Spanish Colonial Irrigation Ditches

I live on about a half acre exurban lot in central New Mexico. It is part of an old Spanish irrigation network (acequia), and has been flowing constantly these past two months, though at other times it flows an hour or so every other week. Currently we have some fruit trees, clump grass, clover, and a bunch of assorted weeds and wildflowers. I would like to grow maybe squash or something, but am not picky (there's heavy clay soil, and sometimes sand over clay, so not the most welcoming to cultivated plants).  

Does anyone have any experience using this system, or resources about it? My grandmother was on a similar system in Arizona, but mostly just grew Bermuda grass and oleander, which seems common for houses that inherited flood irrigation. How did the Spanish garden with it when they first set it up? It looks like the pueblos still use it for their gardens, but I don't have any contacts there.

Irene Dodd wrote:I live on about a half acre exurban lot in central New Mexico. It is part of an old Spanish irrigation network (acequia), and has been flowing constantly these past two months, though at other times it flows an hour or so every other week. Currently we have some fruit trees, clump grass, clover, and a bunch of assorted weeds and wildflowers. I would like to grow maybe squash or something, but am not picky (there's heavy clay soil, and sometimes sand over clay, so not the most welcoming to cultivated plants).  

Does anyone have any experience using this system, or resources about it? My grandmother was on a similar system in Arizona, but mostly just grew Bermuda grass and oleander, which seems common for houses that inherited flood irrigation. How did the Spanish garden with it when they first set it up? It looks like the pueblos still use it for their gardens, but I don't have any contacts there.

Hey Irene.. I used to live in Socorro County, and one farm I lived/worked on was on the Acequia. You need to get to know your Mayordomo, and figure out your schedule/usage. I love flood irrigation, and am setting up a similar system here in Nevada. (In what used to be the north west corner of New Mexico when it was still a territory!) I still grow chilis with seeds that I brought with me from NM.

https://lasacequias.org/2016/02/15/the-role-of-mayordomo-in-preparing-for-spring/

Ted Abbey wrote:

Irene Dodd wrote:I live on about a half acre exurban lot in central New Mexico. It is part of an old Spanish irrigation network (acequia), and has been flowing constantly these past two months, though at other times it flows an hour or so every other week. Currently we have some fruit trees, clump grass, clover, and a bunch of assorted weeds and wildflowers. I would like to grow maybe squash or something, but am not picky (there's heavy clay soil, and sometimes sand over clay, so not the most welcoming to cultivated plants).  

Does anyone have any experience using this system, or resources about it? My grandmother was on a similar system in Arizona, but mostly just grew Bermuda grass and oleander, which seems common for houses that inherited flood irrigation. How did the Spanish garden with it when they first set it up? It looks like the pueblos still use it for their gardens, but I don't have any contacts there.

Hey Irene.. I used to live in Socorro County, and one farm I lived/worked on was on the Acequia. You need to get to know your Mayordomo, and figure out your schedule/usage. I love flood irrigation, and am setting up a similar system here in Nevada. (In what used to be the north west corner of New Mexico when it was still a territory!) I still grow chilis with seeds that I brought with me from NM.

https://lasacequias.org/2016/02/15/the-role-of-mayordomo-in-preparing-for-spring/

Thanks for the response!

We're in Placitas, so a bit cooler and snowier.

The majordomo lives a few houses down, and is fairly hands-off. He yelled at us once for asking us how to get the water flowing when it had been blocked up for several years, and told us to figure it out for ourselves. Our other neighbors are pretty decent about communication, and helped us out. We are the last house, so whatever comes, comes, and if it's too much we run it off into the canyon by stacking rocks in it.

Their "normal" schedule, which hasn't happened even once in the past two years, is one hour of water every two weeks, from ditch day in late March, to an unknown time in the fall, depending on how they feel things are going.

Since the last two years have been in drought, this is our first year with a good flow. Last year it was half an hour every three weeks -- fortunately some mature fruit (cherry, apricot, a little stunted apple) trees survived and are producing well this year. The potable and ditch water comes from the same source (ponds), so if the ditches are not flowing, they ask people NOT to water as much as possible, maybe just to keep the trees alive.

