Most gardening advice will tell you to plan out your garden before you start buying plants. The reasons for this are myriad. For one thing, it helps to have a plan for your hardscaping before you start putting plants in the ground, to avoid damaging those plants later if you add a sidewalk a wall or a deck. For another, it helps you distill what exactly you want from your garden, and whether your plans are realistic. Planning a garden out will also save you money in the long run, since you will avoid (hopefully) buying plants that won’t work or that you don’t have room for.
In the desert, there’s an even more fundamental reason to plan out your garden: water. You won’t grow anything without additional irrigation—even native plants will need supplemental watering to get established, and frequently even after that to look their best. If you don’t have a plan, you won’t know where to put your hose spigots or where to set up your irrigation. If you’re hoping to use rainwater and greywater, you will need to put in basins and drainage channels before you put in your plants. If you’re going to use ollas, you need to figure out how many you need, and dig holes for them.
When designing your garden, make sure you know where you will have access to water. You may end up changing the locations of certain plants depending on their potential access to water. For example, I put my fruit trees behind my bathroom because I knew I wanted to use the greywater from my tub and laundry to give them supplemental water. Likewise, the area in my garden that has the most difficult access to hose lines will be the site of my native cactus garden, because I can get away with hand-watering if needed, or jury-rig a temporary system for a year or two while they establish.
If you don’t have enough hose spigots, you will need to add some. Again, this is best done before any planting, since it involves digging deep trenches. It’s important to put in more hose spigots than you think you’ll need, particularly since desert gardens will need irrigation lines regardless of other sources of water. As a general rule, you will want spigots on each side of your house (north, south, east and west), and more if you have a larger yard. I avoid having irrigation supply lines any longer than 20 or so feet if it’s at all possible.
In addition to considering plant needs, think about whether you will want any water features. It’s best for ponds and fountains to have their own plumbing lines, so put in hose spigots wherever you plan to have a water feature. You will also need to plan for electrical supply to those features to run pumps and filters. You might be able to get away without this if you just have a wildlife pond without any filters, or if you plan to use solar-powered pumps, but make sure you research these thoroughly before deciding. Many solar-powered pumps offered are not adequate or may require some specialized skills to put together. Keep in mind that it never hurts to have extra electrical for lighting and possible future projects.
For more information on planning your garden’s watering, check out my article “Watering your desert garden sustainably”
