On desert mistletoe

My trees have had mistletoe ever since I had to trim some of my trees for the neighbors…only to find out that my ex-husband had more of an issue with 'bothering the neighbors' than the neighbors did, sigh.

But I've worried and fretted over it killing the trees, because everyone knows that mistletoe kills the trees. Except, well…everyone is wrong.

Here is a desert specific article on mistletoe and it's role in the Sonoran desert. I highly recommend it! Because aside from the 'doesn't really kill off plants immediately,' the berries from it attract birds, and any mistletoe you do take off the tree can be used as mulch for your garden!

http://www.azfcf.org/docs/DAC/Mistletoe-Not-Threat.Jones.pdf (sorry, this link looks defunct now.)


There is another fact about desert mistletoe (Phoradendron californium) that I was rather excited to here: in the Sonoran Desert, sometimes it's edible! Most mistletoe is poisonous, so I never even thought to check. Because we KNOW mistletoe is poisonous, right?

But in the Sonoran desert, if our local mistletoe is growing on mesquite, ironwood, or catclaw acacia, the berries are not only edible, they are actually pretty tasty too! If they grow on other plants, though, they are not considered edible. Fair warning.

Something fun to check out and ID in your yard if you, too, like to eat what's in your yard. Especially if you didn't have to take care of it to get it there!

https://savorthesouthwest.wordpress.com/tag/edible-berries/

Mulching

Out here in the desert, you won't be gardening or planting for very long before you hear about mulching. Mulching is the goddess of desert gardening, how you keep water in the ground, how you keep things alive, possibly the reason for world peace, based on the love desert gardeners have for this stuff.

And okay, it is pretty awesome. The dirt here in the desert is high in minerals, but not so good on the whole retaining-water-thing that richer soils do in abundance. So mulch can make a big difference. In fact, here's a lovely article that has a lot of information on a variety of mulching techniques, including considerations like what mulch may contain toxins or retard seed sprouting, and so on:

http://thebestgardening.com/mulches-types-and-uses/

Here's also an interesting study that looked at the water retention abilities of various mulches: http://ucanr.edu/sites/UrbanHort/files/80238.pdf

The end result of the study was that organic mulches can absorb water, and when they do, they lose water more rapidly too. So soil with rock mulch on top lost the least amount of water. One might conclude from this study that rock mulch is the best type of mulch for desert gardening. We see it everywhere here in the Southwest, after all, covering entire yards with fields of rocks on top of plastic to keep the weeds from poking through.

However, water retention alone is not the only consideration here. So, I'll take a quick look at rock mulch now, and look at other mulching methods a little later.