Just minutes from Joshua Tree, this farm is a model for winter vegetable gardens

At the Oasis of Mara, in the heart of old Twentynine Palms, a high water table created a lake many times the size of the small pool there today. Starting with the growth of the high desert town after World War I as a haven for Mustard Gas victims, the water levels began to slowly drop below the surface. Eventually the lake drained entirely after multiple earthquakes, leaving a low-lying barren area.

Some say this groundwater decline began a century ago, but it may in fact be the end result of gradual climate change. Diminished rainfall simply failed to recharge the groundwater sufficiently throughout the 20th century to accommodate the increasing population.

Lake bottom soils can be incredibly productive. Ask the Mexican chinampa farmers who dredge their canals often to bring up black muck to raise and enrich their growing zones. The old Mara pool, now totally dry, is the genesis of the finest organic garden in the desert: Faultline Farm at the 29 Palms Inn. It was started in the 1940s by the original owner of the inn, Robert Van Lahr, who grew food during the shortages of the war. The contemporary owners of the inn updated the garden with state of the art irrigation and bio-dynamic organic growing techniques to produce enough to support their restaurant’s needs. That is why it’s such an important model for desert food gardeners.

This garden, open to the public, is unique due to the colloidal clays that gather at the bottom of ponds to keep them water tight. Though dense, clay is far more fertile and able to hold moisture much longer than our porous desert ground that may never pool. Moreover, the clay hosts microbes that consume organic matter, the key to organic gardening. It is more like the soil ordinary vegetables prefer, which allows the plants to be grown in-ground without raised beds.

Caption: Before the May warm-up, the Faultline lake bed garden is in full swing with herbs in the foreground beds and fruit trees in the distance. Courtesy of Maureen Gilmer/Special to DESERT magazine

Unlimited in scale, this garden is most productive during the winter and spring months. With the onset of summer heat, many plants begin to suffer, such as the cool season cabbage family that’s afflicted by wooly aphids in heat.

To grow in winter, it’s important to solve two other problems that afflict desert vegetable gardens: wind and frost. Both are solved at Faultline by using row covers. This technique creates a greenhouse environment for plants in the field. At Faultline, each planting area contains two rows surrounded by earth berms to contain the water delivered by in-ground drip systems. With a more dense clay-ey soil that drains slowly, there is often standing water here. That demonstrates why it’s so successful: Water remains shallow where roots are. In porous desert soils it goes right through, so fast that little moisture remains for the microbes and plants to take up slowly. That is why there’s a big difference in fertility-based plant performance in clay with its big load of natural microbes and our large particle, infertile sandy gravel desert ground. In general, clay is the most fertile, sand the least.

Faultline Farm is a very large garden that generates enough fresh produce to supply needs of the restaurant at 29 Palms Inn. It ensures their meals are composed of fresh-picked, organic and locally grown food in a region where such efforts are difficult. This garden is the ideal model for anyone who wants to grow their own vegetables in the open, rather than in small, climate controlled boxes. You also can compare the lake-bed soil to the surrounding desert’s sandy gravel ground – and literally feel the particle size difference.

If you visit in winter, you see the starting of this year’s crops within the row covers. You can enter any time to wander and study the plants, and how they’re treated. As the months pass to spring, row covers come off to provide more exposure and allow plants to grow tall in the open air. Each row is a different crop so you’ll see a lot of diversity. If they can grow it at Faultline, you can grow it, too.

Finally, be aware that Mara is hallowed ground of ancient peoples who occupied this oasis for millennia. From the earliest Pinto cultures to contemporary tribes, desert people have sought this respite from heat and drought since the very beginning. Venture out and be inspired by the depths of its history and the modern organic movement combined within a single site – then go have lunch.