Wind Blocks and Bird Deterrent

This year I'd like to grow strawberries and raspberries to sell. The problem is we get big wind storms that blow dust around. We're planning to start planting wind blocking trees but that will take a few years to be effective. What are my options for a temporary wind block around a 1/2 acre berry patch?

For the tree's I'm planning to start with 40 low thorn Honey Locusts around the 40 acre perimeter. These will be 2-3' trees and more will be propagated as time goes on. I was also thinking of using a hedge but this is a dry climate with sand and clay in the soil. The monsoon season dumps a good amount of rain on the land then it all drains off. There's been destructive sheep ranching out here since the 19th century. The land is over grazed but I have six months worth of goat, pig, chicken, and rabbit manure piled up.

There's already established Juniper trees. One cluster seems to block the brunt of wind, you still feel a breeze but it's not blowing you around. Long term I want to thin them out but as a temporary wind block I could plant berries around them, if they don't interfere with growth.

The birds and other critters can be a problem. Last year we had all our tomatoes robbed by something. I was thinking a scare crow, because bird netting over 1/2 acre would be expensive and time consuming.

I'm willing to experiment and maybe loose this years crop if it means later on down the road I can make it work.

There are a few factors here.
First - wind,  in a funny way, follows the rules of "liquids". You can change where water goes, so long as it still goes with gravity, but you can't *stop* it .

I have read reliable sources which suggest you are better to "slow" the wind by multiple layers with gaps than try to eliminate it. I don't know what resources you have, but my first thought was this fence idea: https://permies.com/t/8617/fence-pallets .
The idea is to upcycle pallets from a free or cheap source, but the video makes it look easier than it is from my experience. It either needs really flat land, or you will need to dig to level each of the skids horizontally.

The side benefit is that the pallet fence would protect the young trees from excessive wind, which will help them get started.

I have also read of people planting the large sunflower varieties to slow wind (think Russian giant). I have read of them being used as snow fencing to trap snow on fields to keep the winter moisture for spring planting. The sunflowers are "standing dead" at that point, but those big varieties have tough stalks!

Second - the issue of dust. If your goal is to improve your soil, you sure don't want your top-soil blowing away! My question is: Is this *your* dust going up into the air, or is it coming from surrounding land? (Or all the way across the Pacific Ocean which has been known to send volcanic ash as far as North America!)

If it's your dust, I would try to plant whatever cover crop is cheap and will grow easily everywhere you can. It could even be grocery store seeds (dry beans will sprout) or animal feed seeds (we buy wheat for our ducks and it would sprout), if that's the cheapest or most easily available source. So long as the seeds germinate and put down roots, even if they die back, the decaying roots will both help to hold the soil in place, and help to improve the soil. Nitrogen fixers are popular for this sort of task, but any plant that won't turn into an invasive nightmare, is better than bare soil in wind.

If it's other people's dust, then you're looking at trying to "filter" it, and "slow" it, so that it will drop where it won't harm your target crop. Again, I'd look to fast growing annual polyculture like sunflowers or corn, beans to grow up the stalks, possibly spring peas in first if it's too cold for beans and corn. Possibly squashes as they cover a lot of ground and play nice with corn and beans. I would consider these "sacrificial" plants, but I planted sacrificial beans in my tomato bed last year just to hold the soil and ended up getting enough to feed my family fresh beans for 2 months.

I'm not in your ecosystem, so hopefully another permie will speak up with plant choices that might work better.

Third - why honey locust?  Have you considered that your tree break could also be more of a polyculture? Are you in Mesquite territory? Brad Lancaster's info suggests it's important for sinking water during the rainy season.  Are you dry enough for some types of cacti - some of those can either produce food, or act as a low, living fence.

A big principle of permaculture is stacking functions, and one of the easiest ways to do so, is to consider what needs you have. The Honey locust apparently has edible pods, but its nitrogen fixing ability is apparently still being debated (Help fellow permies - anyone know the up-to-date opinion?) Is it deciduous in your region, in which case if you're able to use the leaves as mulch, they will help get carbon back in the soil which will help both water storage and infiltration. However, most of us have grown up with the "this is the best" mind-set, rather than the "polyculture" mindset. If you want to stack lots of functions, let's see if we can come up with a poly culture - think British hedgerow idea morphed for your ecosystem - that will provide many more functions.

