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MaryEstelle2
Guest
Me too! I have what you have except for the Revere Ware.
- Status
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dochawk
Guest
Things that are exclusive to the desert are so limiting . . . many cacti are pretty, but a yard of rocks is no place for children to play 
I’m even open to desert landscaping most of the front, but haven’t found a decent base–i truly dislike the small rocks all over. Also, we have found that grass near the windows makes a real difference in the indoor temperature, especially when using the swamp cooler instead of AC . . .
generally a lot of tomatoes, a few assorted peppers, and eggplant in the garden–these are the only things I’ve had real success with. Squash plants grow well and all over the place, but yield little to know product.
Oh, and strawberries; they also cover/control ground and keep weeds out.
Apache and Navaho blackberries, but I’m trying to get their runners to settle outside of the hothouse (they were there before I built it!). Other berries seem to die, but we’ll see with my next round of irrigation . . .
Wine grapes haven’t done well, but I had those irrigation problems . . .
Inside the hothouse frame are dwarf improved meyers lemon (far sweeter; they bred in some orange), dwarf mandarin orange, and dwarf texas grapefruit (the latter two producing the first time this year after about three years), and a citrus salad tree in the middle (valencia orange, meyers lemon, some kind of small grapefruit, and tangelo. The dwarf lime in the other quadrant died on me.
Artichokes! It’s not the standard one you see in grocery stores, but they produce more than we can manage to eat and then go dormant, not needing water until spring.
The pomegranate tree does well, as does the fig. The fruit cocktail tree (plum, apricot, nectarine, peach) does reasonably well. The pear and apple trees seem to have died with this summer’s irrigation failure (a valve I thought was thrown wasn’t!
).
The white peach (probably too big anyway; I need dwarfs on my grid) died mysteriously last summer, and the apricot and nectarine followed it this year (probably that same water issue). The plumb in back seems to be surviving, but not producing.
If I have watering worked out, I’ll spend a couple hundred on replacement trees. Once they’re big enough to shade themselves, this fruitless mulberry comes down . . .
In the front, a brazilian (?) mesquite grew tall enough to shade the van on the far side of the driveway within five years. Two of it’s offspring (i get two or three viable a year) might go across the lower front lawn area–but that probably means giving up the lawn, as I don’t want those roots near the sidewalk (this kind is known to drop a taproot something like 200 feet to find water), and I’d like to replace the fruitless mulberry closer to the house with another mesquite (but that will be a rough few years; it shades a majority of the roof from the southern sun!)
i still have two tree sites left in the back. I had cherry there, but they both have problems surviving and it turns out I’d have to ice their roots in winter to get them to price, anyway!
hawk
I’m even open to desert landscaping most of the front, but haven’t found a decent base–i truly dislike the small rocks all over. Also, we have found that grass near the windows makes a real difference in the indoor temperature, especially when using the swamp cooler instead of AC . . .
generally a lot of tomatoes, a few assorted peppers, and eggplant in the garden–these are the only things I’ve had real success with. Squash plants grow well and all over the place, but yield little to know product.
Oh, and strawberries; they also cover/control ground and keep weeds out.
Apache and Navaho blackberries, but I’m trying to get their runners to settle outside of the hothouse (they were there before I built it!). Other berries seem to die, but we’ll see with my next round of irrigation . . .
Wine grapes haven’t done well, but I had those irrigation problems . . .
Inside the hothouse frame are dwarf improved meyers lemon (far sweeter; they bred in some orange), dwarf mandarin orange, and dwarf texas grapefruit (the latter two producing the first time this year after about three years), and a citrus salad tree in the middle (valencia orange, meyers lemon, some kind of small grapefruit, and tangelo. The dwarf lime in the other quadrant died on me.
Artichokes! It’s not the standard one you see in grocery stores, but they produce more than we can manage to eat and then go dormant, not needing water until spring.
The pomegranate tree does well, as does the fig. The fruit cocktail tree (plum, apricot, nectarine, peach) does reasonably well. The pear and apple trees seem to have died with this summer’s irrigation failure (a valve I thought was thrown wasn’t!
).The white peach (probably too big anyway; I need dwarfs on my grid) died mysteriously last summer, and the apricot and nectarine followed it this year (probably that same water issue). The plumb in back seems to be surviving, but not producing.
If I have watering worked out, I’ll spend a couple hundred on replacement trees. Once they’re big enough to shade themselves, this fruitless mulberry comes down . . .
In the front, a brazilian (?) mesquite grew tall enough to shade the van on the far side of the driveway within five years. Two of it’s offspring (i get two or three viable a year) might go across the lower front lawn area–but that probably means giving up the lawn, as I don’t want those roots near the sidewalk (this kind is known to drop a taproot something like 200 feet to find water), and I’d like to replace the fruitless mulberry closer to the house with another mesquite (but that will be a rough few years; it shades a majority of the roof from the southern sun!)
i still have two tree sites left in the back. I had cherry there, but they both have problems surviving and it turns out I’d have to ice their roots in winter to get them to price, anyway!
hawk
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Sarcelle
Guest
When I lived in Hawaii, I had success with growing a lot of vegetables with the exception of squash. The plants do well but with no fruit whatsoever.
