The Desert Edge

Wordless Wednesday - Form, Flower

2012-02-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday - Spring is Coming!

2012-02-01T09:42:00.003-07:00

5/4/2006

4/6/2008

5/4/2006

Garden Designers Roundtable: Get Real(ity)

2012-01-24T07:32:00.030-07:00

I first wish to thank the Garden Designers Roundtable for asking me to participate as a guest!

Being observant and brutally honest, I was thrilled to choose the topic of this post, Reality Check/Don't Do This. I hope you find my interpretation insightful as to where I live and work - the arid, high desert southwest.

That classic Chihuahuan desert grassland scene was taken SE of Belen NM last fall. Similar to pre-development, northeast Abq, I'm told. Soaptree / Yucca elata standing sentinel over a thin cover of Black Grama, Sand Sage, Bush Muhley, and Snakeweed.

May you will look deeply at your own locale's horticultural practices, including the why's, the how's, and the many possibilities.

I could write an extensive book about this topic with heavy imagery, but unfortunately, I have limited time. For the concepts lacking photos, the reader will have to visualize supporting images. For plants improperly designed or improperly maintained, you are encouraged to look at my countless past posts or conduct online searches on any plant in question.

My partial list was narrowed down to the following:

PLANTS
Buying and using plants without considering mature size (and thinking they can always be "trimmed" or "shaped" to stay in-bounds)

Above is Beargrass planted too close, designed by someone who has dismissed my expertise as "opinion" more times than I can count. Below is Beargrass' almost-mature size...not an opinion.

And another of my "opinions" on Beargrass.

Buying a plant for what it looks like at the nursery, instead of a smaller plant that is more adapted

Buying plants based on their flowering season appearance, not dormant season appearance. ("Design for summer & it's pretty in summer. Design for winter & it's pretty all year." - Tara Dillard) I opt for 1/2 to 2/3 evergreen in any landscape where I live, having 4 seasons, with summers and winters too extreme for much plant or flower growth.

Above, in spring. Below, in winter; all gray and brown - powerless:

Primary succession tree species (Arizona Ash, cottonwoods, willows) chosen over climax tree species (hardwoods like mesquites, oaks, pistaches, etc); speed over quality. The former have invasive surface roots, weak wood, and have a drinking problem - trash trees. Like oversized tumbleweeds. OK on large lots that collect water, far from pipes, hardscape, and structures. These are not trees that have much of a place in our outdoor living spaces, just open space and some park areas.

DESIGN

Ignoring the ecoregion where your garden is, and its defining characteristics - in the arid southwest, it is trying to re-create a high mountain or “back east” garden. This will fail, and look *so* out of place before it fails.

Note the name of this part of the development in Albuquerque, note the look of the foothills behind, and yet...

Kerrville TX, as ridiculous as using a spruce in Abq!

More playing pretend in Abq, with more blue spruces.

This homeowner must not get one thing about where they are, though the young Italian Cypress do go with the house, about the most drought-tolerant plant there. But turn off the irrigation, and watch what happens.

Start with the native, low water-use plants in your ecoregion, within 25 miles and 1000' in elevation ala Brad Lancaster; if natives don't perform a desired function, then expand the radius out some (but not the elevation more than another 500'), to adapted plants from adjacent ecoregions, or similar places in a similar environment.

Pushing climate zones unreasonably, based on too short a time period or the local area's biases - confusing weather with climate. The bias in Abq is arcticism, pushing way colder and wetter...those are dead, 5-10 year-old aspens, and it is August.

They did everything right according to some "experts" here...cool microclimate (root zones NE of wall), high water perennials underneath, and water-sucking bluegrass in the property behind it. Guess water doesn't compensate for forcing a plant from 4000'+ higher into the desert, with desert soils, desert heat, etc. That is 2 to 3 of the earth's life zones colder and wetter than anywhere in Albuquerque, to find where aspens grow naturally...similar to 5-6 actual climate zones different.

