Building Perennial Garden Beds With Block | Raised Beds for Desert Gardening 

Thanks Angus! We really like how they turned out and can't wait for the plants to grow in.

Hey there Carolle! I'm really hopeful that Rosemary enjoys that sunny spot in the beds. They do grow quite aggressive for us here and I would love to have a few more flowers for our buzzy friends!

Hey Richard! We thought so too, it really likes the sun. And its close to the house when we need some! :)

Lol!! We were so glad to be done with those garden beds, especially since we decided to do them in the middle of summer... Glad we were able to help you get some work done :)

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Love my brother and sister in Christ!

Hey Garett! Congrats on that property in Cochise. Lots of challenges here in the desert, but it has it's advantages as well depending on what you're doing. How many acres are you on?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm we have a little over 4 acres.

@@garettcastle2335 that's a good chunk of land. We have 6 acres here, but we're only really working about 2 or so.

Thank you Shawn! Congrats on the move, where are you moving from?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Pennsylvania is where I'll be moving from thankful I have your videos to gain knowledge from.

@@shawnstevens7540 oh wow. Things will be a bit different for sure, but with challenges come other opportunities. One of those is the ability to harvest fruit from a tree year round!

So cannot wait to see what the future brings in az. Thought of fresh fruit and vegetables grown myself for me and my family is making my mouth water now lol

They turned out great and we are really happy with how they look!

Thank you Valerie! We have had many trees die on us too, don't give up on having an apple tree.

They turned out better than we anticipated. We're not exactly experts when it comes to brick work!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm you guys exhale joy and good vibes. So the great work is just a consequence!

Boy is that ever true Danielle! I think we've finally fenced them out of the property, so fingers crossed we can check them off the list for now!

Hey Eric! What you're describing definitely makes sense and any time you can avoid digging it's a good day!! You'll have to let me know how they do.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Yeah I learned it from watching this guy here in AZ that grows mangos and plants them mostly above grade.

@@ericbowers1620 I only got one citrus. I put it in a horse trough. Deep enough that it works since it small variety of citrus. I also put strawberries around it also in trough. They seem to thrive together

@@jaypete3500 nice. Some of mine are just in pots doing well. I did my watermelons and blueberries in those Lowes horse troughs and they did and are doing well. :)

@@ericbowers1620 love the horse trough but costly for only a little bit of room. Working my way up to raised garden hence this video. Unfortunately first crop I planted this year went straight to thr ground and all died. I suck at this.

Oh wow, the fruit trees are all getting confused with these last frost days! lol

Rosemary really is a trooper for us here in the desert. It's amazing to me to see them all around town as shrubs that get butchered into lollipops every month. You have to wonder if the owners even know it's an herb they have growing out front! Good to know on the Thyme. We were hoping to get a few of these endcaps to be perennial for us, so we can plant once and move on.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm The thyme and rosemary both were specials from the grocery store. Nothing else does well i those raised beds. Not even Tarahumara chia, a real bear for punishment. I did get some California chia and will try that. But, a cup of sugar helps the borateen plus go down. 1 tablespoon of that in a cup of cornmeal or sugar on a harvester ant colony and some seeds actually get to stay till next year. Red fire ants or black, they take all they can get.

@@marschlosser4540 ants are distant relatives to ground squirrels...both of demon origin!

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Both have excellent uses! One feeds horned toads while the other fattens hawks and Mouser the rattler. They do a great job aerating the soil, and cutting thru caliche where they can. Collapsed colonies are great root zones and very often rich soil. Mouser was terribly despondent after Bubba the dachshund passed away. I told the grandkids she would say, Come on, Bubba, all I wanna do it give you a lil smooch and big hug! Now she has a new love, Termite the garden terminator. At 50 lbs, he may be a little too big for her, but he's just right for lovin' for the big kitty, a mountain lion. After dark, when I open the back door for him, he looks, he sniffs and you know kitty is close because he runs behind me. then I have to go out or he won't :)

@@marschlosser4540 your stories never cease to bring a smile to my face Martin.

