It might seem obvious, but the good desert gardener will understand water and irrigation problems.
All plants and animals on the planet need water to survive. However, there are many plants (and some animals) that have adapted to live in arid and desert areas.
Plants have used a number of methods to adapt to low water supplies. Some have developed deep or wide root systems, allowing them to find and take in water from large areas.
Other plant species survive by having short life cycles. These plants have seeds that can germinate, grow and reproduce within small windows of time, whenever necessary water is available.
Some plants prevent evaporation and sun scorch by having a waxy covering over their surfaces. Others can store water for later use. Still others have tiny leaves or very narrow leaves in order to curtail loss of water.
There are even some species that can lose high amounts of water, enduring long periods in which there is little or no growth.
Alternatively, they may dry up to the point where they appear dead, but are not. In addition, in deserts and arid regions, there are plants which include a number of adaptations. Even edible plants native to arid and desert regions can have some or all of these characteristics.
For non-native plants, or plants that need more moisture, rainfall or snowfall may not be of much help. First, the amount might not be enough to adequately water the soil. Also, as many desert gardeners know, much arid and desert soil is so porous that it cannot hold water.
Some plants have adapted so well to finding and using scarce available water that they actually take it from less well-adapted plants, particularly non-native plants. Particularly susceptible are landscape plants that are not adapted to arid areas.
Quality of water is also a problem in desert gardens. Water from some aquifers is too saline or so high in other minerals that make it impossible to drink or to use for plant irrigation. Irrigating with water high in minerals may lead to salt accumulation in the soil, and raise the alkalinity of the soil. That in turn inhibits growth and may even kill plants.
Moreover, salt in the soil, once it binds with other molecules in the soil, is nearly impossible to remove.
In desert gardening, one of the most important steps is to manage water properly. Managing water means getting it, conserving it, using it well and efficiently and, to paraphrase the physician’s oath, do no harm to the soil.
