An Enhanced Native Landscape

Still harvesting vegetables, melons, zuccini, yellow squash, last of limas.  Am pulling out tomatoes ( they won't produce fruit after night temperatures warm up...and they have! ) Two nights ago, we had our first over 80 degree night.  It's time to say good-by to the pole beans and tomatoes. The melons are getting bigger and bigger and ripening fast.  Found our first white flies, but not to worry, the harvest will be over before they can do their damage.  Thought summer would be a good time to talk about native landscape.

Outside our  garden walls are about two acres of enhanced native landscape. Enhanced, in this instance, meaning some areas with irrigation and others with non-irrigated native vegetation.  Building sites in Borrego vary greatly in make-up of soils and plants. In our area, around 800' elevation and very close to the foot of the San Ysidro mountain range, the soil is granitic, coarse and rocky- a part of Hellhole Canyon alluvial fan.  Native plants on our plot included cheese weed, burro bush, cholla, indigo, ocotillo, creosote, coyote gourd, desert lavender, beavertail cactus and chuparosa. None of these require any irrigation.  To these, we added other natives to the region, including barrel cacti, fish hook cacti, brittle bush, an ironwood tree, filifera palm trees, desert agave, yucca, teddybear cholla, prickly pear, santa rita, cow's tongue, (opuntias), blue palo verdes, baja palo verdes, mesquite trees, Sonoran palo verdes and a desert willow. .  Of these, only the trees require some irrigation.  The other plants, once established, require no irrigation.

Outside our area, to the east, the soil differs greatly.  There, you find sandy soil, brought to the area over time - deposits from from Coyote Creek...especially during flood stages.  This soil is richer in composition, as evidenced by the many citrus groves , nurseries and tree farms below Coyote Canyon.  Roadrunner Country Club, on Palm Canyon Drive, at about 600 ft. elevation has this sandy soil .  The residents grow beautiful vegetables in the community plot. Gardens in this lower elevation are more likely to experience freezing during cold snaps.  As you can see, there are microclimes within the greater Zone 13!
The Borrego sink is the lowest part of the Borrego basin at 455 ft.  Storm water run-off collects there.  A basin truly describes Borrego, surrounded by higher elevations,with the sink being the drain ! If you realize where you are situated within the various areas, you will be able to plant your garden accordingly. Over the years, I have seen many bouganvillas die of frost at the lower elevations, where the cold seems to collect.

The sink:  455 ft.
Air Ranch:  575 ft.
Montesoro: 700 ft.
Park Visitor Center:  around 800 feet

Sunset Garden Book defindes low desert, zone 13 as ranging from below sea level to 1,100 feet.  As you can see, from the above elevations, we are definitely in that category!

When our construction site was chosen, only one plant had to be moved, an ocotillo. Only the house site had to be bulldozed.  The driveway was laid out with native plants left intact as much as possible.  We removed deadwood from the curbside and replaced it with native agave and mesquite trees. We put in PVC underground water lines along the perimeters of the lot...across the front, along each side and across the back.  From these, laterals were put in as we added other low water use plants. 

If you notice native vegetation, you will see that it arranges itself  with lots of space between plants.  If you follow this pattern on your own land you will be following nature's clues resulting in a garden that belongs and thrives in an arrid environment !  Try to keep the native plants you find ...they are adapted to the area and offer shelter, food, and nesting sites to native wildlife...another reason to think carefully before removing any plant from your lot.