Jay Angler wrote:There are a few factors here.
First - wind,  in a funny way, follows the rules of "liquids". You can change where water goes, so long as it still goes with gravity, but you can't *stop* it .

I have read reliable sources which suggest you are better to "slow" the wind by multiple layers with gaps than try to eliminate it. I don't know what resources you have, but my first thought was this fence idea: https://permies.com/t/8617/fence-pallets .
The idea is to upcycle pallets from a free or cheap source, but the video makes it look easier than it is from my experience. It either needs really flat land, or you will need to dig to level each of the skids horizontally.

The side benefit is that the pallet fence would protect the young trees from excessive wind, which will help them get started.

The pallet idea got me thinking, so I took a walk around the land. I'm already using pallets for one of my hog houses. These were free, and I reinforced the pallet with lumber and tires I already had. The property came with about 1,000 tires. There's one big pile then various small piles scattered around the property. Some people call these a nuisance but they also might be useful. So I could build wind breaks using pallets and tires. Then there's a good amount of dead Juniper trees. Some are fairly tall.

The only issue I'm concerned with is tires leaking rust or toxic substances into my berry patch.



I have a mini excavator for digging, it can scrape and push with the dozer blade but there's limited capability.

For seeds I have:

Sorghum
Hopi Blue Corn
Sweet Corn
Pole Beans
Black Seed Sunflower
Oats
Alfalfa
Winter Butternut Squash
Cantelope
Watermelon
Pie Pumpkin
Tamatillo
Onions

There's also tomato seeds I've collected over the years.

I have a few cactus's growing out in the field but it's mostly buffalo or other drought tolerant grass. But only small patches. Petty much everywhere you look there's dead bushes or a mix of red dirt and sand.

Gordon Longfoot wrote: The pallet idea got me thinking, so I took a walk around the land. I'm already using pallets for one of my hog houses.

That's a happy looking pig! Are you aware that most North American pallets are "HT" which is "heat treated", but there are still some out there that use toxic gick to treat them, so when Hubby's collecting pallets we always check for the HT.

Then there's a good amount of dead Juniper trees. Some are fairly tall.

Standing dead trees in my ecosystem are very important for wildlife and will also help block the wind. Planting new stuff around them, might be a very good use for them. I have no Juniper on my land, so I don't know the downsides of this particular tree, so I would look up whether they acidify the soil, or have allelopathic tendencies when making plans. Even Black Walnut has companion plants able to cope with it!

The only issue I'm concerned with is tires leaking rust or toxic substances into my berry patch.

Yes, I would worry about that too. I've been slowly trying to remove tires from my land, and I don't have many dead ones, but we have a lot of things with wheels (an embarrassing large number if I start counting all the wagons, dollies, wheel barrows etc that are *never* where we need them!)
I would try to come up with a plan that doesn't involve tires near your food crops if you can.

That's an impressive list of seeds, but I am so not even remotely your ecosystem, let's see if some of our dryland plant people will post some ideas.

Question: What are you using for pig bedding? Hay bales make good temporary windblocks, and out in the desert, they don't rot quickly. When they DO rot, you have soil improvement :D

Tires don't break down as much as people think, AND wind breaks don't have to be close. I'd say use them, but keep them at least 20 feet or so back away from your food crops. You can always cob over the tires if you don't want anything coming off of them to blow around.  One of the best things tires are good at is being weight and forms for more weight on things like a tarp at an angle that can bounce the wind and dust up and over your plants. Put them on the ground side and use them to hold dirt in place.

Put a bit more research into honey locust in your area, I can't come up with a reference for the desert right now, but I know in Missouri if you start with thornless or low thorn locust, they throw seeds and they revert back to thorny. And the ones around here put out 5 inch spikes that will flatten tractor tires (I can DEFINITELY attest to THAT!)