Hey guys!! We are really happy with how these turned out, now to wait for the plants to grow:) We haven't had any more problems with the javelina since fencing the entire property but we do still get some rabbits. Plants that we are concerned with we are putting up some fencing on the inside to keep them out. And ones we are concerned with for birds, we will put bird netting across the top. We almost got some mint, but we just don't use it very much... maybe we will add some. The pigs are getting so big!!

I'm really glad you enjoyed this one. You're writing reminds me of poetry! Rosemary is really hard to beat and it grows so well for us here. Thank you for the bible quote as well. It's funny, I (Duane) highlight every instance in my bible reading where I come across references to trees. Mainly fruit trees, so fig is highlighted many times in my devotional.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm and D'way in is a very cool name! so I'm assuming you've read Isaiah 41:19 lol maybe desert Conifers is flexing haha their smell is a fruit! and Acacia has a cool sight partial shade canopy olive trees healthy vein clearing fat juniper wind shields? idk what for myrtle? looks beautiful and maybe these meant different trees in Hebrew, I see Shittath Boxwood Elm, White Poplar in others looking up Fig now, I saw 30 cuttings for $30 dollars! but I'm 2 hardiness zones too cold :/ hoping to sow contender peaches, bartlett pairs, mcintosh apple and three crown (thornless) black berries this spring

We didn't line any of the blocks and we have seen what you're describing on the outside of the blocks. During the summer it's hard to see, because it evaporates so quickly, but you can see the water marks during the Winter.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm for dry land environments try a reverse raised bed as an experiment. I’m now curious. Usually you dig out a bed below the earth dust mulch layer so the roots are closer to the underground water level. Water bond tension let’s it seep/get pulled up by transportation above towards the ground level but what stops it from reaching the very top and then endlessly evaporating to the air is the dust (mulch acting) layer on the surface. Like all mulches it breaks the bonds of the water and is through that mechanism gets it’s deserved reputation for conserving water in dry land environments as the water cannot pull to the direct surface and transpire to the air as rapidly. Raised beds use more water and are normally prescribed for use when the ground layer is too wet for crops like root crops which end up rotting before they can produce. Farmers will just hill up the ground into mounds or row mounds with a tractor. Home owners will buy decorative borders as they can afford the large cost for decorations for their raised ground but raised beds increase water consumption is the general idea. Best to look into Native Americans practices in the similar dry land environments and see what they did to support their large tribe as to their farming practices or did they continually move from place to place as they couldn’t make the area work for them to maintain their numbers. You can row crop dry areas the secret is greater and greater spaces between rows and between plants within rows to reduce competition for the limited subsurface water. In deserts like Australia and Africa you can see from airplanes strange circles on the ground. Turns out those are the way the desert plants have organized themselves so they have taken all the water and nothing grows in the water mined areas.

@@pd8559 you make some great points and suggestions here. The primary reason for the raised beds behind these endcaps is to keep rabbits, ground squirrels and quail from eating all of our annual veggies. We've tried in-ground beds before and unless it's an herb that is generally left alone, we wind up with nothing but a few roots the ground squirrels miss! That being said, we are still working on some in-ground planting behind the animals and cover crops, with sorghum as the predecessor. We're keeping our fingers crossed they can survive the onslaught of the quail soon to arrive which decimated our bean crop last year before it passed the first leaf stage.

I haven't thought of the evap part of thr blocks. What if you added mulch in the holes wouldn't it work in favor of garden in reverse. Evap from the mulch working foe your garden?

@@jaypete3500 it wouldn't hurt to add something like that. We have those filled with ABC and rocks to keep the critters out of the beds, so there is a bit of a barrier with the sand from those.

Hey Roger. We only wear them when we're moving wood chips and/or large amounts of soil. The woodchips have heavy amounts of mold in them and we both are sensitive to that.

We know just how you feel with having to completely enclose the beds (top and bottom!). We're hopeful these endcaps will have herbs that deter the ground squirrels from being an issue. If not, they'll get that hardware cloth on the base as well!

Had to pull that up to see what you were referring to and it does look just like that. These were the basic retaining wall block from Lowes in Red/Charcoal.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I use to work for PAVESTONE Las Vegas

@@slamboy66 I'm guessing you have some experience at this then!

