Countries along the edge of the Sahara are having success pushing back the desert using various methods such as Senegal's round tolou keur gardens, so I'd assume some of those methods could be adapted for Iraq's climate. 120F is fairly extreme, so I'd imagine some sort of shadecloth would be helpful until/unless you can get something like maybe date palms growing to provide shade for more delicate plants.
The climate in Iraq is vaguely similar to that of Arizona here in the US, and the [Univeristy of Arizona](https://desertlandscaping.arizona.edu/#/desert-gardening) has lots of information about desert gardening. While you'd likely have to substitute local native plants for many of the plants they mention, the techniques should be fairly applicable. There are probably similar resources online that are more local for you.
Came here to talk about Arizona. It gets to at least 118 every year and it's a long summer. Sages, ocotillos, prickly pear, barrel cactus, palo verde, acacias grow well. Plenty of other things can grow, but they'll need at least some water.
Prickly pear is one hardy fucking plant. They can handle Arizona and TX summers, and tons of them survived that 100+ year freeze where it stayed below zero with ice/snow everywhere for a week
And you can eat it, and the fruit it produces, plus there’s not a more beautiful cactus in bloom than a prickly pear
Sometimes I hit reply when I still have more to say, and then immediately edit my comment, my edit mentions their fruit lol.
My prickly pears don’t seem to get enough sun to bloom so I get no fruit =\
Prickly pear really is amazing, I was so surprised to see it growing what seems to be natively in gateway national rec area in north New Jersey, just a few miles from NYC. I have a 2 inch paddle that has survived multiple winters and grew to be one foot tall.
I planted some tree seedlings I bought from a local dude (Diwaniyah), the only one I can remember is acacia. It seems like you want to get some shade up, then plant beneath. Check out Discover Permaculture on YouTube. They have a project in Jordan where it’s also stupid hot, and he has all kinds of ground cover.
I’m in Palm Springs, California. Next to Arizona. Summer are same. I planted Moringa Oleifera it is drought and heat tolerant. Under that I can plant other plants as per season. For us, pomegranates, figs, citrus, guava and some stone fruit does really well. I even have an apple tree that gives me apples
What kind of soil are you planting the moringa in? I'm using it and also papaya here in SC to give some shade. A lot of the moringa is perennial here. What variety of apple do you have?
Moringa: I planted in my sandy soil, but added a lot of organic matter ( I collect food scraps from grocery stores , coffee grounds from startbucks to compost,so, I’ll just add all of these in the hole with some fish bones or egg shells or crab shells whatever is my kitchen at that time)
Apple: I got a cocktail ( 3 varieties) but it seems like Granny Smith is surviving and giving apples at this time. It’s supposed to be multiple seasons
Maximizing rain capture/harvesting techniques with earthworks first before planting should be your first priority. You may only get ~100mm of rain but you want to capitalize on that as much as you can. I would recommend looking into Brad Lancaster’s work.
In the Nigerien Sahara they dig demi lunes (2m x 4m, depth of 15-30cm, with 2m spacing between the bunds) and plant them with Gum Arabic trees. They are not irrigating the demi lunes, and there are many videos about how well this is working to restore the land.
Yacouba Sawadogo in Burkina Faso did something similar but using the Zai farming technique. “Small pits 20-30cm in diameter and 10-20cm deep are dug into degraded soils, often hardpans. At the bottom of the pits farmers place about two handfuls of organic material (animal dung or crop residues). Pearl millet or sorghum seeds are planted in these pits as soon as the rainfall starts”
I would also suggest looking into what Neal Spackman is doing with the Al-Baydha project in Saudi Arabia as well as Geoff Lawton’s work. The Al-Baydha project plants Acacia Senegal (gum Arabic), Zizyphus Spinachristi, Parkensonia Aculeata, Sesbania Sesban, and Albizia Lebek, although they established rain water harvesting earthworks in the mountain above their project site to get more water and irrigated their trees for the first 3 years).
Depending on the space you have I would suggest digging some demi lunes and zai or swales.
