I just moved to Houston from Santa Fe, where it's equally dry most of the time (except recentely). Have you used mulch? I found that mulch, about three to four inches deep really makes a difference, in helping retain moisture in the soil, keeping down weeds, and keeping the soil at a more constant temperature (cooler, particularly in during the day).

Here is a link that might be useful: Desert Gardens

yep I am a mulcher. I use as much as I can find which usually covers the ground 3 or more inches. The only place things do well is close to the house. They get most shade there in the after noon. Things grow better in the front of the house but that is the front. I would rather not have squash all over the front yard. But I am consisdering it. thanks for the link I will look into it.

Mary

Another alternative to your problem might be "olla" (prounounced oh-yah) gardening. This method was brought to the new world by the Spanish, but is thought to have developed in the deserts and arid regions of northern Africa and brought to Spain by the Moors.
Unglazed terra cotta pots are porous. Water seeps slowly from them through the tiny pores. In New Mexico and elsewhere, these terra cotta pots are buried, with the top at or just below ground level (this keeps hot sun and wind from wicking the water from around the rim of the pot). If there is a hole in the bottom, it is plugged (marine caulking works well). Edible plants (and ornamentals) are planted in circles around the pots. The pots are then filled with water and covered (old plates, slate, a flat rock, a piece of wood...anything to keep the water from evaporating.)
The water slowly seeps through the terra cotta into the soil (and the plant roots next to the pots). Very little water is wasted through evaporation. Check the pots every day to check water levels. When a pot gets half-empty, refill it.
Ollas can be small (eight to 10 inch pots) or very large (a foot or two across). Plant roots benefit from this because all the water is going right where it's needed, and there is little or no evaporation. Also, with the pots, it is easy to maneuver around the garden. You can experiment with several designs (I think concentric circles would be interesting).
The Santa Fe, New Mexico Master Gardeners Association has an Olla Experimental Garden. Here's their website address: http://sfmga.org. When you get to their homepage, click on "Projects", then scroll down to the bottom of the projects. The Olla Garden page link is the last one.

Also, you might want to get something on "xeric" gardening. Your county agent, or local master gardeners' association may be able to point you in the right direction.
You might also want to obtain a copy of the book, "Edible Landscapes," by Rosalind Creasy. She has a very interesting perspective on gardening.
I assume you had your soil tested. If not, you can have this done at your local county agent's office.
Let me know how things develop.

Here is a link that might be useful: Desert Gardens

I have decided what to do

I am going back to garden beds not one huge garden with no paths. I only did that to accommodate my next year's attempt of a 3 sisters garden, but I am not going to try that next year after all. this year was a flop. and...Texas is a bit hot for corn and I read about all the problems with a 3 sisters garden. First the beans produce less. You need a really big place since if things are too close together, the beans will not get enough light. Sweet corn is not strong enough to support pole beans. I think from what I read, dent corn was used by the Indians. I could try that, but not sure family would like it since it is not as sweet as modern sweet corn. It gets very tall too, which would shade the beans even more.

I have lots of food allergies and about all I can eat is legumes in the green stage (not dried), beets, winter squash and broccoli . So I believe I should focus my efforts there. I am not trying broccoli in Texas though. Fresh broccoli is easy to purchase organic. Limas, and cow peas can't be purchased green in any store around here. Green beans and peas can be purchased frozen at the health food store, but never fresh. Beets and winter squash are hit and miss. So there is a big benefit for me growing these. I am planting celeriac and rutabaga too. I purchased those at a whole foods once and they did not make me sick. Those two are not available at my local health food store. I do not think I will have any luck with celeriac, but I will give it a go. I am also planting herbs and greens for my family this fall. Not such a big deal if they don't work out though, since they do not eat organic.

Anyway, I will build beds (again) about 12 X 3. 2 beds by the house and 2 further out. I am making them longer this time since everything does better closer to the house where it is cooler and gets more afternoon shade. If I made them shorter with paths between it would waste the valuable, close to the house space.

The reason I am breaking up the beds with 1 path between, is 1 long bed is annoying to have to carry the hose around and I need to leave a space for the down spout. That area now is nothing but mud with all the rain we have been getting. I am not going out as far, as I have the huge garden now. Everything dies past 8 feet out, too hot!

