Im about to move to El Paso and I want to garden. I don't have any experience with gardening in this harsh of an envirinment and I was hoping for some advice that might increase my chances of success. Some ideas I have so far are deep, infrequent watering, mulch, ~5% organic matter in my soil, rainwater collection and some kind of wind barrier. I'll appreciate any other ideas.

Get a good book on Native Texas plants. Finding plants that love sun and drier, hotter climates is key.