Good Heavens, where do I start? One full acre of desert and I'm no

[NMDemDist2]

green thumb goddess for sure

I'm old with bad knees but want to start some vegtables in raised beds and I need a "not the lawn" yard with some color and that will stand up to my three dogs.

the region is south eastern New mexico at about 3100 foot elevation so some hard freezes at night in the winter and most of the 13 inches of rain we get a year comes in the summer

I need suggestions on french intensive/square foot gardening books, low water/xeriscape books and maybe a cheap or free software to help me lay things out over this winter


the GOOD news is I only am using half an acre for the house (the rest can stay fallow), the old owners had horses and I roast coffee so I have horse manure and coffee grinds to help the sandy clay ground.

can anybody help me out please?? thanks so much in advance!!

[dcfirefighter]

1. My books

I started with Square Foot Gardening
and moved to How to grow more Vegetables... I like this book, though it's almost a reference book. For the same general information, in less detail but in an easier to read format, there's also Sustainable Vegetable Garden.

I don't have much of a suggestion for your 'lawn' area, other than to go with what's indigenous. Pea gravel might be on order. Or look into plants native to new mexico: http://npsnm.unm.edu/ or http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/rdsduse/nm.htm

As for growing things, start composting, and growing composting crops such as corn, wheat, rye, and other grains. Sunflowers and amaranth look nice and produce a decent amount of biomass for compost. Supposedly your results are better if you don't try to spread your existing compost too thin, try for at least 2" of compost mixed into the top few inches of soil, and then dedicate the majority of this to growing more compost.

The second book also refers to Zulus? who triple dug manure (to ~3' deep) such that the organic material retained water from the monsoons for uptake during the entire dry growing season.

I also don't know about ornamentals.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. I second the recommendation for the old standard

Square Foot Gardening, because there is lots of useful information beyond just the tight space gardening hints.

Can't help you on desert "lawn" because my climate is too different (winter rain and frost to 25 degrees, no summer moisture.) For borders with some height, check out dasylirions. They're fountain-shaped plants with thin leaves (roughly 3' x 3' x 3' plants for some varieties, at least until the send up a flower.) In a xeric garden they fare nicely and need no attention once they have settled in. Supplemental water for the first year or so is good.



on edit: chile peppers!

[NMDemDist2]

6. that pic is of the indigenous cactus there in the Chihuahuan desert

they grow naturally at elevations just lower than ours :evilgrin:

I fear it may get too cold for them at our house however, I don't see them in the area much

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Too bad. They're sturdy guys

I have four in my yard (two each of two different cultivars) but then we don't get quite as cold as your climate. I'm a fan of High Country Gardens catalog.

I love the deserts of the southwest.

[NMDemDist2]

9. the would probably be OK if I plant them in the right spot I think

and they are showy buggers aren't they :)

here's a pic of what's there now (basically nothing LOL )

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Bettter than my yard.

It had half an acre of thistles and bindweed when we moved in and an inexplicably large area devoted to thirsty grass. Ugh. We now have a postage stamp lawn off the patio (sprinkler system, also waters the roses) and everything else is either raised beds with drip hoses or xeric plantings. This is valley California, hot enough in the summer but not truly hot, and tons of winter water.

We have long hot dry summers and our tomatoes and peppers are outstanding.

[NMDemDist2]

11. I grew up in Sacramento and lived in the East Bay too so I know of

what you speak

I can't wait for the summers when it actually COOLS DOWN to double digits at night :rofl:

here in AZ it's not unusual for it still to be 100 at midnight. now don't get me wrong, I love the heat but PLEEZE

I fear the winters there though... :scared:

[Ecumenist]

35. AZ, You grew up in SAC?

Where'd you grow up? Boy, small world. I knew you'd lived here but you're a native? Wow.

[NMDemDist2]

36. ROFL not a native, I moved there when I was 7 years old

I grew up on T street before they put in the Hwy 50 (construction was fun on my bike, lots of dirt and hills LOL) then we moved just north of Elk Grove on a few acres which is where I did jr high and hi school

then as an adult I lived downtown almost the whole time and at 38 bought a house at El Camino and Howe Ave where I lived til we moved here to Phoenix

[japple]

2. Hi AZ(soon-to-be-NM)dem! Congrats on "finding" your

perfect home. It sounds wonderful, and the perfect place for herbs. Sage will do well and smells great. Most Mediterranean herbs, inc. lavendar will grow and even thrive in dry, poor. I would plant a gazillion lavendars. I can only get the English variety to really do well here, but I bet French and Spanish varieties would do well, plus they attract bees and butterflies.

