Desert garden

dannyboy602

Well-Known Member
Rio Rico close to the line. Bit cooler here. I drove from Flagstaff to RR this summer and about midnight drove through Phx...it was 100 at midnight for Christ sake. I admit though I wish I was a few degrees warmer right about now.

I make some nice tortilla soup with pablanos. yum.
 

sixspeedv

Well-Known Member
Rio Rico close to the line. Bit cooler here. I drove from Flagstaff to RR this summer and about midnight drove through Phx...it was 100 at midnight for Christ sake. I admit though I wish I was a few degrees warmer right about now.

I make some nice tortilla soup with pablanos. yum.
Traveled to rio rancho many times over the past few years for work. That cold wind just cuts right through the you

Soup sounds great thanks
 

sixspeedv

Well-Known Member
How cold can it get in the desert? Any pics of cacti?
I just woke up and it's 38 degrees out. It will hit near freezing or freezing by end of year and in January.

No cactus in my yard bud. Grew up with chollas and barrel cacti and always knew when I got my own place i would never plant any. My last home I owned was an older home so had a few cacti but when I landscaped my new home i stayed far away from cacti.
 

vostok

Well-Known Member

I just love deserts the best has to be the Sahara, a sea of sand moving all the time

you gotta get used to sand sticking to your privates, even getting stuck in your teeth etc

always have a flat rock you leave in the sun and at night bury it down to keep you warm at night

the best way to grow is in pots ... imo
 

Lysemith, Lowkey

Well-Known Member
Fascinating stuff here, for sure. I live in a semi arid area too, and I'm curious about using some if the techniques native Americans did long ago. One that comes to mind is 'lithic mulching', basically paving your garden with flagstone, leaving wide cracks to plant in. The idea is that the stone reduces moisture loss and heat gain of the soil and gross plants grow better in the desert.

That idea was so interesting to me I want to try it someone.
Not flagstone, vesicular basalt local tothetribes
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Not flagstone, vesicular basalt local tothetribes
I don't know that the type of stone matters as long as it covers the ground, inhibits evaporation and doesn't leach anything nasty, but of course they use what's laying around.
 

Lysemith, Lowkey

Well-Known Member
I don't know that the type of stone matters as long as it covers the ground, inhibits evaporation and doesn't leach anything nasty, but of course they use what's laying around.
Oh my friend the type of stone totally matters! In addition to the slope of the field. Flag stone doesn't work as well because it's brown, a light color that doesn't heat up as fast as the black basalt. Flag stone is a sedimentary rock as opposed to vesicular basalt which is an igneous metamorphic rock, its black rapidly cooled magma basically, with tons of tiny air pockets throughout. So what happens when the sun rises here in NM the moisture in the night air condenses on these rocks that stay colder longer than anything else around and conveniently have tons of holes in them to catch all kinds of water! Fucking genius really
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Oh my friend the type of stone totally matters! In addition to the slope of the field. Flag stone doesn't work as well because it's brown, a light color that doesn't heat up as fast as the black basalt. Flag stone is a sedimentary rock as opposed to vesicular basalt which is an igneous metamorphic rock, its black rapidly cooled magma basically, with tons of tiny air pockets throughout. So what happens when the sun rises here in NM the moisture in the night air condenses on these rocks that stay colder longer than anything else around and conveniently have tons of holes in them to catch all kinds of water! Fucking genius really
That's great stuff! However, I don't see ancient peoples or modern ones profitably moving rocks hundreds of miles to do this with. I could be wrong?
 

iHearAll

Well-Known Member
Thanks! Everything has been pulled except jalapeño and banana peps. The banana peps are fruiting like crazy. Lost the pablano due to cold temps. Will do one last harvest of banana peps and jalapeños then pull everything and amend the soil and get some garlic and onions in the ground.
Mmmm my onions blow. Iv heard to grow them in clay! i had ghost, reapers, and scorpian peppers this past season and pulled about two dozen off. The rest got frost bitten... o no. I found that using insect netting i could prevent the frost on my tender greens and cabbagey stuff. Im thinking about trying autoflowers under the net through February as well. Ill see how it goes. Growing any cacti?
 

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
I just woke up and it's 38 degrees out. It will hit near freezing or freezing by end of year and in January.

No cactus in my yard bud. Grew up with chollas and barrel cacti and always knew when I got my own place i would never plant any. My last home I owned was an older home so had a few cacti but when I landscaped my new home i stayed far away from cacti.
what about some prickly pear?

easy to grow AND edible.
 

Lysemith, Lowkey

Well-Known Member
what about some prickly pear?

easy to grow AND edible.
Just how edible is up for debate... some locals burn off the thorns and munch the fruits, but once you get a mouthful of those dusty little spines you hardly ever go back. Downright miserable. I throw those fuckers through a juicer and make prickly pear mead. Turns out blood red and tastes like a fruity deep red wine.
 

sixspeedv

Well-Known Member
I just stick to prickly
Pear vodka. You have to really clean those things up or you will regret them. As a kid you would get 1 of those little tiny spines in your hand for weeks until they finally fall out. So annoying.
 
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