And logic does not compensate for willing ignorance.

The bias in Las Vegas is to push warmer. Oops. This after a quick low temperature 15F above the all-time record low. Dead queen palms are from Brazil, and quite happy in Orlando. Orlando...Las Vegas. Hmmm.

No water harvesting, letting storm water flow from the site without benefitting the garden first, placing trees on top of berms or mounds, cute cobble patterns, boulders set instead of buried properly, ....... Had to pick on El Paso, which harvests stormwater that could benefit landscapes even less than Abq:

Not using native plants, especially sculptural accent plants

Too much clutter, no unity - a one-of-everything, "stick-gardening" approach (and you know what's about to die w/ white trunks):

Covering ground without creating beauty or an inviting space. Landscaping to just cover ground is _____.

Confusing popularity with one's expertise (it didn't stop after high school; some are shocked at those who fit this description)

Confusing common with appropriate or native

Ponderosa pines above were once dizzyingly popular in Abq, and you can see how well they perform above. They are not from anywhere near the desert where this photo was taken. They are popular once more, and aspens have become popular in the last 10 years. I posted a few photos of how poorly aspens grow here. Yep, those are flatbeds with some...people here salivate over having a bunch of each, and the seller will plant them if you buy in quantities. I can't make this up!

Letting lawns and gravel expanses constrain planting bed sizes; should be the other way

Fads (trends) over fashion (classic design principles)

Higher water-use trees & an understory of xeric plants, in the desert - instead of a tougher desert region tree of the same family. A little extra water does not help most times.

The above didn't work, so let's keep doing it. "Who cares about David's opinions, anyway. Didn't he move?"

More Honeylocust trees in the median, above, hanging on. And below, the next series of medians - same soils, same aspect, same climate, same irrigation, etc. Desert Willow (often not considered a "real tree"), along with Texas Red Oak, were planted at the same time as the honeylocusts; they are thriving and outgrowing what is considered "a real tree".

Plants used randomly with no relation to the architecture of buildings or space; plants, including natives, do not have to be used naturalistically

Implementation without an actual, drawn plan

MATERIALS

Lava rock and railroad ties - Three's Company and Charlie's Angels moved on; our landscapes should, too.

Not enough drip emitters nor spaced out far enough for trees

Rock, gravel and mulch patterns without plants

Setting boulders on the ground, without burying them a minimum of 25%

MAINTENANCE

Shaping plants that don't need it (most plants' shapes are just fine and don't need help, especially bad topiary). Shaping mostly only serves to preventing flowering, takes away potential winter texture, increases water use by producing rank growth, or eventually kills the plant.

These were Escarpment Live Oak, required by city code to buffer and shade. So much for that...unnecessary and ugly!

Above is the latest rage in terrible pruning...limb up every shrub. Below is what a Russian Sage should look like.

Cutting back rosette succulents like they are grasses (their cut foliage does not grow back). Leave them alone.

Above was a Beargrass, and below was a Sotol. Remember what those are supposed to look like, in all their glory?

Topping any tree is inexcusable

Desert Willow trees do not deserve that kind of torture; undeserving property owners and their maintenance lackeys do, though. Below is what Desert Willow trees become in Albuquerque.

Above, an older Desert Willow; below, one under 10 years old. They grow quickly, allowing them to be pruned with a habit and interior open enough, even retail signage can be seen through the branching and foliage.

Over-watering (this kills more plants here in the desert than underwatering, notably with native, low water-use plants)

MONEY

(see all items above, they all relate to money)

Expecting instant gratification without a massive budget for refined materials and the largest plants

Thanks for staying with me on this rather dispiriting tour. The above are quite common! It is rather painful to post such photos, as some projects not posted were what happened to my designs.

As this post is merely scratching the surface of the surface, please continue to visit my blog for past and future posts, and let's engage in some fruitful dialogue. Perhaps we can do part of the daunting task of making this a world where our outdoor living environments are valued at least as much as spectator sports, fast cars, pop-culture, etcetera.