I look forward to hearing/seeing what you come up with.

[japple]

3. And of course peppers and tomatoes will be great, too. n/t

[Kolesar]

5. You will probably be able to do a spring planting and an August planting

after the scorching heat of the southern sun has abated. I'm no expert, I am just kicking ideas around here.

Here is the book that I bought this winter and am implementing right now:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=1580172121&itm=1

Publishers Weekly
A committed organic gardener, Smith is a proponent of staggered planting in raised, wide and deep beds that provide conductive root systems and produce abundant harvests. He explains his system, from optimum siting and soil preparation (he prefers broad-forking over rototilling or double-digging) to companion planting and compost ("The path to the garden of your dreams leads right through the middle of a compost pile"). For beginners, he takes the mystery out of such subjects as hardening off ("like a little boot camp for vegetables") and deciphering the shorthand used in seed catalogues. An abundance of photographs (most of Smith's own garden) visually bolster the techniques described, while frequent subheads, sidebars and information-packed photo captions make the layout user-friendly. The book concludes with an alphabetically arranged listing of vegetables and herbs in which Smith offers advice on every aspect of cultivation, as well as a selection of the most flavorful varieties. Smith doesn't necessarily break new ground here, but his book is thorough and infused with practical wisdom and a dry Vermont humor that should endear him to readers. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

The author get bounteous harvests in the inhospitable clime of Northern Vermont. He spends a lot of time on soil temperatures and using row covers and cold frames. You will have a different challenge, but you would love reading his method and his insights. His discussions of all the microorganisms in all the layers of the soil are a true inspiration. His book is where I learned the concepts of companion planting. There are more reviews on the Barnes and Noble page.

[NMDemDist2]

8. that sounds about right as long as the late planting will mature fast

or winter over

i'm off to Amazon for some Xeriscape research.....

[GardeningGal]

12. I second the recommendation for High Country Gardens

They are actually in Santa Fe - High Country Gardens is the mail order name and I think the local name is Santa Fe Greenhouse or Santa Fe Gardens. (Something like that.) If you have a chance, you should stop through and check them out. I believe they have a display garden and they focus on xeriscape plants.

Here's a link to the High Country Gardens website.

http://www.highcountrygardens.com/index.html

[NMDemDist2]

13. thanks! I wonder if their stuff works at my MUCH lower elevation?

I'm more panhandle Texas gardening than the true High Country

[feminazi]

15. yes, it should

they have tons of stuff that's suitable for a lot of areas

[Dora]

16. If your terrain is more Panhandle-like...

I recommend this book. (I work for the publisher, FYI). It's meant for Texas gardeners.

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/gartex.html

You may be able to find copies of this used online or at Half-Price books. I've found it very useful for my backyard gardening experiments here in Austin.

I think Sunset magazine also has a gardening book that's pretty all-inclusive (Sunset Gardening Guide?). I remember both my mom and my dad have it, and they live in very different geographical regions.

Congrats on your new home!

[NMDemDist2]

17. thanks! That's an excellent suggestion and I found a "Western" Sunset

guide at the thrift store today that covers NM month by month

[TygrBright]

29. Yes, they have lots of stuff that does fine at lower elevations...

...than here in Santa Fe. If you want to come up and check them out and meet a fellow NM DU-er garden nut, lemme know. We just moved here last fall and I'm facing the same challenge-- nekkid lot (smaller than yours) flat and sterile with contractor dirt.

I've done some stuff, engineered a little better drainage, sheetmulched and installed a couple of beds, but still struggling with the whole.

Herbs are a godsend in this drought-racked climate.

I'd be happy to give you the tour of local resources including both High Country AND Plants of the Southwest, which is in some ways even better-- they are passionate about permascaping and use of native plants to achieve lovely effects.

helpfully,
Bright

[NMDemDist2]

31. I LOVE Santa Fe

but it's a hella drive from my place in Carlsbad (270 miles one way)

You may have to drive down to ALBQ to meet me for lunch on one of my bi annual trips to costco :evilgrin: unless there's a Costco in SF?

