When we had practically no rain for a couple of years, the Mesquite trees fared extremely well.
I purchased 60 seedlings from the Las Vegas State Nursery for Arbor Day in 2014 (I think) to give away at our Gardening Club meeting. I had 20 Mesquite, 20 Arizona Cypress and 20 … I’ll update when I remember.
I had so many trees, had some in pots for a year or more, didn’t know where to plant them anymore. As the gophers had destroyed our “lower garden” and we got the neighbor lot in 2014 for the new orchard garden, I planted about 5 Mesquite, all survived and are about 4 ft tall.
8/20/2022 Mesquite and Cholla
Fortunately, the volunteers I hosted several years ago did a great job removing the failed hugulkultur remains, cleaning up, and beautifying the lower garden. Visitors have pitched their tents there as it’s at the bottom of the property, with level ground and more sheltered from our ferocious winds than the up by the orchard.
In the background, you see a little water on the road, another flash flood took my road out for the 3rd time this summer. 4WD access only.
I bought the Mesquite because I thought they were Mimosas, expected them to have showy pink flowers as I remembered from California. I was so disappointed when I first saw the tiny yellow flowers. They looked like most desert plants, small and yellow.
2025 UPDATE: They are Mesquite trees, in the Mimosa family. The nursery label had me confused.
While I’m sure I watered them when I first transplanted them, I was way too busy with the orchard garden, greenhouse etc. to water in the lower garden. A few times I watered the Arizona Reeds along the fence, but most died anyway. I had moved a few to where they get watered more often.
8/20/2022 Hoophouse Mesquite
The center of the hoophouse is about 12′ tall. Until a year or two ago it had a plastic cover and it was hot as hell in summer. I also rarely watered, the Chinese Apricot in the background finally died this August. I thought I had watered a lot this summer and I hoped the monsoon rains would be enough since I was so busy.
In July 2021 the back of the hoophouse blew out when we finally got some rain again after about 2 years of next to no summer and hardly any winter rains. I’ve been planning on moving the hoophouse to the new lots I got for a demonstration site on how and what to plant in our continually worsening climate.
The Mesquite are definitely one of my top 5 recommend trees for resiliency and drought tolerance.
Mesquite grow fast when watered.
Without water, they won’t grow, but still stay green. Not many plants can survive summer heatwaves with 113F day after day, very low humidity, and no water. Even native prickly pear cacti died without irrigation.
8/28/2022 Mesquite Seedlings — planted 7/26 after 48 hr soak and scarred.
Since we finally got a little rain again, the natives and the mimosas flowered this year. I found many seed pods in the hoophouse and decided to finally grow Mesquite.
The seed pods were so hard, I had to use pliers to get the seeds out, and then I used a nail file to scare the seeds. It’s very time-consuming, but I enjoyed it, and it made watching Netflix less of a waste of time. I could have added some nutrients like kelp to the water before soaking for 48 hours, but I forgot.
I planted the seeds into one of the hydro tubs into native 1/2″ screened dirt. It’s time to transplant into 1 gal pots and I hope I can make time soon.
In fall, they should be planted into the ground.
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