(As we finish the tale of the vegetable bed experiment from last month) ... in the middle of the grand experiment I abandoned one plot for the other. Why? Because one plot was clearly outperforming the other in terms of growth, general performance, and ease of work. Which one did I choose? The Native American way - the sunken bed concept.

Here are a few notes that stood out from my garden diary comparing the two beds.

Raised Bed: Mulch - poor results, mulch kept blowing off the beds. Irrigation - average watering was 2-3 times a week. Weed abatement - good when the mulch stayed put!

Sunken Bed: Mulch - excellent results, mulch was under or at soil surface so it stayed in the bed during winds. Irrigation - average watering was once every 7 to 14 days for the 1998 growing season. My records for the 1994 growing season showed that seeds were watered in at planting time (July) and no supplemental irrigation was applied until late September. The rainfall was very good that year. Another discovery was the water would "roll off" the raised footpaths and "fall" into the sunken bed (this water-harvesting technique detected after the fact was a definite bonus!). Weed abatement - very good, hardly no weeding at all.

Through trial and error I have found other "good things" to share. Herbs prefer the raised bed method, they just don't like having their feet so wet. By the way, I wouldn't plant trees or shrubs in a sunken area as the standing water around the trunk could promote rot. I like to plant trees and shrubs with the base of the trunk at or just above soil level and dig out berms (I happen to have a slight slope so I build eyebrow shaped berms to catch rainwater runoff no deeper than a foot deep around the dripline of the plant. When it rains the berms fill up with water but leaves the trunk "high and dry." Every couple of years I re-dig and move the berms out with the dripline until the plant reaches its mature spread. Hard work - yes. Worth the effort - definitely.

Last fall I planted sweet acacias (A. farnesiana) and shoestring acacias (A. stenophylla). They were in one gallon pots and 8-12 inches tall. I hand watered them from September to December and then let them go to fend for themselves. They are now 3-5 feet tall. Not bad since they had to depend totally on rainfall this year.

For mulch in the veggie garden I've used straw, pine shavings, and alfalfa hay. I love the alfalfa hay. After the growing season is over I use my pitchfork and turn the soil, mulch, and plants over in the beds. After a good rain I'll go out and turn the beds over again

What I am doing is composting straight in the beds. I figure why make a special compost pile when I can do it in the garden plot and save time and effort hauling stuff around. I must say that I'm fortunate enough to have ample room to let plots that have been gardened in to lay fallow over the next growing season. Sometimes I will plant a cover crop or beans in the plots. This adds additional organic material, and in the case of planting beans I get a double whammy of organic material and harvest a crop of dried beans.

My records for the past three years showed I planted the same crops in two separate beds at different times - in late May/early June and at the start of the summer rains in July. The May/June plots struggled and struggled. The July plots just burst out crazy and blew the May/June plots away! From now on I'll wait until the summer rains to plant the warm season veggies - it just works. Interesting, the indigenous inhabitants of the Southwest also waited until the summer rains to plant their crops. Thinking about it now, it's not surprising to assume that they tried different methods of gardening, housing construction, and other things to find what worked best for them. And their method of gardening works best for me. The best method for you could be different - high desert soils, micro climates, and other conditions vary from yard to yard. The moral of this story is if you're not happy with the way your garden is performing don't be afraid to experiment and find out what works best for you.