For now, please join me in visiting other individual's excellent blog posts on this topic. Especially since others will bring up items I didn't have time to pursue, or that I was not considering. I for one enjoy others' takes and viewpoints, and this is one insightful bunch to glean from:

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay Area, CA
Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA
Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ
Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In The Garden : Los Altos, CA
Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA
Shirley Bovshow : Eden Makers : Los Angeles, CA
Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

And to read more past Garden Designers Roundtable posts, click HERE

Plus, similar and different ideas to avoid doing with a landscape and garden, at Phoenix Home and Garden HERE

Foliage Follow-up - 1/12

2012-01-16T12:44:00.006-07:00

I wasn't going to post this time. But once I heard a soft rain falling on the skylights, and took in that incredible scent outside, my mood changed. Enjoy a rarity: rain drops on plants (though not all is foliage).

Blackspine Prickly Pear / Opuntia macrocentra:

"Cristiani Spineless" Prickly Pear / Opuntia -----, ala Dave Ferguson. But not all things considered "spineless" are harmless:

This cactus has vicious glochids, and this Cristiani is 1/2 Sicilian:-) But that's all for the spiky plants...

Green Mormon Tea / Ephedra viridis:

The moisture rolled right off of those green stems; a number of plants here did that, for whatever reason.

Speaking of moisture (.05" of rain), I'm glad we have 40's and higher humidity. The foothills are nicely washed off, rejoicing:

Did I say "that's all for spiky plants"? Of course there's more! And they look as good with rain drops on them as snow.

Desert Prickly Pear / Opuntia engelmannii selection from large-padded ones common between T or C and Socorro:

Most pads are 10-14" in size. Unprotected, these took last winter better than many O. engelmannii native right nearby. Weird!

Beargrass / Nolina texana:

Texas Sotol / Dasylirion texanum:

Or is that Desert Candle / Dasylirion leiophyllum? Not sure where the grower collected the seed, so it's your call!

Blue or Gray Sotol / Dasylirion wheeleri:

That is quite a favorite, tough plant for landscapes, Abq area to El Paso, and many other Desert SW cities. It is native to rocky hills in central NM, then deep into northern Mexico.

Others call it Desert Spoon, and some scientific publications call it Wheeler's Sotol. Though some scientists are quite stodgy and rather unteachable, others are not. And the few Wheelers I've known have always been fun and interesting people!

And of course, there's a alcohol distilled from this sotol! It's the state drink of Chihuahua, New Mexico's neighboring state across the border; I'm told that Dasylirion wheeleri is most common one used.

Big Bend Agave / Agave havardiana:

Beaked Yucca / Yucca rostrata:

A side note. Some of the foliage above, adorned with rain drops, has a bluish or grayish cast. That's a mechanism to help conserve moisture, which many plants have, where clouds, rain, and humidity are rare.

The latter is why I posted today!

And also because Pam digs foliage - here

Gray Oak / Quercus grisea

2012-01-11T15:58:00.044-07:00

Once people in my region get over cliche, high water-use trees, this underused and attractive tree is often noted as a favorite.

A single Gray Oak / Quercus grisea in a natural area at about 6,200' elevation in NE Abq, protected from typical development practices:

If you'd rather skip the detailed information, more pretty pictures are found further down.

Gray Oak is a broadleaf evergreen tree, and its stature is medium (20-35' height x spread) to small (12-20'), depending on moisture availability and soil type. It grows at a moderate, 18"-24" / year rate, but if over-watered too frequently, it usually dies. It is strong-wooded and deep-rooted. Like many oaks, it often hybridizes with nearby oaks; near me, that is Q. turbinella and even Q. arizonica; higher in elevation it is Q. gambelii. Soils in it's range are mostly alkaline and rarely neutral. It is native to foothill edges of the Chihuahuan Desert region and adjacent lowlands, and grows in desert grassland, savanna, chaparral, and rocky uplands, especially along arroyos and where boulders trap stormwater runoff. (not much dew to condense, so...) I would rate Gray Oak as hardy in Sunset Zone 3 and USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 6. It is moderate to low water-use, once established.