[TygrBright]

32. I WISH there was a Costco here...

...alas, there is not. We are dependent on Target, Big Lots, and (AIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!) Sam's Club. I do wish the Costco folks would figger out there's a substantial market share here just waiting to be slid out from under the Wallyworld empire, but it doesn't look like it's gonna happen soon.

We have to go to ABQ for decent barbecue now and then (none in SF, can you IMAGINE?) and assorted other this and that. So let me know next time you're a-headin' north.

accommodatingly,
Bright

[NMDemDist2]

33. we won't arrive in NM until July 12th then at least a month of just gettin

settled in/unpacked

but I wouldn't be surprised if I had to make a run up north by OCT. I really want to meetup with Warpy when I'm up there too

[TygrBright]

34. Well, stay in touch.

And good luck on the move!

amiably,
Bright

[LiberalEsto]

14. Lasagna Gardening

Go to the library and check out the book, or look at their web site.

What you do is layer your chosen planting area with different layers of nutrient materials, then plant directly in it. It eliminates digging, and the planting material is so good that plants grow like mad.

You start with an inch-thick layer of wet newspapers as the base. Then add layers of straw, peat moss, manure, compost, wood ashes, lime, coffee grounds or whatever. Some layers such as lime should be much thinner than layers of straw or peat moss. For appearances' sake I top my lasagna beds off with topsoil. Check the book for details.

You just plant in the top layer, add water, and stand back to watch things grow. I started all my planting beds this way. The newspapers eliminate weeds, too. I live in central Maryland, by the way, and we have heavy red clay soil.

Some of my vegetable beds have gotten depleted over 7 years, and tree roots have crept underneath to grab all the nutrients. So this year I dug down into the soil, hacked off the roots, lined the concrete block planting borders with buried big ceramic tiles to (hopefully) block the roots. What a job! I also dug out much of the clay underneath the upper soil level to make room for soil amendments.

Then I added the Square-Foot Gardening soil amendments of peat moss, compost, coarse vermiculite, and a little lime and manure. I stuck in some tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings, and they have more than doubled in size in a week. I have never had luck with eggplants so I'm hoping this is the answer. The compost is called Leaf-Gro, which is made and sold by my county government from leaves they collect and compost. It is absolutely wonderful stuff, much better than my own compost.

This past weekend I finished another planting bed and stuck in some cucumber and cantaloupe seeds. I also built tall trellises for each bed, using steel electrical conduit. It comes in 10 foot and 5 foot lengths, but it's not too hard to cut it with a hacksaw using a special metal cutting blade. The idea in Square Foot Gardening is to train everything upward so it doesn't take up ground space, and more stuff can be planted in the beds.

Of course I'm totally exhausted today, but I hope this increases the tomato and cucumber yields, etc.

[NMDemDist2]

18. yup, that one is on my list for sure n/t

[dcfirefighter]

19. Same Soil

I use Leaf Gro as well, though it's often sold out. Cheap per cu ft, as well.

I've never had luck with eggplants, though they seem to doing well so far. I've got little green tomatoes already, as well as the first blooms on my cukes and zucchini. Broccoli didn't do so well.

But for AZDem, putting a layer of newspaper down might keep your amendments from leaching through the sand.

[LiberalEsto]

20. Leaf Gro is amazing

I mixed some in the soil where I planted spinach, and the results are amazing. Many of the spinach leaves are big enough to wear as hats -- should anyone feel so inclined. Stop by any time you want a spinach leaf hat!

[NMDemDist2]

21. won't that clash with my ever so popular tinfoil?

:tinfoilhat:

[midnight armadillo]

22. try this book

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890132527/sr=8-8/qid=1149750626/ref=pd_bbs_8/103-3322874-7667006?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

two reviews of the book:
1) Gaia's Garden isn't about saving the world, but rather how to make your corner of it beautiful, productive and worth saving. It asks: How do you work with nature rather than against it? And Hemenway's answer is that you treat it as a partner trying to help you, rather than a foe to thwart and enslave. Written for gardeners who may have battled pests with poisons, labored with compost heaps and double-dug dry soils, the book explains how guilds, swales, sheet mulches, and succession can simultaneously lighten their workload, costs and burden on the land in the long run. As a beginner, I was overwhelmed by the detail, but the pictures are beautifully rendered, and the text inviting. I bought it last year and still find myself read reading it in spare moments every week. The many success stories that Hemenway includes keep me coming back to learn, plan and be inspired.

