Soil - making the best of Tucson's soils.

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Soil
If you've ever driven through Avra Valley northwest of Tucson you've seen acre after acre of farmland. At the right time of the year tractors are busy plowing the fields turning over the soil which looks like nothing more than big dirt clods. We should all be so lucky to have that kind of soil.

There's no telling what you'll find when you start digging in your soil. Maybe sand and loose rock or even layers of caliche, a rock like substance. You don't simply dig through caliche. You have to work your way through with a pick ax or a jack hammer.

You may find you have more clay than anything which feels sticky when wet and sticks to the bottom of your work boots. If you live near one of Tucson's sometime flowing rivers -- The Rillito, Santa Cruz, Canyon del Oro, Tanque Verde and Pantano -- you might have a nice layer of sand or even silt thanks to the years when the rivers flooded and distributed the particulates that were caught- up in the runoff.

Where ever you live in the valley, flood plain or foothills you don't have to be a soil scientist or geologist to figure out if you have soil suitable for growing the plants you want. Besides how many of you can identify if you have sandy clay or a clay sandy soil? It's not hard to distinguish single elements like sand, clay, rock but it is when you have a mixture. If you can dig a hole you can get a pretty good idea of what you've got and what you need to do to make something grow.

Desert soils lack organic matter -- the stuff from plants and animals that's capable of holding moisture and releasing nutrients. It's not like there are tons of leaves falling off the cacti and slowly decomposing into the soil, nor are the desert animals leaving behind huge amounts of manure to get worked into the soil. Certainly, with all the rocks in the desert soils there are minerals that can benefit plants but not nearly enough nitrogen or water holding materials.

That's why the desert gardener might have to amend the soil so some plants will grow better. The extreme would be adding a whole new layer of improved soil to grow the plants. And some desert gardeners do that by building raised beds to hold that improved soil for growing vegetables.

Now don't go excavating your front or back yard to grow the things you want. Gardening (except for those companies and people who make a living at selling gardening products and services) is considered a leisure activity by many of us. Yes, some consider it a chore but I doubt any of them are reading this web page. The point is relax, pour yourself a cup of coffee, brew a pot of hot tea, or have a cold beverage and consider some of the options.

	Don't plant anything at all. Let nature take its course, which is a long and slow process for trees and shrubs. Let the weeds grow. (This gives you time to watch The Victory Garden or Square Foot Gardening or any other gardening related show you can find on television.)
	Help Mother Nature and conserve our water resources by planting something indigenous that thrives on desert soil requiring little or no help from you.
	Hire a landscape architect and someone to plant the materials the architect suggests. You can have an automatic watering system installed at the same time. (Is this gardening or the joy of delegating?)
	Build raised beds from brick or wood and add the best soil you can make or buy before planting flowers, trees, shrubs, or vegetables that thrive on the improved soil.
	Dig a hole as large as you can, plant what you want, and see what happens. Don't forget to water.
	Dig the hole a little larger than the root ball, check for adequate water drainage, add a few soil amendments like compost or a soil conditioner which might have peat moss, compost, shredded bark or some other additive then plant the specimen and water as needed.

Gardening, like life, offers choices. What works for you, may not work for your neighbor. Half the fun of gardening is experimenting to see what happens. And what works best for you may be finding a reliable source of information whether it's from a local garden center employee, a class at Pima College, a demonstration at the University of Arizona County Extension facility on north Campbell or by attending a meeting with Tucson's Organic Gardeners. (1998)