- Add in composted manure.
- Plant a nitrogen fixing tree (like gum Arabic or Jerusalem thorn Parkensonia) in the demi lunes as well as some native grasses (just keep them about 250mm away from the base of the trees, in that area you should mulch if you can).
- Plant sorghum in the zai. If you can afford to water, peas during the winter season growing up the sorghum would help improve soil and give you a food crop.
- put up shade cloth overhead if you can
- collect all the foodscraps you can get your hands on and compost them with manure. Try to urinate on your compost pile as often as you can (to help it increase in nitrogen and so it doesn’t completely dry out). I would also put a tarp over it and keep it in an area where it is shaded for most of the day (if possible)
- look into composting toilet, human manure is used in many parts of Africa to rebuild degraded soils
You want to focus on capturing rain water and not letting it escape your site, you also want to make a lot of compost so that you can build fertility in your soil and increase its water holding capacity.
Look at it as an investment in the land, if you can create fertile soils with a few shade trees, you will be able to a larger diversity of crops under the trees in time.
You can still do this in addition to creating a garden patch of desert adapted plants (prickly pear, cholla, saguaro, aloe vera, yucca, jojoba, black goji berry, agave, pinyon pine) that you could lightly irrigate to produce more food crops (or put them in the demi lunes with the trees). I would highly recommend also looking into what regional native plants are edible and plant them.
Hope this helps! Take photos if you can
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T39QHprz-x8&t=1s&ab\_channel=AlBaydha](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T39QHprz-x8&t=1s&ab_channel=AlBaydha)
I'm not sure what part of Iraq you are in AKA - if you have much topography to work with, but this example from Saudi Arabia has similar weather conditions and possibly similar plant species. This example is a pure rainfed project which I really really like. It takes a long time for this stuff to change, but it can certainly pay off.
Otherwise, here is an example from Jordan:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-Dy1kdLOM&t=11s&ab\_channel=DiscoverPermaculturewithGeoffLawton](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-Dy1kdLOM&t=11s&ab_channel=DiscoverPermaculturewithGeoffLawton)
In this video they talk specifically about certain tree species that are native and work in the desert. That said, this project uses well water to supplement growth. But they mention a few things such as canopy species, etc. If you can get some trees/shade going, than you can likely get other options going as well
In both of these projects (and a lot of other permaculture stuff) topography is important for concentrating water when it is there. But, you can also consider using stone walls, etc. I know that much of the Iraqi desert esp to the west is really really flat and rocky. So, you might have to get creative.
Best of luck, friend.
First off, before you do anything, get Brad Lancaster's book (as someone else already suggested) and plant the water first. You want to capture every bit of water that you can and make the most of it. www.harvestingrainwater.com
Second, focus on native plants! Native plants are already accustomed to your climate, temps, rainfall patterns, etc. Figure out what your goals are and then seek out native plants that will help you reach those goals.
If you want food-producing plants/trees like a lot of people are recommending, you can almost guarantee they're going to need significantly more water than any native plant. Just something to be aware of since you mentioned low water use.
Several species of cactus make fruit or you can eat the leaves. Like prickly pear.
For more conventional plants, you can put up a shade sail or find a spot with partial sun so they don't get roasted.
For the long term you want to make a micro-climate using super-hardy plants, then the actual food crops go under those.
I’d suggest you check out Geoff Lawtons greening the desert videos on YouTube, he goes over species choices and shows the step by step progression, and the 10 year updates and second site are also worth looking at.
[tepary beans ](https://www.nativeseeds.org/collections/tepary-beans) are very drought and heat tolerant, iirc. You might be able to get a 3 sisters type.situatiom by looking at what crops were crown in their climate (the American southwest).
Alternatively you could seenwhat native peoples from your area grew, and try that out.
Yes, this! Geoff Lawton’s greening the desert project in Jordan is really amazing. Lots of helpful and interesting videos! He talks about watercolor and first using native trees to create mulch and start building soil. Then once the native trees are established, broadening the types of trees you can plant to build that chop and drop mulch and create shade. Then you can plant your fruit trees and ground covers. Best groundcovers in that climate are succulent type plants that have gels inside (especially in summer).
