Ask This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook creates a water-efficient waffle garden. (See below for a shopping list, tools, and steps.)
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Shopping List for How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert:
– Plant seeds
– Coarse sand and compost, to amend the soil
Tools List for How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert:
– Square-blade shovel
– Pickax, to loosen the soil
Steps How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert”
1. Use a square-blade shovel to mark a series of square cells on the ground. Make each cell the width of two shovel blades. Space the individual cells about 12 inches apart.
2. Pile up clay-rich soil around each cell, creating a raised berm. Firmly compact the berms by pounding them flat with the shovel and then walking across them.
3. Use a pickax to break up and loosen the soil within each square cell.
4. Add coarse sand and compost to the loosened soil; mix well.
5. Plant a variety of vegetable seeds within each cell to a depth that’s 1 1/2 times the diameter of each seed.
6. Cover the seeds with the amended soil, then lightly water the entire waffle garden, making sure to soak each cell.
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Homeowners have a virtual truckload of questions for us on smaller projects, and we’re ready to answer. Ask This Old House solves the steady stream of home improvement problems faced by our viewers—and we make house calls! Ask This Old House features some familiar faces from This Old House, including Kevin O’Connor, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, and landscape contractor Roger Cook.
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How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert | Ask This Old House
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View Comments
The problem will always be too little humidity for greens, as well as scorching winds. I have tried for over 3 years, nothing works, sigh, the harsh reality
Haha Saudi Arabia will be so hyped if this works there
Not real desert, Come to Australia and i will show you real desert country
The guy with the accent was my ag teacher. Mr. reed we miss you
Top it off with woodchips
What about rodents in outdoor desert gardening?
If compost is sterile how come it has microorganisms?
Look good I would like to have dirt as we're on rock go down 15 feet. It not that cheap to garden in arid places.
I was on pins and needles that those two gents were going to reenact the civil war and take their garden tools to one another. I envisioned the gentleman with the southern drawl to start yelling “The south shall rise again” while the fella with the thick Harvard yard accent shouted “I intend to make Georgia Howl “! Brilliant! Cheers mates!!
Ok this is great and all but with our water shortage, that long hose needs to get picked up and put in the shade every day. Otherwise your putting out about 10 gallons of water trying to cool it off. If you are watering at 4am not a problem. Another issue with that hose is squishing other plants and when it’s 105 F at 8-9am or even 8-9pm who the heck wants to be out watering that waffle? I don’t see it as a good fit for me, I hate our summers and baking in the heat when trying to get my wilted garden to perk up. The heat and sun just make me want to become a cave gardener. Sorry for the Betty-downer, good video :) !