

reply to post by TheLoony


Coming from someone who also lives in the southwest...
Go ask a neighbour how deep before you get to the Caliche...
Caliche is a sedimentary rock, a hardened deposit of calcium carbonate...
is its fairly shallow you'll have a problem when watering... that is if you over water you'll get salt raise to the surface, you see a white powder around your plants... Look around at other gardens for that tell-tail... if it's a problem you'll need to think about container gardening

Phase one is almost complete. I may have to take a break, look for work, and give my body a rest. I hurt, to say the least.

Carrots and radishes:




Up close, after three of four days:




The big hole which will be filled and planted hopefully tomorrow. It's mostly full, now but not in the pic, of clean dirt I've been putting through the screen and will be ready tomorrow. I don't know if I will have the fertilizer, food, sulfur. We'll see. This will be raised above the other as I didn't judge my height very well with the first hole.

Looks like you have been busy. Raised beds are a great idea. Can you buy bales of hay? You could keep the hay in the bales and then let them start to rot a might. If you wet them and cover them, the heat will work for you. When they start to decompose, you can use them as raised beds.
Here is a site that explains the process: thegardenersrake.com...
My son just got his master gardener certificate. He is building something that is much like an "earthbox." Here is a site that talks about the idea:
www.instructables.com...
I live in cental FL. Things tend to burn out here. If you like jalepeños or habeneros - you're in luck. They are HOT and they like it HOT
Hope these suggestions work - oh btw, growing cactus isn't such a bad idea. I think nopales are mighty tasty - kinda like a green bean. (Just be careful cleaning them!)

wow! looks like you have been having fun! I can't wait to start working in my garden again...still waiting for the frost to come out of the ground, Would love to live where you can garden all year. Keep up the good work

I use raised beds made from ceder planks and plant in blocks instead of rows, I find with the blocks that the ground does not dry out as fast, easier to weed and there is no wasted space.

best of luck and keep us posted

reply to post by zachi


Thanks for the tips but as I've already started this is the way I have to go. There's not enough money to buy the wood for raised beds so I'm digging holes and sifting the rocks and weeds out then filling it back up and building it above the ground. I have lots of dirt so it's cheap but hurts my hands and back.










reply to post by fernx


Fun, eh? I don't know if that is the operative word as my right arm is numb much of the time, my left hand as numb and my back is bent like a old man. This is the toughest job I have ever done, hands down.

I had to stop yesterday as the wind kicked up to unreal strength and it's just blowing dust all over the place, making it nearly impossible to work. I am having trouble breathing also from dust intake even though I wear a mask out there. Phase one is about two hours from being done if the wind would die down.

Here's pics from yesterday and today.

My homemade screen:





Where the cantaloupes and peppers will go once the wind dies down:




Lots of little guys here, about time to thin them out:









I will be watching tourney games today. No work. I want to but the weather is giving me a much needed day of rest. I watered and that's as far as I'm going today. I am beat. I knew this would be hard but I didn't realize how hard, how beat up I would get. I've only done a portion of the land I have to work with and it's been a adventure, to say the least.

I will probably use leftover dirt I have pulled out to build up another carrot area. That will not be too difficult, no digging involved I can just build it up with dirt.

Cheers!

Just happened upon this thread and it has been really fun reading through your "journey" of planting in the desert. Something I would highly recommend is using some mulch. In the hot weather, mulch is going to keep the moisture in the soil and keep the base temperature of the soil relatively even. If you use a highly organic mulch, like leaf compost or some wood chip mulches, you're also going to be adding to the soil nutrients, because as the mulch decomposes, it releases organic matter nutrients into the soil. Keep up the good work!

[edit on 27-3-2010 by SurvivalSeedBnk]

reply to post by SurvivalSeedBnk


Thanks for the tips.

Here's the end of Phase 1 of Loony the Gardener's experiment. Cantaloupes and peppers now planted. There's thirteen bags of manure in this hole, also food and sulfur, again. I used manure as it's quite a bit cheaper.




I still have a large pile of dirt, not to mention the rest of the yard is dirt and rocks. Sift the pile and I can build another area of carrots.

I may have already mentioned that.

It is now time to look for work so I'll get that done soon, next week or so, but I won't be able to spend much time doing the work I want to do back there to make it a full blown garden. Bloody job, bloody money, bloody waste and how I hate having to try and be "responsible". Give me some frakking manure, some seeds, a little food and what not I'll bust my butt and do something worthwhile.

Oh well.

I'll have more pics later when something happens. I do hope I got it all right but it's not that difficult. Backbreaking at times but the actual growing part is much easier.

Cheers!

Yes, planting is definitely the hardest part! Once everything really starts growing, it's going to make it all worth while! Tending to everything is much easy, and being able to reap the benefits of all your hard work is going to be so satisfying!

[edit on 2-4-2010 by SurvivalSeedBnk]

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.

YIPES. Wish I'd seen this before! ...From experience:

1. SINK your beds, don't raise them! This helps keep the water where it needs to be, prevents run-off.

2. Bring in compost from a horse farm or something - should be free - mix it straight in.

3. Plant in circles - ie. corn plants with squash/cukes around them (shade and something to climb)

4. Save milk jugs, puncture bottom with pin, fill with water, cap loosely, place near roots - water will seep into soil all day, help keep plants alive without evaporating all at once.


Good luck - and be thankful you aren't dealing with caleche(sp?)!!!