Now that the house is complete, we’re working at making the yard less of a hobo dirt pit. It is slow going, but even if it doesn’t seem like it right now, we have a plan.

Planting in the desert is certainly a learning curve. For example, local plants are really easy to transplant and move but, for desert plants, best treatment is NOT to water them. Also you need to dry out cut ends and roots so they don’t rot in the ground. Luckily the dirt we have is pretty fertile, but it is hard AF so a pick axe is needed to dig the holes and eventually, you get to bedrock. Water evaporates quickly on the surface, so Switch devised a low-tech deep root watering system with holes drilled into the bottom of a PVC pipe and buried on either side of the root area of some of our larger trees and plants. This ensures the water gets down to the roots where it is needed. Anyway, we’re slowly learning through local intelligence and a bunch of trial and error.

So, let’s explore our recent planting adventures through pictures!

desert/native plants

We rescued this cardón after someone ran into it on the side of the dirt road in the middle of the huerta (farm). We let the base dry out and then planted it. I’m hoping it lives!

These are elephant trees. They are native and very protected. We have several in our yard, but these two were at risk when they widened our road so we were able to save them by planting them in the front yard. When it rains, they put out little green acacia-like leaves. Despite their appearance, the are a relative of pine trees and have sap that smells similar.

When they widened the road, they also rescued some local cactus and “heeled them in” which is literally how it sounds. Desert plants are tough little dudes!

This row of terrible looking plants are the local aloe. Even though they look like they were ridden hard and put away wet, I’m surprised they are alive at all. We dug them up from our neighbor’s yard where they were taking over, but didn’t water them for weeks. We’re planning on watering them weekly and they will eventually take over these beds and put out a bunch of spikes of yellow flowers in the spring. You can see them blooming all over the desert during their flowering season. I planted a bunch of the succulents with the red edges for a color contrast, but I’m pretty sure the aloe will drown them out eventually.

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The desert is harsh, but you would be surprised at how many volunteers show up. These babies are native fan palms which just popped up in our yard. We get them all over, but decided to let these mature and then transplant them down along the lower yard for some privacy.

tropicals and edibles

Tropicals need more water, but have the added benefit of providing food. I try to eat locally, so am SUPER excited to not only eat pineapple on a regular basis but also grow it!

Speaking of, pineapple is surprisingly simple to grow. You just twist off the top of a pineapple, pull the bottom leaves off to expose the roots, cut off any remaining fruit, plant in the dirt and water. Easy! The only bummer is that it takes 1-2 years to get a pineapple out of the plant, but we’re planting one every time we eat a pineapple, so we should have a good supply in a couple years.

We planted this banana for privacy, but it will eventually put out fruit. It’s also doing really well.

I’m not sure I could live without som tum (Thai green papaya salad), but all the papayas are sold ripe down here. Solution? Grow them yourself! We planted both of these papayas a couple months ago and they have already more than doubled in size – and check out the flowers!

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Limes are easy to find in the stores down here, but lemons are not as easy. This tree is one of the first we planted and surprisingly, we’ve already harvested three lemons from it. AND it is loaded again with a new crop! I’m used to fruit trees taking several years to bear fruit so this was a nice surprise.

It isn’t all successes, of course. Our palms have had a bit of a challenge. These royal palms will eventually be big and beautiful, but it has taken a bit of trial and error to understand how much water they need. Honestly the more the better, but we are trying to find that sweet spot.

These palms – not sure what they are – are also not doing so hot. They are common house plants in the US but apparently grow outside here. We’re torn between whether they need more water or are getting too much sun. Anyway, they weren’t the thing I wanted to plant there anyway, so we may move them.

This little bastard hibiscus is false advertising. We bought it because it was white and lo and behold, half of the plant is sprouting these garish pink flowers. I’m sure it was a grafting issue and yes, I should be happy that I have two colors of flowers in one plant. I’m not a big fan of pink and still can’t seem to bring myself to kill it.

This weekend, we’re heading on to a couple nurseries to pick up some more plants so I guess it is time to start digging more holes! Wheeeee!