Welcome to the Xeriscape (or Dry Land) Gardening forum

By member request (http://davesgarden.com/showthread/27463.html ) here you go!

Dave

[ Removed by member request. - Admin ]

Whooooppppeeee! Thanks Dave.

Here is a good source of plants and info in a beautiful catalog. High Country Gardens, www.highcountrygardens.com They also have an online newsletter that you can request.

I've recently read that trench planting works well for some plants besides tomatoes,sweet potatoes,corn, etc.: i.e., dig trench, plant, as plant grows, fill in trench. Apparently it encourages more rooting, cooler area for roots, stronger plant. Does anyone here in dry areas do this, and if so, for what veggies or other plants, with what results?

tashak2,

Lots of cultures have planted in pits, bowls, trenches; even commercial watermelon growers in Imperial Co. CA (Salton Sea area) where for winter, the farmers throw up ridges and plant melons in the ditches, sometimes sheeted with clear plastic to raise temperatures. The Yorubas of West Africa (as I recall?) excavated broad basins, planting moisture-loving crops in the bottoms and bands of other crops as the rims were reached. The Hopi used to plant into moisture, digging deep pits to seed corn, spacing the pits apart enough to allow all access to residual moisture. Tepary beans and squashes/melons were seeded later.



Marsh

Yes! YES YES! I dig all my beds IN a pit at least 1/2 foot lower than the ground. I have done this to collect water and protect from the wind. And I put a layer of composted manure on top and regular compost, and a 2 inches of mulch in the spring. Big bark wont blow away. In veggies ,plant tall plants, to the north west. Create a microclimate. Like the Corn, then plant Squash, underneath and Bush beans. Pole beans are too much to maintain in water. Here at least. I plant blocks of corn, then Squash, then another block of corn then beans Then soaker hose. I water at night. I have absolutely no desease problems. The night gives the plant time to absorb the water. The indians did all this. I wish I could talk to some indians sometimes!

If it wasnt for the fact that you put it beside the word, i would never have know what that xeriscape meant, i have never heard that word before, you learn something new at DG every day.