Right now, the water has been running non-stop for two months straight, and our yard is very soggy, to the point that I'm worried about root rot and erosion, but I don't really want to re-dig a bunch of stuff for what's likely to be a short period of time. Nobody really knows how long it will continue flowing, it depends on the snowpack on the mountain, and how it goes through the earth t our springs.

I've been wondering why the rest of the neighborhood has cottonwood trees, and our house used to have a willow, and apparently this is why. If I had known, I might have planted a cottonwood in the spring.

Fortunately, the man who originally designed the property mostly knew what he was doing, and the water flows safely around the house, through a grassy field, and toward the canyon, where he built some erosion supports with telephone logs and (unfortunately) filled in an erosion hole with junk to break the fall of the water. He also planted magnificent rosebushes that are 6 ft high with no care, a Spanish broom, an heirloom apricot tree that produced way too many tiny apricots and too few leaves this year from his family in Spain, and two beautiful lush cherry trees.

The biggest challenge, aside from unpredictable water, is there's about 600 sq ft of what used to be a horseshoe area with clay soil, then landscaping cloth, then about 6 inches of sand. The first year, it only grew tumbleweeds and I'm pretty sure there was herbicide applied there and surrounding areas. The second year it grew tumbleweeds, goatheads, and a couple of clumps of grass. This year, we dug a little pond and some canals into it, and it's growing tumbleweeds, goatheads, tiny burrs, some decent grass clumps, and a few bushes. It's getting more interesting, but is slow going. The area around it is mostly ailanthus, and a graveyard of dead fruit trees.

Last year, we tried a tiny three sister garden near where the water entered the property, but it was stunted and didn't produce anything, for a variety of reasons, including being on basically a river mouth that builds up clay silt. I tried planting lavender, but probably put it in a bad spot, and the wind blew away the mulch and exposed the roots, so it died.

Do you know of any good books or other information sources of how to go about designing for this? What do people grow? How do they do it? Things like how to design sub-canals and water gates? What kind of mulch might be cheap, effective, and not blow away in the heavy winds? We applied several bags of wood mulch, but the chickens just scattered it, and I don't know if it's doing any good. The clover is doing really well, up to 6 ft, but I suspect it will just blow away if we cut it down. We have no water gates, and just stack rocks or drive in boards, then remove them, depending on what we want, but this is not terribly effective.

I don't care so much what grows, as long as it contributes some to erosion control and doesn't develop difficult to avoid thorns or burrs, though things that turned into food would be great. I have two young daughters, four chickens, and six guineas, all free range, and am unlikely to be tenderly nursing or protecting baby plants. 

Irene Dodd wrote:

Ted Abbey wrote:

Irene Dodd wrote:I live on about a half acre exurban lot in central New Mexico. It is part of an old Spanish irrigation network (acequia), and has been flowing constantly these past two months, though at other times it flows an hour or so every other week. Currently we have some fruit trees, clump grass, clover, and a bunch of assorted weeds and wildflowers. I would like to grow maybe squash or something, but am not picky (there's heavy clay soil, and sometimes sand over clay, so not the most welcoming to cultivated plants).  

Does anyone have any experience using this system, or resources about it? My grandmother was on a similar system in Arizona, but mostly just grew Bermuda grass and oleander, which seems common for houses that inherited flood irrigation. How did the Spanish garden with it when they first set it up? It looks like the pueblos still use it for their gardens, but I don't have any contacts there.

Hey Irene.. I used to live in Socorro County, and one farm I lived/worked on was on the Acequia. You need to get to know your Mayordomo, and figure out your schedule/usage. I love flood irrigation, and am setting up a similar system here in Nevada. (In what used to be the north west corner of New Mexico when it was still a territory!) I still grow chilis with seeds that I brought with me from NM.

https://lasacequias.org/2016/02/15/the-role-of-mayordomo-in-preparing-for-spring/

Thanks for the response!

We're in Placitas, so a bit cooler and snowier.

The majordomo lives a few houses down, and is fairly hands-off. He yelled at us once for asking us how to get the water flowing when it had been blocked up for several years, and told us to figure it out for ourselves. Our other neighbors are pretty decent about communication, and helped us out. We are the last house, so whatever comes, comes, and if it's too much we run it off into the canyon by stacking rocks in it.

Their "normal" schedule, which hasn't happened even once in the past two years, is one hour of water every two weeks, from ditch day in late March, to an unknown time in the fall, depending on how they feel things are going.