I'll see if I can answer all of these for you; The beds are mostly empty right now except for some garlic we need to harvest this month. We put bird netting over the top of the main beds to keep birds out. We have different items in each endcap. I don't have a good contact for concrete as the company we used to build our outbuilding used their owns subs. Our well and septic guys have both gone out of business, so I don't have a good contact there. Our electrician is also our neighbor and he only does work in the Phoenix area, but I can give you his number if you email us. Washes are a challenge here in AZ. If they're part of a designated flood plain you'll need to submit any design plans that work in or around it to the County for approval. My understanding is you are not able to legally divert the flow of any known/named washes.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thank you so much sorry to be such a pain but I appreciate it

Would you please give me any numbers you can as I am trying to get everything organized. Thanks again

@@kennhurt5636 our electrician/neighbor is Jake and he owns Redbird Electric. His phone number is 623-755-6671. The builder for our outbuilding was Sentry Builders and their phone number is 480-322-7784.

Hey Seth. It's definitely possible to overwater Rosemary. Once it's established it is very drought tolerant. The options are to water less frequently (usually no more than once a week when it's past it's first growing season), or use a raised bed and amend the soil to drain more quickly. The soil you see us using here with that 30% mix of sand is a good option.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Okay. Thank you very much for the advice. I enjoy the content you two provide! Please keep it up! Is there local tours of the farm often?

@@setha6163 we have a farm tour coming up in April, but we only market those through our customer email list. If you'd like to join that you can sign up through our website. I'll link that for you here; www.edgeofnowherefarm.com/ If you drop us an email or message us through our website I can get you the details on the tour in April.

We tried blueberries once and we had a heck of a time keeping that soil PH down. At the time I didn't realize the water we were adding to the pot regularly raised the PH, so lesson learned for sure. What mix did you use last time around?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I mistakenly didn't use any specific mix. The two closest University extension offices say pure pine-bark on the soil surface (well above the water-table). They build entire farms using pine-bark mounds. I also need to learn to use ammonium sulfate to lower PH.

@@SlackerU the chemistry alone makes my head spin!

Great question Jay and for the most part we don't have those issues. These beds do have some annual crops in them that won't last beyond a single season and "burn up" with the heat, but the perennial crops are doing fine. There are not many annual crops that survive our Summer heat, so keep that in mind. What are you growing that's having issues?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I got some grapes that are burning and blackberry. Granted I don't have the same variety as yours. Working on building some shade for them.

@@jaypete3500 varieties do make a difference. Also planting time. When did you plant these? Mulch and irrigation?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm planted them about 2 years ago. I get them looking great in spring then heat comes and my crop comes and it goes brown. Fruit shrivel and die. Luckily plant survives but lose 90 percent of crop. No irrigation where I live. Small place. Just use hose. Thinking this morning along with your brick comments of heat. I have both these plants next to walls. Wondering now if radiating heat is cause

@@jaypete3500 ah yes. That wall radiating heat can definitely make a difference. Also, there may be some left over concrete/mortar around the planting area from the installation of that wall. That would affect the growth as well. I will say, the long slow drip on grapevines is really the best way to irrigate. We have a Flame grape along the chain link fence at the front of the property that we hand water and it's growing much more slowly than all the rest of our vines. There are fittings you can get to attach your hose to a drip system. That may be worth considering for those!

Hey Jynxie! That's called a hula hoe. Very common landscaping tool here in AZ, because you can use it to weed under light layers of crushed granite (also very common in landscapes here in AZ!).

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm thanks for the tip! We are definitely gonna be that when we get to AZ.

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm also what's to let you know we had a litter of puppies born on the 9th. My husband and I decided that since we watched all your videos during the mother's pregnancy we would name the pups after some of the fruits while we have them. So we have Clementine, Fig, Almond, Plum, Kumquat, and Apricot.

@@JynxieTheMermaid how cool is that! What breed are you raising?

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Shih Tzus. They are oddly, a line that are sensitive to people's epileptic seizures. So the ones that show the "gift" as you may say, can be used as service dogs to alert people when they are about to have a seizure. Having one made a world of difference for my husband so we work with a program to get them to others they can experience the freedom it gives you.

Yeah, if I was more talented I would have tried that. First and only time I tried to split a brick it didn't work out so well. Let's just say there were more than 2 pieces!

Glad you enjoyed this one Edward!