It is not found in colder areas, from Santa Fe and Los Alamos northward, including Rocky Mountain foothills and Great Plains edges.

Having travelled in remote areas of SE Colorado and NE New Mexico, I've not seen anything resembling Gray Oak N of the canyons near Roy and Mosquero, but rather, Q. undulata is common with even a few Q. mohriana. But I am open to seeing good documentation to the contrary.

2011 Weather & Plants - ABQ House

2012-01-09T04:00:00.011-07:00

2011 was noticeably drier and slightly warmer ~~cooler~~ than average. With historic cold events, and a few other items a part:

That's about it. But to learn more what I saw and why, read on!

2011 weather statistics:
Growing season = 183 days (20 days less than average, 5/4 - 11/2)
Average temperature = 58.1F (2F warmer than average)
Precipitation = 8.87" (over 2" drier than average; 2" came in Dec.!)
Monsoon season rain = 4.25" (over 2" drier than average, erratic at best)
Sunshine = typically sunny (sorry, can't find stats for entire 2011!)
Warmest = 100F (on 6/24, 6/26, 6/28, 7/9; 102F is average)
Coldest = -11F (on 2/3, possibly the coldest ever; +7F is average)
Highs above 100F = 4 days (typical, but each barely at 100F)
Highs above 90F = 89 days (20 days above average)
Highs below 32F = 6 days (2 is average, some years having 0)
Lows above 70F = 15 days (above average, but 12 right at 70-71F)
Lows below 32F = 89 days (20 days below average; more wind, clouds)
Lows below 10F = 8 days (we typically get 1 brief low this cold)
Lows below 0F = 2 days (wow! - we average decades without below 0F)

I almost forgot about smoke from massive regional wildfires during June and July, following smaller fires just 3-4 miles N of me.

Robert Heinlein has been quoted as saying, "climate is what you expect, but weather is what you get".

Those skilled in horticulture and who think for themselves, strive to use plants and landscape choices that thrive in both scenarios on their site and soils - climate and typical weather extremes. But that's another post!

Think of 2011 and many recent years as balancing out previous warmer years. And the cycle goes on and on!

Some who watch the ~~propaganda~~ mass media, who listen to ~~primadonnas~~ "experts", or who think Abq is like Santa Fe, Taos or Denver, may be surprised. They have been all 20 years I've lived here.

And they use aspens, bluegrass, and mountain perennials in toasty Abq. Odd. Water and microclimate are no more a cure for forcing cold-climate plants into our gardens, than logic is a cure for willing ignorance.

My locale's averages, long-term and short-term statistics, are found on this blog's right column. They adapt the Sunport's daily readings and 97 years of records, to what I know about my terrain, elevation, etc.

~~What surprised me is how the Sunport and I had such radically different temperatures - 5F warmer than me.~~ My local National Weather Service office at the ABQ Sunport reported their 9th warmest year on record at an annual average of 58.4F...that's only 1.2F warmer than averages, not exactly proof we can plant like Tucson anytime soon. (Tucson is 12F warmer than that...and for many decades) I triple ~~double~~-checked my spreadsheet where my temperatures were tracked, and I found no the error~~s, either~~. Corrected!

The location those weather records are taken is less than 400' lower in elevation and 8 miles straight down the arroyo from me, accounting for less than 1F in difference - the same as in the 75 miles from Albuquerque to Socorro. One can visit the National Weather Service / Albuquerque website, or other locales' NWS sites, and find their annual summary. That informs what happened in the garden and landscape.

Meanwhile, some in my city and nearby seem to really be scratching their heads, wondering how to adapt our landscapes to "global warming". A few I know here even planned group-meets last winter.