Since the last two years have been in drought, this is our first year with a good flow. Last year it was half an hour every three weeks -- fortunately some mature fruit (cherry, apricot, a little stunted apple) trees survived and are producing well this year. The potable and ditch water comes from the same source (ponds), so if the ditches are not flowing, they ask people NOT to water as much as possible, maybe just to keep the trees alive.

Right now, the water has been running non-stop for two months straight, and our yard is very soggy, to the point that I'm worried about root rot and erosion, but I don't really want to re-dig a bunch of stuff for what's likely to be a short period of time. Nobody really knows how long it will continue flowing, it depends on the snowpack on the mountain, and how it goes through the earth t our springs.

I've been wondering why the rest of the neighborhood has cottonwood trees, and our house used to have a willow, and apparently this is why. If I had known, I might have planted a cottonwood in the spring.

Fortunately, the man who originally designed the property mostly knew what he was doing, and the water flows safely around the house, through a grassy field, and toward the canyon, where he built some erosion supports with telephone logs and (unfortunately) filled in an erosion hole with junk to break the fall of the water. He also planted magnificent rosebushes that are 6 ft high with no care, a Spanish broom, an heirloom apricot tree that produced way too many tiny apricots and too few leaves this year from his family in Spain, and two beautiful lush cherry trees.

The biggest challenge, aside from unpredictable water, is there's about 600 sq ft of what used to be a horseshoe area with clay soil, then landscaping cloth, then about 6 inches of sand. The first year, it only grew tumbleweeds and I'm pretty sure there was herbicide applied there and surrounding areas. The second year it grew tumbleweeds, goatheads, and a couple of clumps of grass. This year, we dug a little pond and some canals into it, and it's growing tumbleweeds, goatheads, tiny burrs, some decent grass clumps, and a few bushes. It's getting more interesting, but is slow going. The area around it is mostly ailanthus, and a graveyard of dead fruit trees.

Last year, we tried a tiny three sister garden near where the water entered the property, but it was stunted and didn't produce anything, for a variety of reasons, including being on basically a river mouth that builds up clay silt. I tried planting lavender, but probably put it in a bad spot, and the wind blew away the mulch and exposed the roots, so it died.

Do you know of any good books or other information sources of how to go about designing for this? What do people grow? How do they do it? Things like how to design sub-canals and water gates? What kind of mulch might be cheap, effective, and not blow away in the heavy winds? We applied several bags of wood mulch, but the chickens just scattered it, and I don't know if it's doing any good. The clover is doing really well, up to 6 ft, but I suspect it will just blow away if we cut it down. We have no water gates, and just stack rocks or drive in boards, then remove them, depending on what we want, but this is not terribly effective.

I don't care so much what grows, as long as it contributes some to erosion control and doesn't develop difficult to avoid thorns or burrs, though things that turned into food would be great. I have two young daughters, four chickens, and six guineas, all free range, and am unlikely to be tenderly nursing or protecting baby plants. 

Que bueno.. I love Placitas! How does it feel to live on the same road as the Sandia Man Cave, Ski Area, and.. Tinkertown!! (Please tell me that you know and love Tinkertown) I have so much to say.. but for now, pull every goat head as soon as possible, and collect old “heads” with cheap foam flip flop sandals. Plant Quelites (lambs quarter), amaranth, and purslane. (You MUST have weeds, so they may as well be “good” ones.) They will compete with the goat heads and if you do it right, you might be done with them in.. a decade, or so.. Haha! Also, plant your cottonwoods in dormancy, not in the spring. All you have to do is poke a hole in the ground, stick a cutting in, and 9 times out of 10 it will grow. Same with willows, but cottonwood prefers it a little drier than willow.. so cottonwoods high, willows low. Great to hear about all of your moisture, and with monsoons beginning for real in about two weeks?!? Placitas probably looks like Ireland right now. PLEASE post some pictures, and if you haven’t already.. GO TO TINKERTOWN! You will be inspired..

