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oohstella

Best books for desert gardening / Eastern Oregon / Western Idaho?

oohstella
9 years ago

I know a ton of great books for gardening "west of the Cascades," in the Portland region where it is rainy and mild temperatures (zone 8), but I am moving to the desert climate of eastern Oregon and I do not know where to start. We will be located right at the border between Oregon and Idaho. Do you know of any good books I could look into for desert gardening? Or where I could look to find some?

Also, if you have any advice at all for desert gardening, I'm all ears.

Comments (5)

  • lazy_gardens
    9 years ago

    Sunset's Western Garden book

    And when you get there, the local library or water department or County extension agent would have plant lists.

    It's not tricky - mulch like mad, make compost and use it liberally, water seldom and water DEEPLY.

  • lantanascape
    9 years ago

    Hi, I have been gardening in the Boise area for about 8 years now. It's actually not too difficult of a climate to garden in, so long as you have access to irrigation water. Another thing that you might want to think about is protection from wind, If you're in a suburban back yard, it is not as much of an issue, but if your garden is more exposed, the wind can be pretty tough on plants. The sun can also be pretty intense, so where you may have wanted to maximize sun/heat on the "wet side" of Oregon, that's not always the case over here. For instance, I established a garden on the south side of the house this spring, and while the eggplants, sweet potatoes and okra are all thriving, it is proving to be too much for the hops, and they are getting kind of bleached and singed from the intense sun and heat.

    There is very little that can't be grown in this climate though. Artichokes are the only thing that comes to mind (and citrus of course) that I haven't been successful with.

  • oohstella
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for the recommendation @lazygardens.

    @lantanascape, I was wondering what people mean by "irrigation water." Is that somehow different than regular hose water? The real estate agent showed us another house and he said they should "have their backyard irrigated," though I didn't know what he meant by that. I asked him but I didn't fully understand his explanation. Apparently the house we will be moving into has irrigated water, I guess. Does that mean we need to use a special faucet? (I guess I could ask him this but I'm wondering what your perspective is).

    And that's interesting about the wind. I didn't know it got very windy over there. We're actually moving to Ontario, which is an hour west of Boise, and our house is on top of a hill, so I imagine we will get a bit of wind as well. Luckily the owner built the house for plants and gardens so we could plant where he stationed raised beds, which happen to be under the shade of a tree.

  • lantanascape
    9 years ago

    They probably mean that there is separate water source for irrigation (non-potable water). While we pay an irrigation tax at our house here in Boise, I need to set up a pump to access the water from the irrigation ditch, which runs through our neighbor's property. At our old house in Nampa, the sprinklers ran off of the irrigation water. The house was within city limits, and the irrigation tax included pressurized irrigation (so we didn't need our own pump). I also had a spigot installed in the garden hooked up from the irrigation water source. It's way better than paying for city water for watering plants.

    However, i my comment above, I meant, more generally, that you'll need ample water to keep things going all summer, because it's hot and dry. I've moved mostly to soaker hoses and it's working well. I put straw mulch on top of the soaker hoses to help hold in the moisture.

  • oohstella
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    That's a good idea. A neighbor gave us some soaker hoses that we will experiment with in our new home, along with some mulch. Thanks!