Another member of the City of the Sun was giving me some very useful info today, I don't know how much I was able to absorb.
Nitrogen-fixing trees: honey locust, mesquite, other locusts, possibly palo verde, can be started from seed by snipping one end of the seed with a small pair of scissors. Leave in a glass of water 24 hours, then plant in a pot. Transplant after they've reached at least a foot in height.
There's a native type of elm that grows well here. Find the disc-shaped seeds in the gutters in Palomas after rains. Some types of Eucalyptus are quite drought tolerant, and it's a beautiful tree. Tamarisk, also known as salt cedar, is also very pleasing to the eye and is a great pioneer tree.
Ferrocement: he's using rebar, hogwire, and stucco lath covered with a concrete mix of 3 parts sand, one part portland cement, with a handful of polypropylene fiber thrown in per wheelbarrow full. You can buy the fiber in Deming, at a cement (or concrete?) plant just on the north side of the overpass near the McDonald's.
last updated 2013-01-10 21:17:36. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com