Gardening in the desert creates a lot of challenges. We have a small garden but any amount of gardening helps to save money. Also, its enjoyable to be outside digging in the soil and growing your own food. I love harvesting vegetables that I nourished from seed to fruit. I feel a great deal of accomplishment. As someone who enjoys cooking, growing my own food and creating new recipes with said food, makes me feel like a true provider for my family and a highly capable human.

The main issues of desert gardening are water, sun, soil and wind. In this video, I mostly focus on water and how we utilize our grey water system to save water. I also use a drip irrigation system to help save water. I mention how we created garden beds by digging them into the ground and filling them with gardening soil. I discuss how I use shade cloths for sun to cover my greens. Bugs and weeds are rarely a problem.

You will also notice in the video that we have corrugated metal fences around the garden. These are used to block the strong winds that come primarily from the southwest. All this also serves to create a microclimate around the garden that keeps moisture in and helps prevent the topsoil from drying out.

In the future, we will have an attached greenhouse that will also use grey water from the house. Perhaps next year, I can create another video with an update on how the greenhouse has changed our food production.

Here is my garden version of the Jennifer Aniston salad, which is kind of a version of a Mediterranean salad. (Thanks to my friend Mel for this recipe. She grills the zuchinni, which I chose not to do but sounds tasty.)

Zucchini Salad Ingredients: chopped garden zucchini chopped garden chard feta cheese garbanzo beans pepitas cooked quinoa sliced olives Dressing: olive oil lemon juice salt pepper fresh garden herbs Mix together and serve.

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