Building a food forest on the edge of the desert.

S Bengi wrote:Everything looks so lush and wonderful. I'm interesting in getting zone10 land in southern California.

Land in our area, has gotten very expensive over the last 10 years. Our 1/2 acre land including the house has doubled in value, since we bought it.

I always enjoy reading your threads about your food forest and what's in season and what you're planting.

Riona Abhainn wrote:I always enjoy reading your threads about your food forest and what's in season and what you're planting.

Thank you, I enjoy writing them. My writings, also functions as a journal.

Here is a few flower pictures. The forest garden are so wild and beautiful right now.

Firstly, I am so glad that your health has been improving after your hospitalisation.  Long may you thrive.

Your story & pictures are so inspiring (although, about half of the images won't load for me unfortuately).

I'm very interested in your journey as a gardener, particularly from a climatic perspective.  I think I may be going on a slightly similar journey without physically moving ..

So I'm interested particularly in learning more about what vegetables work well for you as drought-tolerant varieties?  What seedling raising and watering patterns enable you to get a good harvest e.g. of brassica root & leaf crops?  

What other tips have other readers experienced with gardening in similar conditions to me (see below) got for success with vegetables? (Our top fruit: apples, pears, plums, damsons; have done pretty well, but our perennial soft fruit: grape, tayberry, gooseberry, raspberry, currants etc.; clearly needed more watering than we managed).

My favourite hardy vegetable at the moment is what I call tree kale.   I believe the most successful variety is Taunton Deane tree kale, from what my generous source N says.  One of my jobs this autumn is going to be, taking as many offsets as I sensibly can from my current 'parent tree'.  I have three offsets at the moment, but two are struggling due to the drought.

I grew up gardening in Southern England,  which I presume has a climate more similar to Denmark than San Diego, although milder winters?

We're historically considered to have a temperate maritime climate, roughly in winter equivalent to zone 8b (not expected to get colder than -10 C, nor that cold often, with freezing weather during Oct-Feb more around -4 C).

But now our first frost doesn't usually arrive until November at the earliest, cold snaps are rarer (although we still do get down to -10 C).

Moreover, our winters are wetter - almost approaching a 'rainy season' - and our summers hotter and drier.  We've breached 40 C for the first time, and this could be the worst harvest on record for England due to heatwaves from April (which is expected to be mild & damp, great for a lot of seed sowing), and severe drought since March.  

Many thanks! and best wishes.

Your flower that you don't know the name for looks like Gaillardia pulchella Foug aka Indian Blanket, Firewheel, Girasol Rojo, in the Asteraceae (Aster Family).

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=GAPU





source

In our desert climate, temperatures range from 2°C to 50°C (in the sun) during the hot season. Over the past 20 years, we’ve only experienced sub-zero temperatures once. Unlike the Mediterranean climate of coastal San Diego, our inland desert presents unique challenges due to extreme heat. Adapting to this climate, distinct from the milder coastal areas, requires careful planning.
Watering and Plant Selection
All trees and plants need water until they are established, especially the subtropical varieties I grow, which thrive with consistent moisture. We use a combination of drip irrigation and sprinklers to water them efficiently. Selecting appropriate plants is critical in this environment. While desert plants like prickly pear and rock roses require minimal water—cacti produce surprising amounts of food, and rock roses rely solely on cold-season rainfall—most plants need regular irrigation.
Creating Microclimates
Unlike northern gardeners who create warm microclimates, we focus on cooling strategies. My food forest emphasizes a dense canopy to reduce evaporation, increase humidity, and lower temperatures. Tall trees with broad canopies provide shade, while mid- and low-level trees add density. For example:
•  Raspberries grow in a shaded corner under avocado, palm, hedge, and prickly pear.
•  Additional raspberries, blackberries, and alpine strawberries thrive beneath plum trees.
•  Currants and gooseberries are planted under a pecan tree for shade.
Tree collards, a low-water vegetable, work well once mature, though they need irrigation during establishment. Berry plants also require regular watering, but drip irrigation keeps our household water bill between $75 and $100 monthly.
Soil and Temperature Management
To protect roots from extreme heat and occasional cold, I use compost and straw mulch, which also reduces evaporation. On rare nights when temperatures drop to 4°C, followed by 40°C days, I’ve lost trees and fruit to these swings. To mitigate this:
•  Thick mulch insulates roots.
•  Young trees are coated with white clay or wrapped in burlap to prevent sunburn or cold damage.
•  Bananas, which are cold-sensitive, have their flowers and fruit covered with burlap when temperatures dip below 5°C to prevent frost damage and ensure fruit production.
Raised Beds and Herbs
Shade cloths are essential for my raised herb beds, where I grow over 30 varieties of herbs and spices. Without shade, many would perish in the intense heat. In the food forest, the ground layer dies back during the hot season but thrives otherwise. I grow long-rooted vegetables like daikon radishes, turnips, beets, and rutabagas, as well as brassicas (kale, collards, broccoli), leafy greens (mustard, lettuce), herbs, and edible flowers. Pigeon peas, planted this year, have adapted well to our climate. Black tea, black pepper, long pepper, and coffee plants grow under shade covers until the canopy trees mature.
Chaos Gardening and Seed Starting
I practice chaos gardening by scattering a mix of expired seeds, free seeds, wildflowers, and herbs from a mason jar across the forest floor in February, when rain is forecast. A thin layer of compost protects the seeds from birds. From February to August, sprinklers supplement rainfall, and by April, a vibrant mix of flowers and vegetables emerges, supporting the ecosystem and deterring wild rabbits from eating my blueberries.
Most plants are not direct-seeded due to the heat. Instead, I start seedlings in an indoor nursery (a repurposed large shower). This allows me to:
•  Germinate cold-season crops that struggle in high temperatures.
•  Manage overlapping harvesting and seeding schedules.
•  Transplant strong, mature plants by late October, yielding lettuce and brassicas for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This year, I started seeding two weeks late due to a cold virus, but the process remains effective.
Future Plans
In Denmark, we relied on rainwater collection, and we plan to implement it here when time allows. This will further reduce our water usage and support sustainable gardening in our desert environment.
Final Thoughts
Your climate, with its winter season, likely requires different strategies. In Denmark, we used cold frames and greenhouses to grow fresh greens year-round. Here, shade, mulch, and careful irrigation are key to thriving in the desert. I hope this insight helps you adapt to your own gardening.
Happy Gardening

