Dig down
I’ve been thinking a lot about dirt lately. We try to grow a garden every year; we’ve planted over a dozen trees and shrubs around our house, and I can tell you a lot about the dirt in El Paso. It sucks. It’s mostly sand. Water flows over it or right through it and evaporates quickly. There is very little organic matter in it. The only things that naturally grow well in it are desert sage, anything covered in spines, and invasive bastards like morning glories and basil. Even so, these only thrive where there is a reliable source of water. Anything else has needed copious amounts of additions to the soil. For the first three years we were here we filled Rick’s truck with peat moss, manure, garden soil, fertilizer, and mulch. We composted. We jerry-rigged some hoses and pool pumps to recycle bath and laundry water as well as catch the sporadic rain to help keep everything watered in the long, parched summers. We aren't grea...