Where I lived in NM the wind was always from the west, and got REALLY REALLY bad in spring, but then calmed down. If you have a similar pattern going on, what about making spring wind blocks that come down later? Or that stay as sun blocks? I used cheap trellises an an angle for sun blocking, as my tomatoes etc fried in the sun if I didn't. If I wanted to block the wind, I could have put something over the trellis for spring, using my sunshade structure as support.

My main wind blocks in NM might not work for your location, where I was, I could do the type of bamboo we called Ditch Bamboo, not pretty, not good for many things, but a wide bed of it is an excellent windblock. I did the whole west side of the property with a 6 foot deep bed. Deep as in that's how far you reached across it, not how deep I worked the soil! 6 foot by 300 foot bed that was sunken down a bit compared to the other soil level, and had well compacted dirt ridges to hold water in, and the driveway and some other drainage went into it. I did have to irrigate sometimes, and it was a fire hazard (the stuff burns easy!) Consider the fire hazard of whatever you use!! If it's blocking wind, it probably will catch on fire first and blow sparks downwind!!

Edit: The other things I used for windbreaks were vines, including green beans, climbing squash or gourds, whatever you can get to grow in your area. I know your pigs would eat squash, I wonder if they like gourds? Gourds are pretty adapted to the desert. Some gourds might be things you can sell. There are some very neat looking ones.

Perennial vines, I don't know what would grow in your area, that's something to research.

On Permies, check this whole forum  https://permies.com/f/121/desert

And this thread (the whole forum it's in too!)  https://permies.com/t/34212/Permaculture-Designers-Manual-Chapter-DRYLAND#267710

Geoff Lawton did a SERIOUSLY COOL greening the desert project in the desert of the middle east, I don't have links to it on this computer, does someone else? Post it in this thread, there were LOTS of neat ideas in that.

Gordon Longfoot wrote:This year I'd like to grow strawberries and raspberries to sell.

Out of curiosity, will those grow in your area? The pH of the soil might be a problem.  

Pearl Sutton wrote:

Gordon Longfoot wrote:This year I'd like to grow strawberries and raspberries to sell.

Out of curiosity, will those grow in your area? The pH of the soil might be a problem.  

I went around with a pH meter and if the thing is still working right, it's reading 6.5-7.5 in the different areas I tested. The 6.5 was an area our chickens and ducks frequent, it also gets water overflow when we're filling buckets. We have winter rye growing there, and spread aged chicken manure on it last year.

I do have a good amount of pig manure built up in their pens, I could always go in there with a wheel barrow and start scooping it out. Doing a full 1/2 acre might not be feasible right now but I can try a few plants to develop a plan for next year. My compost pile is a good size but I don't think it would be enough for more than a 20x30' patch.

We're pulling a wheel barrow or two of straw/manure from the various livestock. The 6 ducklings made quite a mess when we had them in the brooder. Our doe goats just got a fresh bed of hay on Sunday. I've started to take the wheel barrows out to different areas of our field and strategically place it where it will wash down during rain storms. Letting nature distribute it.

As soon as I read Arizona, I thought of Pine nuts and pistachios.  Pistachios and specific native pine nuts (piñon) grow well in Arizona, particularly in areas with hot, dry summers and cold winters that provide necessary chilling hours. Pistachios thrive in mid-to-high desert regions, with an estimated 10,000 acres currently under cultivation, while Arizona piñon pine is native to the state.

Pistachios in Arizona
Growing Areas: They flourish in Arizona's arid conditions, particularly in Cochise County, as noted on Farm Progress.
Requirements: They require 1,000+ hours of winter chilling (under
) to produce, which is ideal for higher elevations but may be marginal in the low desert.
Conditions: They need well-drained soil, thrive in high temperatures, and require both male (e.g., 'Peters') and female (e.g., 'Kerman') trees for pollination.
Production: Trees take 5–8 years to start producing nuts.