September on the Homestead
September brought wild temperature swings and occasional rain to the homestead. My husband spent much of the month battling rats, which devoured 90% of the corn I planted. Grasshoppers also invaded, munching through my parsley and beans. On the bright side, the chickens and ducks have been thrilled with the fresh greens and grasshoppers.
This month, I harvested 5 pounds of pigeon peas and 50 pounds of collard greens. It’s been an odd year. Our multi-variety peach tree produced plenty of fruit, but the late-season peaches turned bitter. Birds stripped our elderberries clean, so next year, I’m covering them with netting. Gophers claimed one of our tea plants and most of the cassava, despite our efforts to protect them. At this point, I’m growing cassava out of sheer stubbornness.
On a positive note, we’ve harvested abundant herbs and Florida cranberries. Our banana plants, split and expanded after our move, are thriving, with three large pups ready to be transplanted. Bananas are one of my favorite crops to grow. We also harvested sorghum, hoping for a second yield before the birds get to it.
Indoors, we’ve started seedlings for October and November planting, once the soil cools. They’re looking good, though I made the mistake of seeding radishes indoors—they don’t transplant well. Today, I’m seeding more plants and moving some into larger pots. We also dried enough rosehips to fill two quart jars, but I still need to deseed them.
We processed more meat birds to prepare for chicks arriving in October. So far this year, we’ve harvested over 1,600 pounds of produce, nearly 3,000 eggs, and about 200 pounds of meat, totaling roughly 750,000 calories and a value just under $10,000. My goal is to match or exceed last year’s vegetable, grain, herb, and spice yields while increasing our meat production.
Preservation has had its challenges. Despite my careful cleaning, two quarts of green plums and some kraut went moldy, and I’m still puzzled about why. I’ve been focusing on freeze-drying meat and making meals ready-to-eat (MREs) to send to my daughter at college. The freeze-dryer is currently full of bananas, with raspberries next, thanks to a great deal on organic raspberries ($1 for 6 ounces). I’m also steaming sorghum grains before freeze-drying to make flaking easier and prevent cracking.
It might sound like I don’t can anymore, but I do. This year we made orange sauce, lemon curd, plum pie filling, prunes, Asian plum sauce and Victorian BBQ sauce. Plus many many gallons of broth.
We’re out of hot cereal and granola, which we make from scratch. Granola will wait until we harvest sweet potatoes, but I can start on hot cereal once the grains are steamed. Soon, I’ll harvest ginger and turmeric, both of which look fantastic this year after I missed some roots in last year’s beds, giving us an early start.
We’re reorganizing to tackle our rat problem, which stems from a crowded garage and an unsecured crawl space. All herbs and teas have been moved from the large pantry to the kitchen, freeing up space to relocate food from the garage to the pantry.
That’s it for now. It’s time for me to deal with more herbs, and of cause the raspberries