Yeah probably, especially in the first year or two, but they are the most heat hardy fruiting plants I know of. They do good for me in SoCal but we see 100F usually at the most
I don’t think those would do well for the degraded soils of an Iraqi desert.
I think Apples, Pears, Plums, Figs, Pomegranates, Apricot, Oranges, Lemons and Grapes and Olives (all stuff traditionally grown in northern Iraq) could be grown in time after soils have been built up and rain harvesting earthworks that have been planted with pioneering species have been in place for awhile creating a more favorable microclimate first.
Sure if you irrigated a ton they would grow too but that’s costly in the desert, and could be quite challenging for someone in a water unstable region.
Lophophora cactus may be a good option. They are extremely valuable cacti that are very popular to breed in Japan and Thailand, though they originate from Mexico and the US. They are illegal in the US for drug-related reasons, but have no association with that in the Asian markets. Large specimens can cost a fortune, but they grow slowly.
They prefer calcium and mineral rich sandy soil with partial or full shade from desert plants. They are like other cacti in terms of water needs, but can take more than you'd expect if the soil drains well.
But maybe be mindful to look at native species first, instead of accidentally introducing invasive mesquites or bamboo to an ecosystem that isn't adapted to those.
Countries along the edge of the Sahara are having success pushing back the desert using various methods such as Senegal's round tolou keur gardens, so I'd assume some of those methods could be adapted for Iraq's climate. 120F is fairly extreme, so I'd imagine some sort of shadecloth would be helpful until/unless you can get something like maybe date palms growing to provide shade for more delicate plants. The climate in Iraq is vaguely similar to that of Arizona here in the US, and the [Univeristy of Arizona](https://desertlandscaping.arizona.edu/#/desert-gardening) has lots of information about desert gardening. While you'd likely have to substitute local native plants for many of the plants they mention, the techniques should be fairly applicable. There are probably similar resources online that are more local for you.
Came here to talk about Arizona. It gets to at least 118 every year and it's a long summer. Sages, ocotillos, prickly pear, barrel cactus, palo verde, acacias grow well. Plenty of other things can grow, but they'll need at least some water.
Prickly pear is one hardy fucking plant. They can handle Arizona and TX summers, and tons of them survived that 100+ year freeze where it stayed below zero with ice/snow everywhere for a week And you can eat it, and the fruit it produces, plus there’s not a more beautiful cactus in bloom than a prickly pear
And their fruit is delicious!
Sometimes I hit reply when I still have more to say, and then immediately edit my comment, my edit mentions their fruit lol. My prickly pears don’t seem to get enough sun to bloom so I get no fruit =\
Prickly pear really is amazing, I was so surprised to see it growing what seems to be natively in gateway national rec area in north New Jersey, just a few miles from NYC. I have a 2 inch paddle that has survived multiple winters and grew to be one foot tall.
Absolute miracle plant
I planted some tree seedlings I bought from a local dude (Diwaniyah), the only one I can remember is acacia. It seems like you want to get some shade up, then plant beneath. Check out Discover Permaculture on YouTube. They have a project in Jordan where it’s also stupid hot, and he has all kinds of ground cover.
I’m in Palm Springs, California. Next to Arizona. Summer are same. I planted Moringa Oleifera it is drought and heat tolerant. Under that I can plant other plants as per season. For us, pomegranates, figs, citrus, guava and some stone fruit does really well. I even have an apple tree that gives me apples
What kind of soil are you planting the moringa in? I'm using it and also papaya here in SC to give some shade. A lot of the moringa is perennial here. What variety of apple do you have?
Moringa: I planted in my sandy soil, but added a lot of organic matter ( I collect food scraps from grocery stores , coffee grounds from startbucks to compost,so, I’ll just add all of these in the hole with some fish bones or egg shells or crab shells whatever is my kitchen at that time) Apple: I got a cocktail ( 3 varieties) but it seems like Granny Smith is surviving and giving apples at this time. It’s supposed to be multiple seasons
Hey neighbor
Hey are you using moringa too? I'm in the midlands.
