My yard is mostly caliche. How do I get rid of it?

Unfortunately it takes a long time to break that down. You need to apply gypsum for the clay. My suggestion to you is to make portable gardens the are just as pretty with the right assortment of plants.

http://skywalker.cochise.edu/wellerr/students/caliche/project.htm

https://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/soils/caliche.html

Thank you, Janet. I briefly considered raised-bed gardening, now it sounds like something I should explore.

i have family in el paso- they have run across the same issue. they used smaller containers for their vegg plants and gave up after the 1st yr. i would also look into

drip irrigation methods, put your water where it's needed, with little run off. i ran across a growers catalog that sold irrigation kits, but since there is a growers supply store near by it was less expensive to go and get the supplies my self.

Thanks for the suggestion, Dfm. It's worth considering.

Does the stuff break up in such a way that it can be used to build retaining walls? Maybe you could excavate a section the size of your choosing and use it to build retaining walls along three edges of the excavation. Save enough materials to build the fourth retaining wall after bringing in a dump truck of topsoil to fill said excavation. Create and oasis in the raised garden while keeping the dessert setting in the rest of the yard.

Cindy, , think of all the colorful pots you could place around your space, to draw atttention. A N Y thing grows in a pot! And they don't have to be expensive.

I have played with multi colors of spray paint on (leftover from past years) plain white plastic pots.

You'd be surprised what folks throw out, so very pretty basic pots, that

look fabulous/unique, with a touch of spray paint! Try a few,, , , surprise yourself!

even place a large one in the middle of a raised bed. For added height, I place a large empty pot upside down, and then place a flowering pot on top Of that. Instant height!

Pelleted alfalfa horse feed can break up clay. But raised beds are really the answer . Build up on top of the hardpan or clay.

I asked friends in Las Vegas - they said scrape up the topsoil for the raised beds... and paint the caliche grey - (call it concrete!)

Hi Cindy, hope this helps you out,

https://www.finegardening.com/article/gardening-with-caliche-soil-in-the-southern-plains#:~:text=Add%20organic%20matter&text=You%20want%20to%20get%20as,leaf%20mold%2C%20or%20wood%20chips.

Fill raised beds with good compost!