Desert Gardening

It is not compulsory that people, who love gardening, have to live in plains. It is quite natural that people living in desert area would also like to boast of their beautiful gardens. Though growing garden in desert is a challenging task, as you have to face all the contradictory conditions of farming like very little rainfall, unfertile rocky soil, extreme temperature and so on, it is not all that impossible. Surprisingly, at times, it is easier to grow a desert garden rather than the customary garden. To know more about the advantages of desert plants and the step required for desert gardening, browse through the following lines.

Advantages Of Desert Plants
One of the primary benefits of desert plants is that they do not require much effort for management. They serve multipurpose - apart from providing shade, desert plants help to scrub the air around a home, keeping the air fresh and pleasant and also save the other plants from intense cold of desert nights. Also, the respiration of desert plants increases the humidity of the surrounding area, thereby proving to be extremely advantageous in dry desert climates.

Another advantage of desert gardening is that they get long seasons for production throughout the year, which is not quite possible in the plain fertile soil. The unique features of coping with heat and relentless sunlight, and minimal need of water are other benefits of desert plants. For desert gardening, it is better to select plants that are quite friendly to the harsh desert atmosphere, else you have to take extra care by making raised bed, making the soil fertile, building shades, protecting the plants form wind and animals etc.

Steps For Desert Gardening

Testing the Soil
The first step in desert gardening is testing the soil. Desert plants are best gown nearby any river. Every soil needs nitrogen for the growth of the plants. But if you have cemented rocks between six to twenty inches below the soil then you have to break it manually or sow your plants on raised beds.

Watering
Needless to say desert gardening needs deep watering so that the plants grow healthy. The watering was to be done in drops, which is called drip irrigation system. This drip irrigation system will allow the water to enter into the soil. If the soil is loose enough it also allows oxygen to penetrate easily. Drip watering is very much necessary for the healthy growth of the roots of the desert plants.

Adding Compost & Mulch
Compost and mulch are very much suitable to the drip irrigation system. You can either make it yourself or buy them. It is mixed in the soil to give nutrient to the plants. It acts like a sponge to store the minerals in the soil and slowly give the nutrients to the plants roots.

Mulch placed on the soil helps to retain the moisture and prevents the growth of weeds. You can make mulch manually from old newspapers, wood chips, dry lawn leftover, old straw and pine needles. These materials decompose and add to the organic matter, which is a helpful nutrient for desert plants.

Microclimates
Use of microclimates is found to be beneficial for some variety of desert plants. While the walls facing the north provide cool shaded areas, roofs, sidewalks and streets create areas of high water runoff for collection. Talking about wind control, grooves of small trees serve as the best bet, while moisture-loving plants are great for retention of water. Colors also play a dominant role in microclimates - while dark walls hold on to the heat, white swiftly reflects it. However, watch out for the walls that would add to the heat and channel winds towards the plants. This way you can re-direct the harsh heat and winds flow from the plants.