2) At last! A book written for non-biologists, non-ecologists and non-tree-huggers!! I have read several books on permaculture which always left me wondering, "What the heck IS permaculture and who needs it?" This book, by Toby Hemenway, will get you so excited about the relevance and applications of permaculture that you will want to race outside with a bucket of vegetable peelings and leaf mulch before breakfast. Gardening can be a lot of hard work, but permaculture is about making it easier. Turning over compost piles every week is not for you? See his section on sheet composting. Does the very word "grey water" turn you off? Read Hemenway's description of taking a shower, then tearing outside in a towel to see the water drain out through a rocky stream. This book is full of concepts and inspirations that will not only make gardening a little easier but will also improve the land you live on, help you achieve greater self-sufficiency and create sanctuary for beneficial critters. And here is a major plus: Toby Hemenway, unlike other permaculture authors, actually has a sense of humor! An enjoyable read on the one hand and a basic gardening manual for the rest of your life.

[troubleinwinter]

23. Hey AZ/NM, ya know I moved to Prescott 5 months ago.

My property has trees, gravel & cactus. Needed 'stuff'. I found "butterfly Bush" ("Buddleia") to be a wonderful plant.

Once established, they take care of themselves. Grow about 6-8' tall, 6' wide. They look something like a lilac, and bloom all summer long. They attract butterflies, but bees don't like em. Javelina don't seem to care about them. They die back a bit in winter, then come back to full size.

The MOST BEAUTIFUL one I've seen was a neglected one in Wickenberg, AZ... roughly your elevation. They take the heat and the freezes. My dad in Prescott also has a beaut.

I have planted three so far, a lilac-color, a deep purple & a yellow. Lilac is most common. They've been in the ground about a month or so & are doing great. Water frequently to start, tapering, now to over a week. Pretty soon they'll mostly take care of themselves. I got (?) two gallon size, and they're 3-4 ft tall, will be full size next year. They are available everywhere. $25 for a big one.

A big pretty good bang for yer buck (effort), and they will thrive on neglect once established.

[NMDemDist2]

24. i looked those up and they look very nice

it does say they can be invasive though

I bet I can find a spot for a couple in the plan though, thanks for the suggestion!

[troubleinwinter]

25. I read that 'invasive' thing too.

I haven't seen 'em do it at all. I have seen 'em all around, and never one that appears to do that. I think they may be talking about some version in some other place. My dad is a big-time gardener type & I asked him abut that, because he has one that was existing when he moved in 5 yrs ago. He was stumped to hear it, said he had never had that happen at all.

I recommended them to my daughter in California who just bought their first house and don't know gardening... thought they'd be great because they need so little care and look great. So, anyway.... I was looking for a picture on the 'net to send her & didn't find any good ones. I tell ya, in Arizona (or southwest) they look a lot like a lilac.

[NMDemDist2]

26. google the botanical name then hit "images" and there's a ton

of pics of them

I'm sure I'll find a great spot for a couple, they cover lots of area and are low maintence. I'm thinking down along the east fenceline on the back half would be a good spot

[troubleinwinter]

27. That's where I found pitchas.

I have only had em in the ground a few weeks, and by gum, I've seen some butterflies!

[TygrBright]

30. Buddleia aren't likely to be too invasive, but watch out for...

...Perovskia! It is so jubilantly exuberant and happy and expansive and, I have to admit, GORGEOUS in this climate that people have planted it all over everywhere and it is, yep, starting to escape and naturalize and you know what happens next.

Purple loosestrife, kudzu, etc. were all planted initially for very good reasons...

regretfully,
Bright

[shireen]

28. hydroponics

it's the best way to conserve water, which is real important in an arid climate. There are lots of different techniques. The simplest one, that does not need electricity is the Autopot. I've used it before, and it's great. http://www.futuregarden.com/ If you're the DIY type, get the book on that same website, it's got some pretty cool DIY hydroponics systems. If you prefer to spend money on equipment, there are many online stores to choose from. I've had good experience with http://www.bghydro.com/ and http://www.gchydro.com/ .