A different kind of Garden

As I have written before, this area is high desert.  Its very windy, and the ground is sandy.  Its really hard to maintain a good garden here without using constant sprinklers, which is costly and inefficient.
Yet, nothing is so good as tomatos from your own garden, fresh onions and cucumbers. So how to make the wants match the  realities?  My son at first looked at greenhouses, but the wind here  would make that difficult unless it was all glass, which is a huge investment. 

Now, here on the property there are a couple of unique structures.  Deep holes, dug into the ground, laid with railroad ties.  These pits are large, approximately 16x24 x7 deep.  Apparently the original purpose when installed some 50 years ago was to be holding tanks for water, for the pond that was here, possibly for fire safety as a fast source.  This  is a view of the one he is currently working on.  You can see the cross beams that have been knocked down in.  His goal is to clean them out, cover the walls with landscape fabric, possibly the floor too.  One side, facing south, will be lowered a bit.  He has begun to dig into the east side for a walk in doorway.

So what does this have to do with a garden?  Everything!  Im adding links to 2 sites.  The first, a walipini, is basically his inspiration.  These are being used in Brazil, in conditions similar to ours with huge success.  The second, is a garden-pool, using a swimming pool as the "hole".  He plans to combine these ideas, and with luck will be able to have a year round garden!  The websites are worth checking, as they are amazing!
http://bensoninstitute.org/Publication/Manuals/Walipini.pdf
http://gardenpool.org/

Sustainability is becoming more and more important.  Prices are rising, and the quality of what we purchase may not always be best.  Im excited to see this project grow.  I promise to keep you posted!
This third link is not really what he is planning, but the same basic idea.
http://earthbagbuilding.wordpress.com/tag/walipini/
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It is really windy here today, the winds are at 70 mph.  Rain and snow expected tonight.  How wierd, when it was 70 on Saturday!  As of last night the huge fire was still at 90% containment.  This rain will go a long way to ending it, and deadening the hot spots.

Keep all those folks in your hearts, and hope for no more threatening fires this summer.