Vegetable gardening in the desert takes a little more work than gardening in more humid climate, but with careful attention to your plants, desert vegetable gardening can reap many culinary rewards.

Desert Vegetable Gardening Starts With Amending The Soil

The sandy loam of the desert isn’t conducive to most vegetable growing. If you want to have a desert vegetable garden it is important to properly amend your soil. Once you have chosen your garden plot, you need to till in organic matter such as peat moss or compost. The more sandy your soil, the more organic matter you need to add. Up to 50% of your garden bed can be organic matter mixed with the sandy soil of your land.

Once you have taken care of the sandy issues of desert soil, you want to add in nutrients by tilling in a good 10-10-10 fertilizer and a little bit of humus or steer manure to top things off. Adding some gypsum can also help in breaking up your desert soil.

Desert Vegetable Gardening Requires Careful Irrigation

Desert vegetable gardening requires putting some effort into irrigation. Unlike in humid climates, a desert gardener can’t rely on rain to water their garden. The hot sun of the desert can also cause hand watering to evaporate before the water ever reaches the roots. If you want to have a healthy garden in the desert, do all of your watering early in the morning before the sun is too high in the sky. The very best way to water your garden in the desert is to use a soaker hose or even install a drip irrigation system.

You can also plant your garden in raised beds to ensure that when you water your beds, the water will quickly soak down to the roots.

Desert Vegetable Gardening Requires Sun Protection

When you garden in the desert, you have to deal with the effects of hot sun on your plants. Plants require sunlight to grow, but too much sun, or too much heat can cause plants to wilt, droop, or even blister and burn. The best way to avoid sun issues when gardening in the desert is to plant your plants in a protected area that gets some shade each day.

If you can’t plant your plants, such as tomatoes, next to a fence or next to your house, construct a canopy or sun shade near your plants so that you can roll it out and cover them during the hottest parts of the day.