Quote Originally Posted by Geostationary View Post
First you should ask what kind of desert we're talking about- Saharan? Gobi? Kalahari? They're all very different, but all are deserts. Some are more suitable for plant life than others.
That is true, the type of sand and thus the available nutrients will depend on many factors and can probably be handwaved.


Additional ideas:
You could look up polyculture and various advance agricultural/terraforming techniques. IIRC, some guys managed to restore a hill undergoing desertification... and grow pineapples and other useful stuff on it.

In general, if you have access to functionally unlimited water, you could probably slowly turn the desert into a forest.