Photo by Beverly Poppe

How does your garden grow? Perhaps with some cockle shells and silver bells, but for the most part, drought-resistant desert shrubs and trees, succulents and rock populate Las Vegas home gardens. Not so terrible, but what about the vine-ripened vegetables for Sunday night's ratatouille? The mere idea usually sends us to the nearest grocery store. That's because for many of us in the desert, veggie gardening is challenging, even if we've had success with it in other parts of the country.

"Vegetable gardening in Las Vegas is like gardening on Mars," says Frank Rauscher, an avid gardener and staff horticulturalist for Star Nursery. Our windy and dusty surface, with its molten layers of rock topped off with a thin crust, is hardly an organic foundation for growing vegetables we eat. Rauscher says there is a learning curve when it comes to gardening here. He's met many people who have come to him confused about where they've gone wrong. Their ideas of gardening are shot down much like a blast of wind that rips off the delicate yellow tomato flowers just as the plant is about to set fruit. And what's left? A nightshade with no fruit to bear. But with a little guidance, perseverance and patience, a vegetable garden is possible here.

Ask Dorie Stratton, and she'll tell you that she's had a lot of success, but she was a little apprehensive at first. "When my husband said we were moving to the desert, I wondered how I would ever do some gardening here," says Stratton, who had been gardening for 15 years in Atlanta. She already knew that growing conditions would be very different. With some experimenting and classes from the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, Stratton, now a Master Gardener, has realized the fruits of her labor.

Stratton's yard is large enough to accommodate a vegetable stand, but she chose to plant her garden in a compact, two-tiered, sun-drenched area only 10 steps from her back door. "A couple of friends helped me build this garden," she says.

As compact as it may be, Stratton has seen an abundance of crops come year after year. "Last summer I picked at least two Grecian cucumbers a day," says Stratton. "They can tolerate the heat and get quite large." This year, she says she'll experiment more and start the cucumbers from seed ...