chris cromeens

I have a limited amount of mayo amaranth seed (red amaranth w/ black seed and edible leaves) that has naturalized in my garden over the past 6 years.
I have a green short staple cotton seed of east texas  heritage that has been dryland grown here four the past four years.
I have a limited amount of a landrace brassica heavy w/ kale parentage, good nutty flavor , good heat and cold tolerance. Working on a heading variety
wanting fruit seed jujube, manzanita, etc. anything hardy to zone 7 to 9.
legume seed I have red bud, albia J., honey locust, need others.
more to come as fall progresses.

When you do get the contraption melting glass well, you will need to anneal it to keep from cracking. The  possibilities of using a rocket stove to anneal are plausible. just thinking ahead

Your in high desert, I would think shallow and wide swells would be the way. Maybe remove 8-10"down and 3' wide  from around existing plantings, berming on the downslope. which makes rain gardens for existing plantings. Just make sure you have an overflow spot that allows the water to overflow over a 4' square level area or you will get erosion. Several good books I will give you some titles when I get to my library.

Use fishscale pattern of smaller swales to work around existing plantings. As a general rule start water catchment at the top and work down.

bermuda is a warm season perennial, so I use overwintering grains and clovers as cover this keeps the bermuda from coming up until late spring early summer by which time the spring garden is established if not establishing annual gardens I would under seed w/ fast growing summer grains and legumes.

some undergrowth species I grow under my red oaks here in N. Texas are redbuds, mexican plums, vibernems, beutyberry and elderberries. Elderberry doesn't need as much water as you think, the european variety at least has done good on the forest edge to full forest shade. use mulch pits near new plantings to increase water near these new plantings. I have tried to grow ginseng drylands here for going on 8 years w/ no luck, summer to dry, oak leaves to big. I also have everbearing strawberries under my oak forest and they are slowly expanding and even give a few intense flavored strawberries.
I am working on a 6th generation shade tolerant triticale, 3 generation spaghetti squash grown in shade. These are land race varieties I am working on. Chicory grows well in the woods. All these I grow in our oak overstory, dryland and have some success and failure. Good luck on your venture

this has bean a green bean year for us. The beans cukes,maters are finally coming. last of the cabbage was harvested today. squash corn amaranth all finally gowing good. Last week was the first time we watered and it rained an inch yesterday.lol

Shade is the only thing I have found, noway can you dig all rhizomes, they go 7 feet down. Plant living mulch on any soil you expose, sweet potato has worked for me. Plant densely to create a rootmass that keeps the bermuda at bay. If you put all the layers of food forest in at one time it can out compete the bermuda. I didn't, just put in a skeleton of a food forest in and am now over grown w/bermuda. Attacking it this winter w/ daikon radish and clover/vetch. Here the radish overwinter, the clover/vetch come on before the bermuda and supress it's growth. In the spring underseed w/ pigeon pea and cowpea. Sunflowers can outcompete and planted 15" apart shade out. Gotta attack from all angle and all season

If you put a metal roof on (insulated well), you could extend the south eave more than the 2 inches (the exact formula for how much is in Brad Lancasters water harvesting books, I think), to shade the south windows and walls from sun in summer and let it shine in winter