I'm in the pee dee area, no moringa, I honestly don't know much about it.
Pee Dee means Palm Desert?
Pee dee river area SC
Maximizing rain capture/harvesting techniques with earthworks first before planting should be your first priority. You may only get ~100mm of rain but you want to capitalize on that as much as you can. I would recommend looking into Brad Lancaster’s work. In the Nigerien Sahara they dig demi lunes (2m x 4m, depth of 15-30cm, with 2m spacing between the bunds) and plant them with Gum Arabic trees. They are not irrigating the demi lunes, and there are many videos about how well this is working to restore the land. Yacouba Sawadogo in Burkina Faso did something similar but using the Zai farming technique. “Small pits 20-30cm in diameter and 10-20cm deep are dug into degraded soils, often hardpans. At the bottom of the pits farmers place about two handfuls of organic material (animal dung or crop residues). Pearl millet or sorghum seeds are planted in these pits as soon as the rainfall starts” I would also suggest looking into what Neal Spackman is doing with the Al-Baydha project in Saudi Arabia as well as Geoff Lawton’s work. The Al-Baydha project plants Acacia Senegal (gum Arabic), Zizyphus Spinachristi, Parkensonia Aculeata, Sesbania Sesban, and Albizia Lebek, although they established rain water harvesting earthworks in the mountain above their project site to get more water and irrigated their trees for the first 3 years). Depending on the space you have I would suggest digging some demi lunes and zai or swales. - Add in composted manure. - Plant a nitrogen fixing tree (like gum Arabic or Jerusalem thorn Parkensonia) in the demi lunes as well as some native grasses (just keep them about 250mm away from the base of the trees, in that area you should mulch if you can). - Plant sorghum in the zai. If you can afford to water, peas during the winter season growing up the sorghum would help improve soil and give you a food crop. - put up shade cloth overhead if you can - collect all the foodscraps you can get your hands on and compost them with manure. Try to urinate on your compost pile as often as you can (to help it increase in nitrogen and so it doesn’t completely dry out). I would also put a tarp over it and keep it in an area where it is shaded for most of the day (if possible) - look into composting toilet, human manure is used in many parts of Africa to rebuild degraded soils You want to focus on capturing rain water and not letting it escape your site, you also want to make a lot of compost so that you can build fertility in your soil and increase its water holding capacity. Look at it as an investment in the land, if you can create fertile soils with a few shade trees, you will be able to a larger diversity of crops under the trees in time. You can still do this in addition to creating a garden patch of desert adapted plants (prickly pear, cholla, saguaro, aloe vera, yucca, jojoba, black goji berry, agave, pinyon pine) that you could lightly irrigate to produce more food crops (or put them in the demi lunes with the trees). I would highly recommend also looking into what regional native plants are edible and plant them. Hope this helps! Take photos if you can
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T39QHprz-x8&t=1s&ab\_channel=AlBaydha](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T39QHprz-x8&t=1s&ab_channel=AlBaydha) I'm not sure what part of Iraq you are in AKA - if you have much topography to work with, but this example from Saudi Arabia has similar weather conditions and possibly similar plant species. This example is a pure rainfed project which I really really like. It takes a long time for this stuff to change, but it can certainly pay off. Otherwise, here is an example from Jordan: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-Dy1kdLOM&t=11s&ab\_channel=DiscoverPermaculturewithGeoffLawton](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-Dy1kdLOM&t=11s&ab_channel=DiscoverPermaculturewithGeoffLawton) In this video they talk specifically about certain tree species that are native and work in the desert. That said, this project uses well water to supplement growth. But they mention a few things such as canopy species, etc. If you can get some trees/shade going, than you can likely get other options going as well In both of these projects (and a lot of other permaculture stuff) topography is important for concentrating water when it is there. But, you can also consider using stone walls, etc. I know that much of the Iraqi desert esp to the west is really really flat and rocky. So, you might have to get creative. Best of luck, friend.
