Ancient Native Americans Built

As early as 4 millenia ago, Native Americans were using complex techniques to plant abundant crops in the desert.

Ancient Native Americans were planting prolific and abundant desert food gardens 4,000 years ago. These ancients directed rain runoff and snow melt from slopes, arroyos (natural ditches) and historical floodwaters into deep, water-absorbent loam fields.

They were also adept at using gravity-fed stored water into protected micro-environments, and to limit plantings to those habitats. The southwestern deserts, in fact, are pockmarked with remnants of these micro-climate gardens.

The ancient Chacoan culture, from which paleontologists believe many more modern tribes sprung, planted "waffle" gardens below perennial lakes and springs. These early American gardeners also knew how to place edible plants in protected environments, buffering the plants from high and cold winds and temperature inversions by planting cottonwoods and other indigenous plants around them.

Whenever it was available, Native Americans used pea gravel, sand or volcanic gravel as mulch, depositing two to eight inches above the soil to maintain moisture and temperature.

The crops included prickly pear, 60-day corn, yucca (for food and a variety of other purposes), cacao and coffee, beans, and hardy legumes. Interestingly, they also grew ephemeral wildflowers, which they prized for their beauty and aesthetic qualities.