My garden has lots of rocks and high clay content

I got some ph samples back, and my garden areas are 8.5, 8.2, and 7.6 ph.

The extension office said to add 3-5 lb sulfur per 100 sq. ft. I have a lot of wind, and its high desert.

I really don't know where to begin, and I feel overwhelmed by it, but I really wanna get my gardening project off the ground.

Should I do temporary raised bed or a permanent type. I don't really know how much compost to add either.

Please, someone help!

 

As a former desert gardener, I can suggest a few things:
If you can plant hedge rows or build walls, your garden will be happier without the constant wind. (can't stop it all).

Add whatever sulfur they tell you to.

Some plants such as trees would do better if your soil is excavated into a shallow bowl where you can add water.

Ideal soil texture for most plants is 1/3 sand, 1/3 silt, 1/3 clay. But in real life, your main need is organic matter.

Check out permaculture techniques on Youtube by Australian horticulturalist Geoff Lawton working in Jordan. He has lots of video talks. Here's one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa2Kp6Q095g"]Geoff Lawton - Permaculture School Garden in Jordan's Dead Sea Valley - YouTube

 

order a ton of top soil and have them deliver it. it will cost you about $100.00 depending on where you live. it might even be cheaper.

 

I like the hedge row idea to block wind. I might try planting pomegranates or almond trees.

I might consider the top soil option too. My only fear is that it'll blow away.

 

Google waffle gardening, was the preferred method of the Anasazi, you are probably sitting on some relatively good Adobe material there,,, make some sun bricks and build a low wall / windbreak from the plots you dig out to refill with Terra Preta, (yea, that was coming of course, but given location you may need to take a road trip to source the biomass I'd imagine?) OR whatever other growing medium you prefer,,, lasagna garden with paper and compost & manure, think of it as the opposite of a raised bed, being lined with adobe and given "proper drainage" it will help fight the effects of the arid climate and help the whole irrigation process out, at least thats what the Anasazi discovered in the lower regions.

Another thing worth having a look at for your area would be this,,,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gPvsl9ni-4"]Permaculture - Greening the Desert Final (2009).mp4 - YouTube

Most of all, have fun at it. :cheers2:

**edit** Too funny after looking closer at GG's video suggestion. Well, not funny, just right.

 

Fascinating info Fritz.

I really appreciate the dead sea permaculture video too Garden Guy. They're doing some wonderful things in the Middle East with that.

 

And an acquaintance in new Mexico I knew had been planning on raising some Russian olives and trying Teosintes or a Primitive ancestor to corn pre-cob formation but same genetics.

The hull of the kernel is very hard and thick and most call to grind them well in a mill but I've been thinking about the idea of treating the kernels like a Hominy to soften them and at least make that part chewable if for nothing than the extra fiber.

As a possible option to walls for a windbreak, there are a number of types of Dry field rice that love your sort of climate and rice hull biochar is incredibly easy to process and pulverize and makes an excellent garden amendment even when the remnants are merely burned in place in the field and tilled in. (I guess the composition minimizes the potash held by the ash or something?)

 

And they can be doing the same in Arizona, California, Nairobi, Somalia, Iran, Ethiopia, and every other nation which has destroyed it's ecosystem for the sake of feeding the world for the past hundred or thousand or so years and fixing the damage we've caused, and make a global shift to nearly free renewable energy sources from biofuels and make a better world.

Nearly free when the cost of planting a seed alongside a food crop that balances the soil and provides an abundant source of biomass and Hemp oil is Compared with the overall compiled cost of acquisition of fossil fuels and uranium to include fees and fines for cleanups, meltdown and human illness as a result of their use at least, but Accountants need to freaking account for that stuff.

http://www.************/WhiteHouse/posts/258391624239436

 

I'll look up some seeds on territorial seed company. I have some navajo blue corn I'm gonna grow, but I may try the more primitive corn if its more efficient in terms of water.

Are these "Russian" olives good for dry climates that get below freezing during parts of the winter months?

 

Well this Guy seemed to think so, I only know I had a few in the Ozarks, asnd theyre tiny as heck so alot of work with a lye bath for such small returns, I never hassled with the harvest, too busy with Black Chanterelle mushrooms and Bolettes, limestone mining and terraforming projects using Terra-preta.

Amazing how much fun one can have in the woods with no one around them for miles. Every time I watch Survivorman I keep asking myself why he's so eager for that darn chopper to show up,,, but then I remember, he tosses away Shaggy mane mushrooms and Morels,,,

This here looks like it may hold some interesting leads for you MV,

http://agriculture.mitrasites.com/permaculture-desert.html

 

Greening the Desert- that is a great informative video. thanks for that.

 

Its all part of the bigger vision imho.

http://www.************/note.php?note_id=10150574402413741

http://www.************/WhiteHouse/posts/258391624239436

 

permaculture, yes.

 

Geoff Lawton of course did not invent permaculture, but he has done an outstanding job teaching it and putting it into practice.

I have just scratched the surface of this type of gardening. (pun intended).
This is an amazing new way of looking at an old problem, growing food in a sustainable way. The permanent cultivation of the Earth = Permaculture!

 

Yup, alot to dig into.

Really dig's at the root of our social problems.

Root's out all thats wrong with modern methods

Blossoms and reproduces itself,,,,

And yet we still suck on fossil fuels,,,

:banghead:


I've been up too long again, don't mind me.

 

this great planet Earth has been able to grow food in a sustainable way. Then people got involved and thought they could do better and mucked it all up.

I've read alot on permaculture and need to read and learn alot more about it. I also read about hugelculture (sp?) which looks awesome as well. basically growing on large compost piles. If anyone has any books to recommend I would appreciate hearing about them. Going to try to get a copy of Gaia's Garden to read.

peace

Its hard not to mind you fritz. lol you almost always have interesting and informative things to say! the Fritz Fountain of Knowledge! rock on

peace again

 

I've got nearly pure-clay soil. (my sister actually dug some up for pottery) Horrid stuff for growing veggies, but after breaking 4...ish of those garden-weasel cultivators I was able to transplant tons of daylilies, ferns & lily of the valley from my mother's yard and they're all doing very well. I also have several lilacs, and an ornamental crabapple tree that love the soil.

In my parents yard, they're in sand... and had TONS of rocks. It took my mom almost 20 years before her garden no longer needed annual rock-picking & a truckload of topsoil being brought in. Seriously.

Given that you have clay AND rocks - honestly, I would think that permanent raised beds would be an ideal solution. You CAN amend the soil - but oh, it takes so long... and is PRICEY!

 

homeschoolmama,

I agree with the negative aspects of clay you described, but with sufficient lime to raise the pH and with soil conditioner to open up spaces for roots, air, and water drainage, you can create good top soil. Clay is very rich in minerals once the pH is high enough to render them available.

Have you tried a product called Permatill? It is like perlite in that it is puffed up like popcorn, but it is made of shale and is more durable than other soil conditioners.
(You still need organic material for a balanced soil mix).

Of course if you can truck in coarse creek sand and composted animal manure, you might find it more cost effective for larger plots of ground.

Having said all that, raised beds may be the best choice for family-sized vegetable gardening other than row crops like corn and okra, bush beans, melons, potatoes, etc.
You are absolutely right. The native soil beneath it is essentially irrelevant when your veggies are growing in a raised bed.

If you lived on a big farm, chances are you could wander your property until you found ideal soil for each type of crop you intend to grow. But with a home on a small lot, you must either change the soil to meet your needs or create your own soil on top of it.

 

Has to be top 3 in the nicest compliments I've ever received Skooky. Thanks. :cheers2:`