Like to See a Picture of a Zuni Garden?

[digitS']

from the Library of Congress, 1927 photograph

You can click the picture and see more images of Zuni gardening, past and present!

I garden a little like this in that I have permanent paths. The beds are raised just by cultivation, burying "compostables" in them, and keeping the paths cleared. I level the top of my beds so that they are not rounded. Since the compostables decompose thru the season, the ground settles in the middle of the beds even further.

If water was being poured on the beds, that "waffling" technique would be a good idea to hold the water around individual plants or groups of plants. With the sprinklers and level ground, water doesn't move around to quite that extent in my garden, however.

Steve

 

[vfem]

I personally love this... I've never heard the term but have seen gardens done in this way. Its smart for places prone to drought. But for some reason most gardening/farming techniques all seem the same these days and aren't the best for what is needed.

 

[lillie]

Wow, that's awesome! Digits, do you border your beds with anything to keep the soil from washing out when it rains?

 

[digitS']

Rain?

Lillie, I can put down 3/4th of an inch of water from the sprinklers in 3 or 4 hours. If we have 1/4th inch of rain in that length of time, we think something special has happened!

Gallup, New Mexico (the "Indian Capital of the World") is the nearest city to the Zuni Pueblo. Gallup gets over 4" of summer rain. This area has less than 3" during those 3 months, on average.

I have a rock mulch that shows up after the sprinklers have run a few times. The soil is so rocky that it couldn't really go anywhere. No, there's nothing to hold the soil in place.

Steve

 

[lesa]

Is it just me, or has "square foot gardening" been around for awhile??

 

[skeeter9]

I really like that idea. I'm going to seriously consider using that method for at least part of my garden this year. That would really work for things like planting corn in blocks (as opposed to rows) for better pollination. I could possibly run drip irrigation along the tops of the raised areas, with heads as needed, and the shapes might help conserve water. Hmmm. . . lots to think about. Thanks for posting this, Steve.