More prep

Two beds have been dug and refilled with our mix of dirt, clay, compost and left over manure from last year. We also snuck in a layer of chicken manure just below the surface. Only because we are planting lettuce and the nitrogen should allow a lot of green bushiness happening. If this was the tomato bed, though, you must watch this because too much nitrogen will produce bushy leafy plants and much fewer tomatoes. In a lettuce bed, however, this is ideal. I would always cover the layer with plain top soil or dirt to prevent particles from reaching leaves too much, and cut down soaking and washing time. Our birds don't have salmonella or any infections and are free rangers but one needs to always take precautions.

On the inside front, seeds have been started. Tomatoes, set to go out first week of may. They are an experiment in starting seedlings since our failure last year. Haha not enough light, heat. Things molded over. Was difficult to maintain the temperature in the room they were in. Bummer. Well, you learn little by little. I also want to start cantaloupes and possibly squash again. Although I want to move the squash since we had bugs last year. Squash bugs are a REAL bummer. Even with them though, our harvest was huge and damage wasn't too extensive.

Vegetable bed prepping in a desert!

When growing in a desert environment, the first concern is water. The next is heat. Even sun loving plants need a break from the blistering hot new mexico summer. The area we are in also, despite our elevation, still gets too hot.

With this in mind, we plan our layout.

Heirloom tomatoes do best with a sun shade made of plastic, where they can still get lots of light, or window screening works excellently as we discovered. Our tomato beds are dug every year and loosened to a depth of 24".

After planting, from starts, the tomatoes are watered on a drip system. Except for the hottest months, you can deeply water them for 30 mins to an hr(depending on dryout) every other day.

We use non determinate varieties which continue to give tomatoes all season.

Squash, corn, and cantaloupe are planted from seeds. They appear to be decent companion plants. To maximize space, you can put a few herbs in there too. You may have to cut plants back to keep them separated.

These are watered every other day in the prepared bed.

Preparing the vegetable bed:
Double dug (see water saving post)
layer of compost 1" or 2" or so.
Mixed sand, clay and compost. Top layer of compost 1".

Taking the time to do this is definitely worth it.

the little plants that could - overwinter!

 Little onions, Kale and Bright lights swiss chard stay alive!

how we save water in the desert environment!

So on the last post, I started to touch on our soil composition (if you can even call it soil ha) here in the desert. Our plot sits on a former river bed which contains quite a bit of clay content. So much so, that people used to build houses out of it. Called adobe. However, now these houses go for at the cheap end 500k and up. Yes, half a million dollars for a mud house. That isn't to say, however, that the construction of the mud house doesn't require extremely skilled craftsmanship and architectural prowess. It does. It is still a mud house, and that concept is hilarious to me. Even though it is a closely held memory in my heart- of home.

ok so, water!

The biointensive method says to use 50% or less clay, mixed with sand and aged manure. We probably did like 30-40% clay, 20% sand and 40-50% aged horse manure. Our first growing year we didn't have any compost ready, so this was our only option was aged horse manure. I estimate the quanitities because we kind of eyeballed it and didn't measure things out. Yes, I can see people shaking their heads right now, about being OCD perhaps or taking exact measurements. But hey, I AM actually a scientist and to me, resourcefulness, resilience and quick thinking have been far more rewarding than being anal retentive about everything I do. It's sort of like one huge experiment.


Never, ever ever would I recommend raised beds in a desert environment. They dry out very quickly, need water up to 3 times per day in the mid summer and do nothing to improve the existing soil composition in the ground to work with.

BUT... and a big BUT here, is that having actual beds in the ground can be a lot of work. You need someone to dig them who has a strong back. (I know, I threw my back out last year carrying cinder blocks and I am a very healthy physically active person). With that being said, be aware and maybe you can find someone to help you dig. :)

Ideally, beds must be dug 24" (yea I know, its kind of a lot). If you can loosen the soil by using a large fork, more power to you and your plants. If you can't get that far in (we couldn't our first season) then you will need to stab stab stab with the fork and try to at least loosen particles. As your plants grow, they will do a little of that for you.

The fortunate part is, after the first dig, it gets a little easier to dig holes since you already have some set out.
It gets extremely hot here in the month of July, so having a nicely in-earth bed that you can deeply water cuts down on watering costs and amount. and keeps your plants at a lower temperature. The depth allows your plants to spread roots becoming more heat tolerant and they are able to get nutrients more easily.

So that's the philosophy behind our basic planting method. This process is also referred to as double digging.

Getting ready for growing!

Getting excited for growing season! :) gotta plan the coop revamp. Got 6 new chicks. Right now they are in the house with a brooder red lamp y todo being little beasts. The fence collapsed with the wind lately. We have no water filter. It broke...its time was probably up anyway. The gard n gro we bought is supposed to only last 6 months, so one year. We would like to get other filters but need to raise $240.

The filters are an absolute must. The heavily cholornated and flouride content of city water kills microbial life in the soil. This does not allow for permaculture and biointensive growing methods to take place.

How do we conserve water? We live in a desert. Water is scarce by any stretch of the imagination.

Nature knows what's its doing here though, and many plants do grow and with an incredible long extended season which can be sustained even futher with high tunnels and cold frames.

The soil here mostly consists of sand and thick clay or kalichè.

Sand loses water of course, clay water logs nutrients and water.

There is a way to work around these and use them to your advantage.