Of course, by the end of winter I am tired of broccoli and yearn for squash. This is why I preserve a small portion of the harvest as a change of pace. I also home-can or freeze vegetables when the ongoing harvest exceeds our needs for daily meals, which is not often. I generally do not over-plant for excess. By far, my greatest challenges result from growing plants in extreme heat.
I think the Arizona summer is similar, in some ways, to winter elsewhere. In fact, because most plants cannot withstand the hottest part of the summer, that season is essentially cut in half, creating a very short spring and fall season. As a gardener, this often leaves me struggling with short-season crops that must produce quickly before the heat sets in.
Roots literally cook in the hot sandy soil.
In the Garden :: Growing Food in the Desert | Frugally Sustainable
Leaves curl under from sun scald. Then they turn dry and drop off. Without relief, my garden withers and dies. The dry debris is carried away in a late afternoon monsoon wind. The ancient Native Americans, of course, knew how it was done. The seeds grown by the ancient people were adapted to the unique conditions of the low desert. They were tolerant of heat, drought, and high soil alkalinity. The methods they used to plant, tend, harvest, and prepare the food crops also evolved into systems that were effective for them and the environment.
Fortunately, there is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the ancient seeds of the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico. Using heirloom seeds historically grown in the local area is one good way to increase my success growing food crops. But this alone is not enough. The summer garden fails if the soil temperature is not reduced. I employ several methods to accomplish this, including protecting the ground from the hot sun, varying irrigation methods, and altering traditional planting techniques.
Mulch is the traditional method for protecting the ground from the heat of the sun. I make heavy use of it in the orchard, around bushes, and sometimes around vegetables. The problem with mulch is that it attracts bugs. This can be a problem with a seedling newly emerged from the ground. The tiny plant is often gobbled up before it has a chance to grow. I am experimenting, for instance, with planting heat-tolerant crops along with more sensitive vegetables. This can protect the soil and veggies from excess solar radiation. For example, the Native Americans planted the Three Sisters crops together.
From an Arizona perspective, could this be because they wanted to reduce the heat stress for sensitive squash by shading them with hardier tepary beans and native corn? The method by which I irrigate my soil also affects the temperature underground, and I vary techniques with the season. In winter, I use drip irrigation hoses with built-in emitters. The programmable timer adjusts to accommodate changing weather and works effectively with minimal water.
However, in the summer, black hoses attract heat — even when buried.
In the Garden :: Growing Food in the Desert
High soil temperatures warm water trapped in the hose. Since it cannot evaporate, it acts like a hot water bottle, increasing the temperature in the ground. Additionally, a drip emitter delivers water from a point. In my sandy soil, it travels downward out of root range, not outward. This creates a small circle of moist earth, surrounded by hot, dry, sandy soil.
The heat surrounds the little circle, pressing inward toward the roots. Consequently, all of the hoses are removed from my garden in the spring. During this time, I favor irrigation methods that flood a large zone, as the sheet of water cools the entire area and washes unwanted salts downward. Hot weather has also forced my planting techniques to evolve into non-traditional methods. Most gardeners, for example, use the hoe to make long hilled rows alongside lower valleys. They plant seeds along the upper crest line, using troughs to transport water.
This method is, in fact, employed successfully by local large-scale agriculture.
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They use traditional farming tractors, tap into flood irrigation from local canals, and plant heat-tolerant crops such as cotton and sorghum. The elevated earth collects heat and dries out. Harmful salts are attracted to the highest point and concentrate there, leaving a line of white deposits along the crest of the rows. Success has been Huge Hit or Miserable Miss. I have really been working hard to establish good soil.
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I think as my soil improves so will the crops. Warm weather crops HHs have been tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, yellow squash, basil, oregano, string beans. I am trying to be diligent with keeping a better garden journal. I know it will help me keep track of planting times, seed companies, and the like. Sounds to me like you have it down! CTY do you have to prep the kelp in any way and remove some of the salt? We are just north east of LA. Growing up in Wisconsin this has been quite the learning curve.
When we first moved here I asked the gardener who had been maintaining the place how to dig in this soil… he brought me a pick axe. I really needed to see them, too! We are buying property about 60 miles east of El Paso and we plan to garden for veggies and herbs as well as raise goats and chickens. We will have well water a few miles away. I should have taken a picture of my beds. I just love your blog. You should look at what Larry Hall has done also with self watering containers. He has done several types of growing systems. I hope that this coming year I will be able to start growing my own food.
I am starting a vermi-compost in the next week or so to be able to have plenty for the spring. I am in Chandler, AZ, and I started about 4 years ago. Mainly things that I have growing are from compost seeds that grew by themselves…..
I am laughing and texting my friend now about your comment! The always offer great desert proof varieties of organics and heirlooms. We live southwest of Palm Springs in a valley and is semi-desert. Have 7 large raised beds with strawberries, spinach, onions, potatoes, corn and more during the spring and early summer. Right now we have onions, potatoes, lettuce and spinach growing. Our strawberries we keep under shade cloth as the sun can be very brutal.
I too kept a shade cloth over the strawberries until the heat broke. I am now in Las Vegas. My main effort is to create wind breaks and varying microclimates. I have passive solar greenhouses, dappled shade for some and full sun for others with wind breaks for all.
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Use either 5 gal containers or raised beds. Wherever you are the your local county extension service may be able to give you publications for your immediate area. I currently have a similar garden to Andreas with kale, Swiss Chard, broccoli and collards in production from last year.
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The vines are edible also. The young seedlings will begin feeding me in the spring. Most amazing thing are beets, I let some become enormous shrunken heads and they make the tastiest leaves for stir fry. I think I get 3 years out of them. Got 4 plantings of corn this summer, 1 is still growing in a greenhouse. Yellow pear tomatoes are great summer producers. I raise hydroponic lettuce and Lincoln peas in my greenhouse during the winter.
Desert south west gardening is the best for year round. Native to parts of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. A shrub native to the Sonoran desert with succulent stems that grows approximately 4 feet high. Red tubular flowers that bloom from spring until fall are hummingbird magnets. Fuzzy lavender flowers are irresistible to queen butterflies. A good perennial groundcover that grows to 2 feet high and blooms from spring until late fall.
Give it full sun or part shade and gravelly soil. Gass says that the native solitary bees evolved with the creosote bush. Foliage is especially aromatic after a rain. The shrub has an open habit, getting 6 feet high and 8 feet wide. Yellow spring flowers are followed by fuzzy seedpods. Full sun and well-drained soil; will grow fast and lush with more water. Native throughout the southwest. This thornless palo verde is a three-way cross between Parkinsonia microphylla, P. Native bees are attracted to the bright yellow flowers that bloom throughout spring.
The tree can reach 25 feet in height.