When people think of Phoenix.....

Ha! Good point!

Yes our soil is very light. Actually the soil you are looking at there is worked and amended so its darker than normal native soil. Our native soil is a very light beige. Its actually quite rich stuff but lacks organic content and nitrogen. Just add manure and compost and BAM! Things grow.

Our forefather farmers did a really smart thing many years ago. They formed a private corporation and put up all their land as collateral and build a series of dams and resivors on rivers flowing down from higher elevations. The result was a sustainable bulk water source called the Salt River Project system. It now flows down a canal and ditch system and delivers that water at a very reasonable price via flood irrigation to the landowners with SRP water rights (the people who put up their land as collateral). It covers most all the good farmland in the Phoenix valley. Not that this amazing gift from the past keeps this short sighted idiots from paving over our farmland and giving up thier water rights.

We've spent a little time in north Phoenix. Son lives there... and has tried to talk us into moving out there many times.

I was a bit surprised at seeing some of the agriculture in the area. I didn't think anything would grow there. BUT... it does!! It's different than back east. (I grew up in Pennsylvania Amish country.) The seasons are different. The varieties are different. But it's entirely possible to grow some serious crops there provided you have a water source. (Drip irrigation is your friend.)

Trying to homestead in the area right around Phoenix would be difficult for me because of the cost of land. And getting out away far enough to get cheaper land would make getting water more difficult, not impossible, but difficult. Water wells do happen but they're expensive!

At one time, I'd have totally written off Phoenix as an area not able to support agriculture. Having seen little bits of what look like pretty fertile land in that area, I'd say it's possible.

Those canal systems makes a very good place to ride or in this case drive a horse on.
The right side is Tempe, the left side of that canal is Mesa. And if you look hard you can see the green houses in background that now as used as the horse boarding stable. LOL

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My favorite crop to drive by were the rose fields in Waddell. We'd roll down the windows in the fall because it smelled like heaven. They grow the rosebushes for nurseries...Home Depot, etc. Acres and acres of different colored roses. Absolutely beautiful.

Desert climate=very few insects and very little disease. Growing organic here is pretty simple. We do have a few pests (squash bugs that are unbeatable because of the long long summer grow season) but on the whole its almost nothing compared to what some people go thru in more humid climates. Yes the season are VERY different than most the rest of the country. I think thats what trips up so many people who move here. We run a gardening forum and keep pounding the message that you must plant ON TIME and the CORRECT VARIETIES. If you can do these 2 things wild success will be yours. But miss a planting date by 5-10 days and you might as well not waste your time. We have very specific planting windows here.


The first time I flew into Minnesota I was amazed at how people grew crops on hills! I mean it floored me! I actually asked someone how in the heck do you get water up there?!?! The stares I got back were priceless and then someone finally informed me that there is no irrigation, that rain does it all. Well WOW!!! I know that seems stupid to you guys but understand that im 3rd generation Arizona and all my life all ive ever seen is flood irrigated crops. The concept that there are places that it rains often enough to not need to irrigate otherwise was such a foreign concept to this desert rats mind that I couldnt fathom it. Id been to Iowa once when I was a kid but that ground is all flat. Farming on hills still blows my mind. lol

So. Did anyone else see the segment on the shoe "dark rye" about the guy in phoenix who had the talapia in his pool...the greenhouse and chickens above?

Would you mind sending me info on your gardening forum?

I'm not a natural with any kind of plants, but would like to try growing a few things at home.

thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/West...enixgardening/

Be glad to have you join!

http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/


Awesome resource for the Phoenix Metro area.




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You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

http://youtu.be/wHbX4ts7T6A

A good video of a guy's garden in Phoenix.

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You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

Are you talking about these guys? http://gardenpool.org/

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You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

It might be. The segment I saw showed the front of the house....I can't be sure. But even so the same basic idea

thank you!

Just a personal opinion....those garden pool people are way past silly. But each to their own.