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A belated Merry Christmas to all of you! My wife and I are planning on an early retirement in NM. I've had a vegi garden as a hobby for the last few years and would like to continue this in NM, too. We are looking at moving to the ABQ / SF / Taos / Las Vegas area - does anybody have experience with growing vegetables / fruit in these areas? Any input (also regarding books etc. on this topic) is highly welcome! Thanks.
If the area you are looking at is above 6500', there is a good book called "growing food in the southwest mountains" by Lisa Rayner, Also the Sunset "Western Garden book" could be helpful.
I've also been looking into being as Self-sufficient as possible when I make my move to NM. From what I have read, it seems that growing food will be a little more of a challenge, but do-able.
Gardening is not unusual in New Mexico. Whilst I lived in Taos, I often went to our local nursery, and found that although I was an East coast Zone 5/6 gardener many plants, herbs and vegetables can and do grow in NM. Watering is the single biggest issue. During some of the droughts we had restrictions on how often we could water, and occasionally I had some limp branches, and flower faces.
Good luck and check out some of the nurseries as well as books folks have recommended for additional info.
My Wife and i are looking to move to NM and also Farm a little, you know land with water is getting so costly, perhaps we should form a Co-op Farm with water running through it - there are so many possibilities in doing this- like sharing equipment, it would be a much stronger situation with a group of similar goal people. We have been growing Organic methods for 3yrs at this location, and my Father was an Organic Farmer as well. Its perhaps a new thread to start. Best Wishes, AJ and Denise
murenberg, In preparing for my own move to New Mexico, I have been studying about xeriscaping and gardening and I have greatly benefitted from two books by Judith Phillips: Natural By Design and The New Mexico Gardeners Guide. (My cousin in ABQ called her books the bibles for NM gardening.) These books are about flower gardening, bushes and landscaping, etc. but perhaps you could research Judith Phillips and see if she has written anything about vegetable gardening.
Greenmon,
I'm not sure exactly how a Co-op works, but if you want to start another thread on the subject I'd be willing to check it out. I personally would like to discuss with others their ideas and knowledge about living a more self-sufficient lifestyle in New Mexico. I don't have a lot of first hand experience, but I've been doing a lot of reading and planing.
People have been gardening in NM for a several milinnea with varied sucess. My guess would be that the actual location and microclimate is just as important as water for qa sucessfull garden.
I am in the planning stage of a combined heat and power system for off the grid use. contact me for details.
I imagine catching Rainwater is very important to crop or garden production, and for drinking , unless you are lucky enough to have running water close by.
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