Leslie Moody

I’ll second the health care aspect of skylights. Plants love them, especially in winter. So do humans. Most permies probably spend an inordinate amount of time outdoors, so wouldn’t notice the lack of light, but I work indoors and the rooms with skylights are where I huddle in the winter.

Our home is our livelihood, and cooking, sewing, indoor growing are essential and best performed in natural light. We’re in the SW, so light is abundant and rain is sporadic (but abundant when it comes). The light from above is brighter, longer and more enveloping than the clerestory light, period.

Winter light is so incredibly different than summer light. We bought a ranch with 14 skylights and both east/west and south facing clerestory windows. Most of these were retrofitted in the 90s, and we’ve had to do a fair amount of rebuilding because they were poorly installed. That said, only one skylight has truly failed and had to be replaced in our 11 years here.

Sounds like you’re looking for the right indicators as far as water that might be available for you and your plants/animals. Definitely make sure that you are not near/on a toxic site, lots of mining and testing of the nuclear variety out here. Also mining can pollute a water supply decades after it has been abandoned, and we don’t tend to hold those that contaminated the land and water accountable in this country or even check on these things when they have used up a site. So read back issues of local papers, high country news, see if there’s a public lands office around and find out what they know. I’m sure others will have great suggestions.

We have had some success with blue corn on the highest, driest, most exposed part of our property - but it was not by digging down. The caliche here (south of Santa Fe in the rain shadow between the Sandia and the Sangres) is formidable. That said, a pretty neglected mound of aged manure and a little but of drip irrigation during the longest spells of drought went a long way. Most of our attempts at outdoor gardening are thwarted by giant grasshoppers and desiccating winds. The corn thrived and produced - planted in early July right as the monsoons started.

We also are loaded with saltbush, it is common in disturbed soil (6b NM). Birds love it, grasses are growing around it, holds the dust down and gives the rabbits somewhere to hide. Ours is over 5 feet tall in places, we’ve been trimming it with a hedge clipper along paths and it just keeps on keepin on. Also makes great kindling, and provides shade in our chicken run.

We’ve planted during monsoons, just don’t over extend yourself cuz you will need to water during the dry spells. Mulberry is doing great. Native grasses and wildflowers too. Plants of the southwest has some good seed mixes, but see what else grown in natural/wild areas nearby, if there are any.

We're at 6200' in New Mexico, very cold short winters, Siberian Elm and Russian Olive rule the roost here. All the old cottonwoods in our area have died, locusts seem to do OK but never get big enough to produce shade unless you have a groundwater source. The elms were here when we bought our place, and a local arborist advised us to get their saplings annually or they will invade, but so far (after 10 years) we've only had a few years where new sprouts posed a challenge. They are fast growing, great shade and habitat, just don't plant them where you want to grow anything else cuz they take all the water.

We’re not quite as high (6200’) but same problems, less moisture, lots of critters that chew through hoses, cages, eat anything any shade of green. We’ve had luck in the unprotected outdoors with asparagus, sunchokes, potatoes, mulberry, amaranth, squashes (sometimes) and corn. Mounds or slightly raised beds of manure, decomposed straw, chicken compost. Drip irrigation during the hottest weeks.

Under cover or protected in some way we grow lots of greens this time of year. Too hot and bright by late May for anything tender. Consider spring under cover and fall as your growing seasons, unless you can get in on a cold frame or other structure.

No idea about ground nuts, but we are in our first year of sunchokes and love them. Planted them last June and have been harvesting all winter. If you keep them in the ground through a hard frost the sugars concentrate in the tuber, and roasted or pan fried (think very thick potato chips) they caramelize and are absolutely delicious. I’ve tried curing them for a few days before preparing to help with the “fartichoke” problem some people have, seemed to work for most of our fam. We’re at 6200’ with less than 8 inches of rain, so anything that grows without too much fuss is very welcome.

Done!

We have kept saltbush up around our garden beds, great habitat for birds, builds soil, blocks wind and adds to midday/afternoon shade, which is huge in the summer. Haven’t interplanted, though - I guess I’ll try not pulling young plants when they self seed - or at least not all of them.

The concept is a little like a food forest, but with desert scrub & shrub instead of trees.

Mulberry, Siberian Elm, saltbush all do well. Mulberry takes water to establish for a year or two, but is supposed to be hardy once established and fast growing, good for coppicing. Saltbush doesn’t produce actual wood per se, but grows like crazy here and drops leaves, catches everything that flies through, great habitat.