Those folks first need to specify designs and plantings for our present climate of the last 100 years, since they are working off far too cold and wet a starting point. Then, they might have less change to "sweat over".

I'll continue discussing this complex issue of natural and manmade, dynamic climate shifts with those more knowing than I, as I continue to learn more and ditch old ideas, and relay it on this blog.

We need to move radically deeper than pretty pictures or fads, in light of having more radically relevant horticulture.

Plant performance summary:
+ trees - later than typical leaf-out for some, others typical
+ shrubs - on-time adn a few slightly late; some regrowth of new twigs
+ accents - on-time; some major freeze and drought damage, on some
+ perennials (herbaceous) - on-time leaf-out, flowering
+ flowering - weak to sporadic, some delayed until October
+ freeze damage - cleaned up much from last winter into August
+ drought - some plants declined further by August
+ insects - unusually few most of year, except wasps in fall

Habitual eastern trees were even late, many desert trees were quite late, in leaf-out or flowering. But this spring settled down earlier than recent ones, where plants waited until a month or more late to respond - a few springs saw a more settled spring pattern not arriving until June. In 2011, it was May; that mattered not if one had no fruit, though. Some apples were frozen in early May, but in February, figs and pomegranates mostly froze to the ground, and many apricots, peaches, and other fruit trees lost flowering buds for last year to develop fruit.

In the coldest areas (here and Alamogordo at -15 to -11F, areas between Socorro and Belen at -24F to -13F), some trees and shrubs had to regrow leaf buds, as the old ones were frozen. Other woody plants froze to the roots or died outright, like miles of Creosote Bush near San Acacia.

Yet others, including of warmer desert origins, were unscathed.

Accents and succulents were hit hard; many species that hold much water in stems were the worst, such as larger agaves (A. americana, A. scabra), even some Opuntia, and most Ferocactus. Nolina, most Dasylirion, and Hesperaloe were just fine. More on this later!

The various desert wildflowers in my landscape and in nearby gardens and the wild were more stunted and sparse in bloom, than they were late or early. With a weak monsoon season and a dry winter to spring, fall saw some plants that bloomed forth, and grew quite a bit. October and November where I live looked far more verdant and colorful than any time between March through September. And without early or late summer heat to shorten spring and fall flowering or growth, that really says how dry it has been!

Plant responses in my region also correlated greatly to 2011's weather.

A Foothills Blanket

2011-12-30T04:30:00.005-07:00

It snowed 3/4" in my area the Thursday before Christmas, which kept the ground from warming. That on top of 4" of very wet snow and serious rain the Monday before, and more rain and snow in previous weeks.

With 4" of new snow further west and south, plus over a foot around Roswell and Carlsbad, skies are crystal clear region-wide.

The air smells invigorating, cold. Odd to see this much snow, the whitest Christmas I've seen here in 20 years!

Sunset towards the Magdalena Mtns (L - 80 miles away) and the Sierra Ladrones (R - 55 miles away). Christmas Eve 2011:

Lows are in the mid-teens, and highs are in the high-30's. Sunny days, starry nights. Plants are OK, but once it goes below 10F, look out. I think they are all going to be fine, especially with forecast warming to seasonal averages by this weekend. December is the coldest month in Abq, so it just goes up from here, especially after mid-January.

I can't wait to finish fixing my landscape plantings and lighting. And to hike and bike in shorts and shirt sleeves (long ones, that is).

A nice blanket that will melt and slowly seep into the now-wet, gritty, granite soils for the plants. I still can't describe that scent.

Glad I didn't try this on my mountain bike. A few inches of cement-like snow and slush, mud, or mushy granite.

It is best for me to rest, and let the land rest. I need some relaxation this week. It has been a tough several years.