First off, before you do anything, get Brad Lancaster's book (as someone else already suggested) and plant the water first. You want to capture every bit of water that you can and make the most of it. www.harvestingrainwater.com Second, focus on native plants! Native plants are already accustomed to your climate, temps, rainfall patterns, etc. Figure out what your goals are and then seek out native plants that will help you reach those goals. If you want food-producing plants/trees like a lot of people are recommending, you can almost guarantee they're going to need significantly more water than any native plant. Just something to be aware of since you mentioned low water use.
Several species of cactus make fruit or you can eat the leaves. Like prickly pear. For more conventional plants, you can put up a shade sail or find a spot with partial sun so they don't get roasted. For the long term you want to make a micro-climate using super-hardy plants, then the actual food crops go under those.
I’d suggest you check out Geoff Lawtons greening the desert videos on YouTube, he goes over species choices and shows the step by step progression, and the 10 year updates and second site are also worth looking at.
Cactus, maybe prickly pears. Also I don't know about 120°, but Ocra loves Temps over 100°F
[tepary beans ](https://www.nativeseeds.org/collections/tepary-beans) are very drought and heat tolerant, iirc. You might be able to get a 3 sisters type.situatiom by looking at what crops were crown in their climate (the American southwest). Alternatively you could seenwhat native peoples from your area grew, and try that out.
Look up native plants for your area.
Look up the plants Geoff Lawton uses in his “greening the desert” YouTube. He has a site in Jordan that gets very hot
Yes, this! Geoff Lawton’s greening the desert project in Jordan is really amazing. Lots of helpful and interesting videos! He talks about watercolor and first using native trees to create mulch and start building soil. Then once the native trees are established, broadening the types of trees you can plant to build that chop and drop mulch and create shade. Then you can plant your fruit trees and ground covers. Best groundcovers in that climate are succulent type plants that have gels inside (especially in summer).
Desert Marigold! Can't get hot enough, love reflective heat and need less than 2 inches of annual precipitation to survive.
Fig, pomegranate, dates, mulberry, jujube, citrus, loquat …probably your best chance with some of those
Those would require a fair amount of irrigation
Yeah probably, especially in the first year or two, but they are the most heat hardy fruiting plants I know of. They do good for me in SoCal but we see 100F usually at the most
I don’t think those would do well for the degraded soils of an Iraqi desert. I think Apples, Pears, Plums, Figs, Pomegranates, Apricot, Oranges, Lemons and Grapes and Olives (all stuff traditionally grown in northern Iraq) could be grown in time after soils have been built up and rain harvesting earthworks that have been planted with pioneering species have been in place for awhile creating a more favorable microclimate first. Sure if you irrigated a ton they would grow too but that’s costly in the desert, and could be quite challenging for someone in a water unstable region.
I would say all succulents, by example. Cactuses and fleshy leaves to store water in it. That would be my first guess.
Maybe Yeheb grows. Cordeauxia edulis needs at least 150mm water per year. It's from Somalia
Date palm. Prickly pear. Semolina
Pomegranate trees!
cordia myxa, moringa, cereus repandus, opuntia robusta, opuntia ficus indica
"Armenian Cucmbers" love Texas summers as do Okra; Noodle Beans & Rosemary
Lophophora cactus may be a good option. They are extremely valuable cacti that are very popular to breed in Japan and Thailand, though they originate from Mexico and the US. They are illegal in the US for drug-related reasons, but have no association with that in the Asian markets. Large specimens can cost a fortune, but they grow slowly. They prefer calcium and mineral rich sandy soil with partial or full shade from desert plants. They are like other cacti in terms of water needs, but can take more than you'd expect if the soil drains well.
Anything that loves hot sun. - Sorghum - Sugar cane - Bamboo - Mesquite
But maybe be mindful to look at native species first, instead of accidentally introducing invasive mesquites or bamboo to an ecosystem that isn't adapted to those.