Pine Nuts (Piñon) in Arizona
Native Species: The Arizona Piñon (Pinus edulis or monophylla) is native to the region, often found alongside junipers in arid, rocky, or sandy soil.
Climate: They are hardy, generally adapted to USDA Zones 4–8.
Care: They are easy to grow once established and prefer to avoid summer irrigation.

Key Considerations
Water: While drought-tolerant, they still require adequate irrigation, with Arizona's tree nut industry using an estimated 118,145 acre-feet of water in 2017, according to the UA Cooperative Extension.
Investment: Pistachio trees can live for hundreds of years, making them a long-term investment.

Arizona's climate supports a variety of crops beyond pistachios and pine nuts, with top performers including pecans (a major commercial crop), almonds, and dates. Citrus, figs, pomegranates, olives, and stone fruits like peaches, plums, and apricots also thrive in the region.

Here are specific, well-adapted plants for Arizona's climate:
Nut Trees: In addition to pecans, almonds and walnuts have shown potential, particularly in the northern regions.
Fruit Trees: Figs (especially Chicago Hardy), pomegranates, olives, and citrus are well-suited for the heat.
Stone Fruits: Apricots, peaches, and plums perform well.

I'd avoid walnuts because of the juglone, but everything else sounds great!

It sounds exciting Gordon, both the strawberries and raspberries should do better next year once they are established, so observing them the first year makes a lot of sense. I find raspberries have quite a short season, but are very prolific whilst they are ripening. I have plenty for the birds to share as well as me, but I haven't time to pick every day, so they likely get more than I think! I've heard that birds sometimes go after berries if they are thirsty, so having a sorce of drinking water for them a little way away from the berries to distract them may work - maybe with some bird berries there as well.
I'm wondering if both raspberries and strawberries might like a little sunshade in your climate too? Having an overstory might disguise them from the birds...or may just make the birds happy to have more shelter!

Gordon Longfoot wrote:Petty much everywhere you look there's dead bushes or a mix of red dirt and sand.

Looks like you're over 5000' altitude, more like where I live in NM - 7000' and near the NM/AZ border. I recognize that red sandy soil!  

I've had so much gardening failure over the years that if I was way more rational than I am, I'd have given up years ago. One frustration is that the gardening solutions for even low desert don't apply here. The altitude changes so much, meaning that it's not just wind to deal with, but also extreme temperature fluctuations on a daily basis, poor soil, severe water shortages, and a short growing season.

There are some amazing solutions, though, and for that I look at high desert solutions elsewhere in the world, and also historical gardening solutions that are specific to these very specific conditions. The greatest success seems to come from creating microclimate zones and historically this has included terracing (which,  when there weren't any slopes to terrace, were created by digging deep pits and terracing the sides); irrigation systems, crops that were adapted to high altitude extremes, and intense soil management.  

Check out trench gardens, African Zai pit gardening, sunken beds, and traditional  Zuni waffle gardening. Ancient Incan pit gardens were hundreds of feet deep for community gardening, but 1-2 foot deep pits will work just fine for individual farms, too.  

Also, check out rock gardening - where rocks are thermal balancers and mulch all at once!

Finally, check out high prairie gardening as well if your area isn't as extreme as mine, e.g. https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/05/desert-gardening.html

Gordon Longfoot wrote:This year I'd like to grow strawberries and raspberries to sell. The problem is we get big wind storms that blow dust around. We're planning to start planting wind blocking trees but that will take a few years to be effective. What are my options for a temporary wind block around a 1/2 acre berry patch?
For the tree's I'm planning to start with 40 low thorn Honey Locusts around the 40 acre perimeter. These will be 2-3' trees and more will be propagated as time goes on. I was also thinking of using a hedge but this is a dry climate with sand and clay in the soil. The monsoon season dumps a good amount of rain on the land then it all drains off. There's been destructive sheep ranching out here since the 19th century. The land is over grazed but I have six months worth of goat, pig, chicken, and rabbit manure piled up.
There's already established Juniper trees. One cluster seems to block the brunt of wind, you still feel a breeze but it's not blowing you around. Long term I want to thin them out but as a temporary wind block I could plant berries around them, if they don't interfere with growth.
The birds and other critters can be a problem. Last year we had all our tomatoes robbed by something. I was thinking a scare crow, because bird netting over 1/2 acre would be expensive and time consuming.
I'm willing to experiment and maybe loose this years crop if it means later on down the road I can make it work.