Hello,
my family used to have that method in our farm in Andalousia. It's flooding irrigation. You have to prepare your fields first. Take a small field, like 10x20 metres and surround it with a barrier of raised soil. Then make rows of soil, 30 cm tall, and as long as your field. The field is ideally leveled, but if you have some slope then make the rows at the same elevation, leaving only one extreme open, drawing a snake.
Then, when you have access to water, open a ditch so the water can flood your field, and leave it opened until it seeps no longer. If you still have watering time, repeat for the next field. If the field is leveled, it doesn't matter where the water gets in, but if you have a sloped field, then you have to let water in from the highest place.

The plants are planted on top of the rows, I don't remember if it is done before or after the first irrigation. I think they had to irrigate two or three times before harvest. Also, after the surface dries, it forms a crust that must be broken with a hoe.

Ted Abbey wrote:
Que bueno.. I love Placitas! How does it feel to live on the same road as the Sandia Man Cave, Ski Area, and.. Tinkertown!! (Please tell me that you know and love Tinkertown) I have so much to say.. but for now, pull every goat head as soon as possible, and collect old “heads” with cheap foam flip flop sandals. Plant Quelites (lambs quarter), amaranth, and purslane. (You MUST have weeds, so they may as well be “good” ones.) They will compete with the goat heads and if you do it right, you might be done with them in.. a decade, or so.. Haha! Also, plant your cottonwoods in dormancy, not in the spring. All you have to do is poke a hole in the ground, stick a cutting in, and 9 times out of 10 it will grow. Same with willows, but cottonwood prefers it a little drier than willow.. so cottonwoods high, willows low. Great to hear about all of your moisture, and with monsoons beginning for real in about two weeks?!? Placitas probably looks like Ireland right now. PLEASE post some pictures, and if you haven’t already.. GO TO TINKERTOWN! You will be inspired..

Tinkertown is great! And the cave and picnic area, but unfortunately, we don't have a truck and that road is the worst road I've ever been on, so we drive all the way out to I40 to get to Tinkertown and Sandia. We actually spend more time in the Jemez mountains and Caldera, because the road is so much better (and interesting ruins, culture, and hot springs).

We have seen wild purslane in the rainy season, so I'll look into expanding it, and adding lambs quarters. There's so much kochia, and we've been letting it grow because at least it's not thorny. We tried some amaranth last year and it sprouted then withered, but should try again since the water is so much better now.

Thanks for the advice on the shade trees -- I'll see if I can get a cottonwood cutting this winter, and hope the water is flowing again. The willow stump is huge, it looks like it might have been a hundred years old, but now the septic field is underneath where its roots were, so we're trying not to have the water flow there anymore.

Abraham Palma wrote:Hello,
my family used to have that method in our farm in Andalousia. It's flooding irrigation. You have to prepare your fields first. Take a small field, like 10x20 metres and surround it with a barrier of raised soil. Then make rows of soil, 30 cm tall, and as long as your field. The field is ideally leveled, but if you have some slope then make the rows at the same elevation, leaving only one extreme open, drawing a snake.
Then, when you have access to water, open a ditch so the water can flood your field, and leave it opened until it seeps no longer. If you still have watering time, repeat for the next field. If the field is leveled, it doesn't matter where the water gets in, but if you have a sloped field, then you have to let water in from the highest place.

The plants are planted on top of the rows, I don't remember if it is done before or after the first irrigation. I think they had to irrigate two or three times before harvest. Also, after the surface dries, it forms a crust that must be broken with a hoe.

Thank you! This is very helpful!

Thank you for the video, and pictures! You have a beautiful place. I don’t miss the kochia at all.. because I have a lot here, too! Haha.. I let it grow, and pull it as needed to feed to my pigs. They love it. As far as cottonwoods go, just go down to the Rio Grande Bosque and take enough cuttings to plant your whole property. Just find branch tips that are alive (yellow leaves in the fall), and take a foot or two long section. If you have willow, you can make a tea bucket with the small branches mashed in water, and this contains a rooting hormone.

https://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Homemade_willow_rooting_hormone/

Soak your cuttings before planting, and maybe consider multiple cuttings in each spot that you would like a tree, that way at least one will make it. I have my pigs in the upper swamp pasture here, and plan to do the same this winter once I rotate them out.

Good luck, and best wishes on this first day of Summer.. I am just outside of Death Valley, and it’s not even 90 degrees today.. good omens all around!

..and for planting the lambs quarter, amaranth, and purslane, gather your seeds and spread them all over in the fall, and let nature do the rest. Easy, as it should be..