Gina wrote to ask about planting a high desert food timber :
“ I would care to know however how to create a intellectual nourishment forest in the high desert of New Mexico . We get very little rain and what we do get come in torrents . Our temp do go below 0 during the winter and in the summertime we reach 100 + .
Our soil is juiceless guts or cadaver . We also have get to piddling pocket moles and rabbits that wish to munch on almost anything we plant . Here ’s a couple photo .
It looks very fleeceable at the import . We ’ve had a lot of rainwater this retiring calendar week - more than normal for this prison term of year . The green is mostly weeds which shrivel and blow away when the heating plant embark on increasing .
We ’ve tried several times to just grow grass to avail fall erosion , etc but it does n’t seem to like the soil .
If you could point us to reliable resources or have any estimation we ’d greatly appreciate them ! We ’re at 7,500 ALT .
Thank you !
truly , Gina ”
Before I write anything else , I have to send a disclaimer . I am no expert on desert gardening . I also catch violently ominous the time my Dad took me up Pike ’s Peak . This is why I research and interview other people for this article . There ’s nothing like on - the - ground knowledge .
That allege , there are some permaculture fundamentals that will straight off help this difficult internet site .
Harvest all the Rainwater You Can!
Water is life sentence . Gina publish : “ We get very little rain and what we do get comes in torrents . ”
When you get deluge , it tend to just run off , taking your worthful surface soil with it . That rainwater needs to be help on the property as long as potential . I highly recommend finding the incline and digging swale to keep the water and facilitate it soak into the ground . It will make a world of departure .
Here ’s a pocket-sized high desert swale organisation in action :
you’re able to see a more telling swale system here :
Get piss pull through first . Swales are the easiest style to hold it on your land . If you are more challenging , ponds are also splendid , even if they are just seasonal .
Build the Soil with Plant Cover
Once the body of water is being hold , establishing plant becomes easy . Volunteers will belt down up in the bottom of the swale and they ’ll also start to carry the constitutional thing that has been blowing away .
Support plants which work up the filth should be your main planting finish . atomic number 7 fixers , erosion stoppers , grasses , windbreaks , biomass producers – these will improve the ground so your fruit tree will thrive .
The New Mexican Locust might be a good pick . Inthis tree scout I found , it is described thus :
“ thorny shrub or small Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree that often constitute brushwood . The barque is slightly gray with groove scaly ridges . Showy flower appear in spring and early summertime in great , flag clump . The fruits are brownish bean - like pods with bristles . It is among the first woody plants to grow after wildfire but is presently shaded out by tall trees . Like many members of the pea family , New Mexico Locust has a symbiotic kinship with N - fixing bacteria that live in tubercle in the plant ’s roots . ”
You might also plant some quaking aspen , as they attend like they ’d thrive and create some biomass for you . You might be able to coppice or pollard them for repeated chop shot - and - dip .
I called the USDA to get some help on weed varieties for your orbit , and spoke with soil conservationist Martin Meairs . His focus is on grass , and he shared that a peck of the problems with erosion issue in your area are due to years of overgrazing . They have also had problem establishing grass , and he note that Tractor Supply has been make out to sell “ native ” seed mixture which are not really native to the area and involve too much water to establish and wield .
For an corroding stop grass , he recommend planting Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin dropseed , AKASporobolus cryptandrus . For a better foraging skunk , he also recommendedblue grama pot , which is “ mutual , sturdy , and drouth - tolerant . ”
Martin also recommend good fencing if you are near crop country , as cows can make short body of work of your horticulture plans .
First you require to stop constituent issue from washing or blowing away , then you want to add more and more to the soil . swale first , then support species , then it ’s time for comestible Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
Trees for a New Mexico High Desert Food Forest
If you do n’t have pines with eatable pine nuts , I would add those , as some species are likely to do well at your elevation .
There are also edible native metal money , such as chokecherry tree . AsGail Haggard write :
“ The indigenous people flavour food for thought with spruce bud and juniper berries , and they strand and cooked the seed of saltbush and Indian ricegrass , which was a major sustainer . They ate the cactus pods and the flowers of Yucca after moil and roasting . All summer they ate the leaf and flowers of fireweed and bee balm , also squall oregano de la sierra – more pleasant-tasting than commercial-grade oregano . They deplete wild plums and rosehips and berries of chokecherry and wax and golden currant and three - foliage sumac , also called lemonade berry . The nuts of pinon , ponderosa and white pine are alimentary . Naturally many , many furious seeds and nuts , roots and bulbs , dried fruits and center and mushroom-shaped cloud were stored for the wintertime . ”
plainly , some of those species wo n’t be in your teetotal and desiccated EL ; however , there are in all probability good alternative there as well . If you’re able to find a local food for thought forager who covers that country and take a tour , you ’re probable to find out more .
I wish to start with the native edibles and then move on to their cousin and then on to other plants from around the worldly concern that arise in standardised climate . If you start with the really easy clobber , it ’s encouraging and you may progress from there – though you ’re almost certainly run to desire improved fruit Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as well .
To observe out the best fruit trees for your surface area , I spoke with Donnie Pigford atSan Juan Nurseries in Farmington . He was a wealth of entropy and is quite enthusiastic about the many varieties of good yield you may grow in the New Mexico ’s unique climate . Donnie is a third coevals gardener , having taken over the greenhouse lead off by his granddad in 1951 . He ’s also working on the establishment of a botanical garden in Farmington , and has introduced many locals to the value of bee and beekeeping through the hives he keeps at the nursery .
When you do n’t know what fruit Tree to produce , it ’s always best to call a local baby’s room owner .
“ With cool winters , we can grow many different varieties of peaches , nectarines , apricots , ” Donnie shared . “ This yr , with the high snow pack and a good give , we are having a bumper crop of fruit . ( The nursery carries ) 10 - 15 dissimilar varieties of those . Plums do well , apple do well , so do cherries , Amygdalus communis and black walnut . Pecans will flourish but the season is n’t always farseeing enough for production . you could also do great with pears , Asiatic pear and table service Chuck Berry , which is beautiful tree diagram , plus it produce a great edible berry . As for berries , you’re able to do raspberries , blackberries , gooseberries , boysenberries , goji Charles Edward Berry – and there are even native variety of goji Charles Edward Berry . ”
Final Thoughts on Establishing a High Desert Food Forest
Again , though , whether those plants will fly high is really dependent on soil and water .
“ She is probably dealing with extremely eminent pH , ” Donnie say , when I require him about Gina ’s soil conditions . “ It can be 8 - 8.5 out there . Add plenty of mycorrhizae , build the soil as much as you could as there is probably less than 7 % constitutional matter in the grunge . inoculate with mycorrhizae is exceedingly of import , and any variety of composting or mulch will help . ”
It ’s important to get the soil right before adding trees , whether you ’re implant a high desert food forest or a tropic backyard orchard . If you ’re deal with corroding , want of water and high pH – and even the gage are drying up and blow away , show fruit trees will be a Sisyphean task .
Get water , get some life moving , get the fungus sound , then go hit San Juan Nurseries and get your yield trees growing .
Finally , I recommend you join the forums atPermies.comto connect with other nurseryman uprise in a similar mood . I did a search for high desert food forests there and have already institute some good resource .
Good fortune and thanks for writing .