I guess I would have never known all that stuff unless I tried it first. If I don't have enough room for the beans, I will try something I saw in web land. They attached strings to the house gutter and attached to the ground. The beans climbed those. I also saw some neat beans climbing up privacy fences with strings. Sounds like a plan.

As far as the drought problem. I will dig 1 foot round holes every 2 feet in the center of the beds. I will fill with rocks and put mulch over that. I will only water the holes when the soil shows to be dry. I surely hope that works. I did not think the ditch idea would work as well because:

1. the sides would eventually fall down
2. if I filled the ditch with water, even plants that did not need water would get it
3. seemed to me, the ditches wasted too much space
4. no place to walk
5. boring rows resulted
6. the mud problem near the down spout
7.water would evaporate from ditches unless I covered with mulch or something and would have to be re-dug when everything decomposed. If I filled with rocks, that would be a lot of rocks.
8. ditches wasted valuable close to the house space
9. too much water in the spring and fall, creating mud

Just did not seem to be feasible to me. I filled in the ditches. I can't make beds until the current plants are done producing. I guess I will put things pretty much back the way they were in stages.

Your post on ollas gave me courage to try out my rock/hole idea. Thanks for posting it. It is way cool!

I hate to fail. I need a success every once in a while to keep up this gardening thing. I got so little produce so far. Here are the only things I have gotten so far:

last fall -2005
about 5 winter squash - very sweet and yummy
no sugar pumpkins
1 jackolantern in December - too late to use

this spring - 2006
about 3-4 weeks of English peas every other day. Not sweet
5 small beets - not sweet
2 tiny rutabagas - not great taste
no parsley - no sprout
no scallions - no sprout
no onions - no sprout
no radish - died in heat as seedlings
no spinach - no sprout
lots of over ripe cover crop radishes

not doing these thing in spring ever again.

This summer - 2006
5 ears of poorly formed corn with ear worms

about 6 tomatoes (from 2 plants)

no green beans - plants died in heat, except one plant, it is blooming now (Sept 2006)

no limas - very few sprouted, rest died in heat

1 unripe charentais melon - picked cause it split, rest of plants died tasted OK, but rather crunchy , pour sprouting

no cucumbers - very few sprouted, rest died

a couple of handfuls of cow peas, that I found out I was picking unripe. The last handful I picked, tasted great since I waited till the pods were yellow. I boiled in homemade beef broth with a bit of rendered beef fat. I would love to get at least 1 cup to make a decent meal for one.

I will say things are going a bit better this fall.

Hear is what has sprouted so far
wax beans
limas
peas
7 beets
squash - some have borers others may but not looking sick yet
cowpeas - making pods!
2 rutabagas
2 radishes
0 cabbage - need to give a few more days

I am disappointed with the beets, rutabaga and radish.

I planted more beets and rutabaga.

Sorry the post is so long. I am home bound so gardening fills my days, ether doing it or thinking about it. I wish it was working out better. Texas is very inhospitable. I will give the things that I have had little to no success with, a few more tries then giving up on them. My grandma had a nice large garden in Vermont. She did not have everything keel over like this. Just had frost to worry about. Not willing to move to the arctic for a bit of gardening success though.

Thanks for listening.

Mary

Instead of regular rocks, try lava rocks in your water holes. They are highly absorbant, and hold lots of water for long periods of time, releasing it into the nearby soil.
With mulch on top, you should have some real reservoirs in your garden.

Mary,

I know I am posting to an old thread, but if you haven't already, visit the vegetable forum. There are a lot of us Texans there that can help you with your veggie garden. One thing that has amazed me is how very well layers of newspaper under a good mulch...any mulch....retains water. My garden is in full sun and I had great production this summer, even with the drought. I have all raised beds, so the drainage is great. The newspaper is also great for weed suppression. I don't know how you do it without mulch.

Kristi

I mulch. I mulch with as much mulch as I can find.

I think my problem is since I do no till, the soil is not thick enough yet. It takes a bit longer, but I still have faith it can be done.

I try to avoid no organic things in my organic garden. Newspaper seem innocuous, but paper making is far from a clean process. They harp on soy ink but, I think that is to throw us all off. I am so dang allergic to newspaper. I am allergic to soy m maybe that is why.

good idea though.
I have stopped planning and replanning my garden. I have come up with what I think to be a workable plan, and if next year it does not work, I will adjust to fix problems that come up.

Here is my latest version

latest garden plan

I may dispense with watering ditches as I hate to disturb soil life.

Mary