Probably the fruit flies.
Probably the fruit flies.
D
dochawk
Guest
Here, it wasn’t even flies (they don’t get along too well here . . . we don’t even need flea collars for pets, as those can’t survive either . . .).
The zucchini produced something like three, total; the pumpkins had some blossoms, which I even hand-pollinated, and one fruit the size of the golfball.
In this heat, I think they just make vine . . .
The zucchini produced something like three, total; the pumpkins had some blossoms, which I even hand-pollinated, and one fruit the size of the golfball.
In this heat, I think they just make vine . . .
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alice24
Guest
Oh I need a pomegranate tree! ot sure if it will do well in this climate, but this is a childhood dream (seems to be one of those persian DNA break throughs
)How long did it grew until it toot the first fruits?
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MaryEstelle2
Guest
I noticed you mentioned that you have a swamp cooler. How well does that work? Thanks for any (name removed by moderator)ut.
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alice24
Guest
Did I? I think this is another poster 
I had to put it in the google translator, it´s a form of air condition, isn´t it? 
I had to put it in the google translator, it´s a form of air condition, isn´t it?
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MaryEstelle2
Guest
Alice, this was supposed to be a question for Dochawk, but sometimes the GPS on my relies do not work 100 % and get lost on the way. Yes, a swamp cooler is a simple ‘home made A/C.’ and I was wondering how well one would work in W. Kentucky where it is hot and humid.
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0Scarlett_nidiyilii
Guest
The nursing home where I work (Frostbite Falls Home for the Totally Not Old, But Merely Mature and Seasoned and Cool Elders) still uses carbon paper.
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Sarcelle
Guest
Carbon paper?
Seriously?
Seriously?
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dochawk
Guest
I think it gave us a couple of little ones the first year, several the next year, and I was expecting three or four dozen before storm, but still should get a dozen or two.
The real issue is keeping the birds out:rage:
We get several 115F days a summer; it likes the heat.
A couple of light freezes over winter.
For most of the year, spectacularly (although I’ve been hunting pieces do to insisting on repairing it myself . . . probably could have paid for it to be done twice or more by now with what I’'ve paid for AC . . .)
Under 20%, it’s spectacular, and then it fades, becoming worthless by 30%.
With a 3/4 HP motor and a straight-drop path form the roof, it kept a 1600 foot ranch house comfortable until a couple of weeks into July this year, at which point we had to run 2-4 hours of AC a day (oddly, in the evening, not the heat of the day . . .)
They have a pretty much fixed temperature drop, so if it’s running full-out, and it goes up 5F outside, it will go up 5F inside.
They work by drawing air through a wet pad, which is variously paper, plastic, or something like burlap. The water evaporates into the air, dropping the temperature of the air (which is why they don’t work so well for humid air). This air is forced in at a hopefully central point of the house, or at an end, and the windows are cracked an inch or two to let the air out. You can balance by adjusting the windows.
They do need their couple of drops of oil each year on each end of the shaft; that’s what did mine in
Here, with our extremely hard water, I have to replace the pads about every two years (lime build up hardens the paper, and boy are they heavy by the time they’re done . . .). I’m adding an inline filter and some blocks that are supposed to absorb lime.
they’re more formally called “evaporative coolers.”
If you put one in, do pay the $50-$100 more to go up to the full 1HP motor.
It might even heat the place
They only work in dry climates where the air will readily absorb water.
hawk
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Sarcelle
Guest
Will it work in a state like New Mexico?
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dochawk
Guest
Oh, yes.
Very well in most of New Mexico and southern Arizona. Anywhere that regularly has single digit humidity, for that matter . . .
Very well in most of New Mexico and southern Arizona. Anywhere that regularly has single digit humidity, for that matter . . .
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0Scarlett_nidiyilii
Guest
LOL that’s what I said when I started working there.
I’m pretty sure we’re the carbon paper factory’s one and only customer
I’m pretty sure we’re the carbon paper factory’s one and only customer
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DarkLight
Guest
I think most “retro” things I do are what the rest of the world calls “broke.”
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Milt
Guest
My in laws used a swamp cooler and it worked very well.
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Peeps
Guest
That’s cool! You should be on HGTV! I would love to watch that work in progress.
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MaryEstelle2
Guest
Hey Milt, what kind of climate do they live in…in reference to swamp coolers?
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Milt
Guest
They were from Phoenix Arizona.
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alice24
Guest
We thought of making a photo/video diary of the working process 
at least from the cave we found, we still haven’t figured out what kind of animal lives there (…)
at least from the cave we found, we still haven’t figured out what kind of animal lives there (…)- Status