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.
Near the end of February and into early March, plant melons, squash, peppers and tomatoes. Snap beans, corn and cucumber seeds should go into the ground as well. In April, plant summer squashes, such as zucchini and yellow squash, as well as carrots and radishes. Come May, the temperatures are starting to climb.