How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert

Tips, Tricks

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Watch the FULL episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLImX3QVakE Ask This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook creates a water-efficient waffle garden. (See below for a shopping list, tools, and steps.) Click here to SUBSCRIBE to the official This Old House YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=thisoldhouse Shopping List for How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert: - Plant seeds - Coarse sand and compost, to amend the soil Tools List for How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert: - Square-blade shovel - Pickax, to loosen the soil Steps How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert" 1. Use a square-blade shovel to mark a series of square cells on the ground. Make each cell the width of two shovel blades. Space the individual cells about 12 inches apart. 2. Pile up clay-rich soil around each cell, creating a raised berm. Firmly compact the berms by pounding them flat with the shovel and then walking across them. 3. Use a pickax to break up and loosen the soil within each square cell. 4. Add coarse sand and compost to the loosened soil; mix well. 5. Plant a variety of vegetable seeds within each cell to a depth that's 1 1/2 times the diameter of each seed. 6. Cover the seeds with the amended soil, then lightly water the entire waffle garden, making sure to soak each cell. Follow This Old House and Ask This Old House: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisOldHouse Twitter: https://twitter.com/thisoldhouse https://twitter.com/asktoh Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/thisoldhouse/ G+: https://plus.google.com/+thisoldhouse/posts Instagram: http://instagram.com/thisoldhouse Tumblr: http://thisoldhouse.tumblr.com/

Comments

Thank you so much for sharing this video. I live in AZ and it's hard to find a type of garden bed that works for my area. This style will suite me just fine.

I just built some of these.
I live in the Mojave desert. well a little below it.

That's a great achievement, but to be fair you don't have any other hurdles than lack of water.
No persistent underground weeds that pop up every few inches, no cats that dig up your just seeded patch to poop in, no thousands of snails and slugs that eat anything that you put in the ground. This year I planted dozens of different crops and all I'm left with are a few corn.
Seriously, I could get a better harvest in that desert than what happened in my backyard this summer.

very helpful, thank you

How is that man wearing a hoodie in the middle of a desert!

they should do that in dubai and those middle eastern countries

Can you do this in the middle of Sahara?

says add mushroom compost for microbes ...than says it must be sterile...you can't have both, guys....

woodchips is better

The contrast between accents makes my brain hurt.

Great video. I would much rather watch videos like this than see how to refinish a dresser into some shabby chic trash.

I tried to live off the grid in the desert, the desert kicked my ass. It's definitely not for everyone even with water and solar. This was a great video! But the part of the desert I was in had soft fine sand, nothing could grow there

i live in Arizona how do you keep the silver back rabbits from eating you're lettius?

I could listen to the guy in the hoodie talk all day.