How to Grow Vegetables in the Desert

In this video, Ask This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook creates a water-efficient waffle garden.

Steps:

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 1½ 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.

Why It Works: The waffle garden is based on an 8,000-year-old technology developed by the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest to make efficient use of water. As Roger Cook explains, the shape of the garden mimics a waffle: “Like the syrup on the waffle, any water that is given to the garden is concentrated directly right into the plant root system. So when any rain, dew, even hand watering, it all goes right to the roots.”

When watering for the first time, use a shower nozzle with a real soft spray and soak the entire bed, including the berms, to settle the clay particles. As Roger Cook noted during a This Old House desert gardening project, the water will start to collect in the cells. After this initial soaking, concentrate watering only on the individual cells going forward — this is what makes the waffle design so water-efficient.