You have been wise in collecting manure from all your critters. Jay is 100% correct about not *blocking* the wind, just slowing it down. You will get a plus from that : My neighbor doesn't believe in winter crops, so when a strong wind blows, we get an inch or two of his topsoil! If I could block it completely, the wind would go around my property.
You do not indicate how many inches of precipitation you get, but I will assume it's dry. Can you make swales? This way, you would make the most of whatever rain you get.. Your clay would keep that moisture high enough and long enough for your plants to use it, perhaps. You may want to put manure & animal bedding in them to help even more to retain moisture.
As far as birds, have you thought about a sacrificial crop? I was thinking of Sea berry  (Hippophae Rahmnoides) 3-10 ft high, zones 3-8, full of thorns. The fruit are extremely high in vitamin C, A & E. In Europe, the fruit is cultivated. Around here, not so much They come in male and female. Here, they want too much money for them. (Maybe that's why you are thinking of the thorny honey locust)
What is the Ph of your soil?. You may want to think of a bush that grows really well in AZ for the bulk of your perimeter, and will fit your zone and precipitation...
I asked AI about your situation. Here is the answer:
Best bushes for Arizona include drought-tolerant, heat-loving options like Texas Sage, Bougainvillea, Yellow Bells, Hopbush, and Baja Fairy Duster. These, along with Arizona Rosewood and Red Yucca, thrive in full sun, require little water once established, and are excellent for privacy screens or colorful accents.
Top Performing Bushes for Arizona
Evergreen/Screening: Arizona Rosewood (non-poisonous alternative to Oleander), Hopbush (very fast-growing), Creosote (drought-tolerant native), and Jojoba.
Flowering/Color: Texas Sage (blooms after rain), Yellow Bells (trumpet-shaped flowers), Red Bird of Paradise (vibrant summer color), Bougainvillea (vines/shrubs for heat), and Baja Fairy Duster.
Small/Accent: Autumn Sage, Chuparosa (hummingbird favorite), Desert Marigold, and Valentine Bush.
Succulents/Structural: Agave, Yucca, and Ocotillo.
Tips for Success
Planting Season: Fall and winter are the best times to plant to allow roots to establish before summer heat.
Watering: While drought-tolerant, these plants need regular water during their first year and occasional deep watering during summer for maximum growth.
Soil: Ensure well-draining soil to prevent root rot.
Reflected Heat: Choose plants that can handle intense, reflected heat from walls or pavement, such as Natal Plum or Bougainvillea".
(Oh, you can grow agave and Bougainvillea. I'm jealous!). I hope this helps to give you a few ideas

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Gordon Longfoot wrote:This year I'd like to grow strawberries and raspberries to sell. The problem is we get big wind storms that blow dust around. We're planning to start planting wind blocking trees but that will take a few years to be effective. What are my options for a temporary wind block around a 1/2 acre berry patch?
For the tree's I'm planning to start with 40 low thorn Honey Locusts around the 40 acre perimeter. These will be 2-3' trees and more will be propagated as time goes on. I was also thinking of using a hedge but this is a dry climate with sand and clay in the soil. The monsoon season dumps a good amount of rain on the land then it all drains off. There's been destructive sheep ranching out here since the 19th century. The land is over grazed but I have six months worth of goat, pig, chicken, and rabbit manure piled up.
There's already established Juniper trees. One cluster seems to block the brunt of wind, you still feel a breeze but it's not blowing you around. Long term I want to thin them out but as a temporary wind block I could plant berries around them, if they don't interfere with growth.
The birds and other critters can be a problem. Last year we had all our tomatoes robbed by something. I was thinking a scare crow, because bird netting over 1/2 acre would be expensive and time consuming.
I'm willing to experiment and maybe loose this years crop if it means later on down the road I can make it work.

