The Chihuahuan Desert, long a corridor for trade between Mexico City and Santa Fe, New Mexico, is now home to five million people. The Rio Grande basin covers 172,000 square miles, crossing three U.S. states, more than a dozen Native American nations and five Mexican states.
Plant Answers. PLANT: March is a month to plant the gardener's favorite vegetables such as tomatoes, sweet corn and snap beans and pepper as well as cucumbers, lima or butter beans, cantaloupe, okra (if the soil has warmed sufficiently --70 degrees F. or higher), southern peas, pumpkin, squash, peanuts and watermelon.
It is best to start winter vegetables from transplants, according to Tom Kelly of the University of Georgia. Most crops take 70 to 90 days to mature in the fall. Collards and kale tolerate frost better than mustard and turnips, and will mature in 45 to 60 days. Plant beets and Swiss chard before freezing weather.