You have been wise in collecting manure from all your critters. Jay is 100% correct about not *blocking* the wind, just slowing it down. You will get a plus from that : My neighbor doesn't believe in winter crops, so when a strong wind blows, we get an inch or two of his topsoil! If I could block it completely, the wind would go around my property.
You do not indicate how many inches of precipitation you get, but I will assume it's dry. Can you make swales? This way, you would make the most of whatever rain you get.. Your clay would keep that moisture high enough and long enough for your plants to use it, perhaps. You may want to put manure & animal bedding in them to help even more to retain moisture.
As far as birds, have you thought about a sacrificial crop? I was thinking of Sea berry  (Hippophae Rahmnoides) 3-10 ft high, zones 3-8, full of thorns. The fruit are extremely high in vitamin C, A & E. In Europe, the fruit is cultivated. Around here, not so much They come in male and female. Here, they want too much money for them. (Maybe that's why you are thinking of the thorny honey locust)
What is the Ph of your soil?. You may want to think of a bush that grows really well in AZ for the bulk of your perimeter, and will fit your zone and precipitation...
I asked AI about your situation. Here is the answer:
Best bushes for Arizona include drought-tolerant, heat-loving options like Texas Sage, Bougainvillea, Yellow Bells, Hopbush, and Baja Fairy Duster. These, along with Arizona Rosewood and Red Yucca, thrive in full sun, require little water once established, and are excellent for privacy screens or colorful accents.
Top Performing Bushes for Arizona
Evergreen/Screening: Arizona Rosewood (non-poisonous alternative to Oleander), Hopbush (very fast-growing), Creosote (drought-tolerant native), and Jojoba.
Flowering/Color: Texas Sage (blooms after rain), Yellow Bells (trumpet-shaped flowers), Red Bird of Paradise (vibrant summer color), Bougainvillea (vines/shrubs for heat), and Baja Fairy Duster.
Small/Accent: Autumn Sage, Chuparosa (hummingbird favorite), Desert Marigold, and Valentine Bush.
Succulents/Structural: Agave, Yucca, and Ocotillo.
Tips for Success
Planting Season: Fall and winter are the best times to plant to allow roots to establish before summer heat.
Watering: While drought-tolerant, these plants need regular water during their first year and occasional deep watering during summer for maximum growth.
Soil: Ensure well-draining soil to prevent root rot.
Reflected Heat: Choose plants that can handle intense, reflected heat from walls or pavement, such as Natal Plum or Bougainvillea".
(Oh, you can grow agave and Bougainvillea. I'm jealous!). I hope this helps to give you a few ideas

We're an hour or two from the NM border depending on which way we go. It's a little over 5,000 ft elevation, but there's pine forest within a 20 minute drive. The soil is red clay and sand, so water runs off. But there's a pond that collected some of that water. I'm somewhat concerned with water rights and grazing my livestock, so swales aren't going to be happening. I built a few half moons out in the field and have been adding manure filled bedding to the small wash that runs across the 40 acres. It's mostly experimental right now. My main goal is to get better soil that holds water instead of trying to block water from leaving the property.

For the crops we're doing a farmers market this year with pork and eggs, so if I get food out of the garden I have a way to sell it. But if I don't there's other products. This is a full time job for my wife and I but we have enough savings to survive until we're profitable. That being said I wan't something people will recognize and want to buy. The strawberries and black berries seem to always be in demand. Pinions are very popular here but you can't drive down the road without seeing a car pulled over selling some. Too much competition for me. I would rather change the land to work, not try to fit in something that works with what we have. But that doesn't mean I won't try certain things in other areas of the land. It would be great to see more wildlife out here and cut down on the fly's.

The PH from untouched, over grazed desert is around 7.5, but into the Junipers it goes down, and in an area with irrigation that our birds pick though it's 6.5. We have 8 hens with full access to the land, 2 laying ducks and six more juvenile ducks. We have 20 layers in total and some roosters, but at the moment there's 14 chicks in the brooder cheeping at me. And I've got the incubator going with 9 eggs. The chicks are for eggs but the 9 potential would be an experiment with meat chickens on pasture. Because of the elevation cornish X might not do well, so I have a couple Rhoad Island Red roosters with a mix of mostly red based hens. If it all works the soil improvements will come with the bird tractor moving down the field.

We don't have that many rocks out here unless we dig or come out after the rain. It's mostly petrified wood. But, someone built a cinder brick building on the property so I've seen first hand how thermal mass works. Last August when the temperature was in the 90's that little building stayed cool. It's not usable yet but I'm thinking it will be a semi-root cellar with traditional refrigeration to keep my pork safe.

Lif Strand wrote:

Gordon Longfoot wrote:Petty much everywhere you look there's dead bushes or a mix of red dirt and sand.

Looks like you're over 5000' altitude, more like where I live in NM - 7000' and near the NM/AZ border. I recognize that red sandy soil!  

I've had so much gardening failure over the years that if I was way more rational than I am, I'd have given up years ago. One frustration is that the gardening solutions for even low desert don't apply here. The altitude changes so much, meaning that it's not just wind to deal with, but also extreme temperature fluctuations on a daily basis, poor soil, severe water shortages, and a short growing season.

There are some amazing solutions, though, and for that I look at high desert solutions elsewhere in the world, and also historical gardening solutions that are specific to these very specific conditions. The greatest success seems to come from creating microclimate zones and historically this has included terracing (which,  when there weren't any slopes to terrace, were created by digging deep pits and terracing the sides); irrigation systems, crops that were adapted to high altitude extremes, and intense soil management.  

Check out trench gardens, African Zai pit gardening, sunken beds, and traditional  Zuni waffle gardening. Ancient Incan pit gardens were hundreds of feet deep for community gardening, but 1-2 foot deep pits will work just fine for individual farms, too.  

Also, check out rock gardening - where rocks are thermal balancers and mulch all at once!

Finally, check out high prairie gardening as well if your area isn't as extreme as mine, e.g. https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/05/desert-gardening.html

We find Anastasi pottery shards all over after rain. This lead me to buying Hopi blue corn. It might grow good here. I can dig holes easily with my tractor so I build a couple little experiments out in the field. But we have a good working well so I'll experiment with low water crops and still have a berry patch to make the farmers market money.

Nancy Reading wrote:It sounds exciting Gordon, both the strawberries and raspberries should do better next year once they are established, so observing them the first year makes a lot of sense. I find raspberries have quite a short season, but are very prolific whilst they are ripening. I have plenty for the birds to share as well as me, but I haven't time to pick every day, so they likely get more than I think! I've heard that birds sometimes go after berries if they are thirsty, so having a sorce of drinking water for them a little way away from the berries to distract them may work - maybe with some bird berries there as well.
I'm wondering if both raspberries and strawberries might like a little sunshade in your climate too? Having an overstory might disguise them from the birds...or may just make the birds happy to have more shelter!

I'm actually leaning towards growing them through a patch of Junipers. The well in nearby and the tree's provide a good wind block.

Gordon Longfoot wrote:

We're an hour or two from the NM border depending on which way we go. It's a little over 5,000 ft elevation, but there's pine forest within a 20 minute drive. The soil is red clay and sand, so water runs off. But there's a pond that collected some of that water. I'm somewhat concerned with water rights and grazing my livestock, so swales aren't going to be happening. I built a few half moons out in the field and have been adding manure filled bedding to the small wash that runs across the 40 acres. It's mostly experimental right now. My main goal is to get better soil that holds water instead of trying to block water from leaving the property.

It sounds like you have your work cut out for you. You have a lot or irons in the fire. Be careful  to not tackle too many things at a time. Getting better soil will also happen in blocking water from leaving the property.
Those half moons you dug are, in fact swales. You could make more, or make them deeper? I don't know your laws in AZ, but if the pond is entirely on your property, there shouldn't be problems with your water rights, although reading that you have "a small wash that runs through the property" could cause problems if you prevent *that* water from going to your neighbors. You should also be able to make a few more swales and keep doing what you are doing: Putting spent litter and manure will make them really fertile, so good job, and good luck, Gordon.