Rosy Relative

2011-12-28T04:21:00.008-07:00

I'll showcase many tough, evergreen plants during the balance of the cool season, since my locale's "xeriscapes" are especially devoid of them. We'll move way beyond the landscape version of the Myth of Santa Fe, as well as it's catalog-inspired version of desert phobia.

From one season of interest into all-year interest.

Chisos Rosewood / Vauquelinia corymbosa var. angustifolia:

Photographed at the UTEP Chihuahuan Desert Gardens in El Paso. This plant is stunning in my region, too.

It has a fine texture, yet it is lush.

But remember, it gets large - over 10 feet tall x 6 feet wide. An upright habit allows it to be maintained as an attractive plant in a narrower space...but it is still large!

No problem - large spaces need large plants. And large plants are great for screening.

Yes, it's in the Rose Family, and it thrived through our coldest and hottest weather. Low to moderate irrigation in the desert.

In the future, I'll make it a point to capture some plants you might be surprised that work in the arid southwest for evergreen lushness. I've often stated, "natives first, then adapteds where natives don't do the task."

Patterned Randomness

2011-12-26T04:00:00.001-07:00

What dominates the photo...is it pattern or randomness?

Hand-made concrete pavers (I kid you not) at Rockrose, in the uplands above Austin TX. Just another view.

Perhaps the answer depends on the view I chose. Or perhaps it depends on the way you think. Or perhaps there is one correct answer. You can see more from my 10/11 visit here, or better yet, here.

Snowy Succulents

2011-12-22T04:00:00.009-07:00

What an odd La Nina weather pattern here - unseasonably cold and wet for weeks. With some snow, it's a great time to see patterns in a plant form that should be common in gardens, as chile is in New Mexican food!

Compact Queen Victoria Agave / Agave victoria-reginae 'Compacta':

The repitition forming this agave rosette my favorite when it snows; thick, triangular leaf sections help. Like a Protea flower.

Big Bend Agave / Agave havardiana:

The last storm dropped 4" of cement-like snow, making for some botanical interest. This storm's precipitation totaled .95", helping December gain 1.93" of precip at the house, 4X wetter than our monthly average. Most high temperatures have run 5-20F below average, with low temps just below average.

Ahhh! So Madrean on this side of the property. ("Google it"):

Is it Desert Candle / Dasylirion leiophyllum or Texas Sotol / D. texanum?

Twistleaf Yucca / Yucca rupicola:

Beaked Yucca / Yucca rostrata, Mtn States' powder-blue selection:

Small (4") terra cotta pots, w/ Mescal / Agave neomexicana pup (L) and Pig's Foot / Cotyledon orbiculata (R):

Foliage Follow-up - 12/11

2011-12-16T19:17:00.009-07:00

For foliage, Albuquerque can shine in winter. If poorly-planned, though, it's brown and gray, with various excuses made to justify it.

I advise using evergreens in over 2/3 of the high desert landscape.

First, foliage after 3 days of winds at 40 mph, gusts over 90. Concentric patterns formed on granitic soil by Beargrass in motion:

Even Mormon Tea:

I need to finish the update and clean-up of this landscape. But still winter interest from evergreen foliage used meaningfully:

Even after insane cold hit NM. Following strong winds, a 1F low here - freeze-dried Autumn Sage foliage, yet some is alive, flexible and green:

Here, Autumn Sage is deciduous and in colder winters, it dies to near the ground, though not lower in elevation.

Also unprotected from cold and wind, much of the Dahlberg Daisy foliage is still live and flexible. Huh? Que??

Hairy Mountain Mahogany and it's evergreen, Mexican Highlands nature. I collected the seed for these in '96 from nearby foothills:

David-damaged Beaked Yucca, growing new foliage at base, in case the top dies! (I hope not, it's a 9' tall beauty):

And Common Thyme below it; that plant reseeds all over.

M-I-C...K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E! Spineless Prickly Pear:

Squid Agave awaiting it's final place in the ground, this coming spring:

Big Bend Agave and those leaf imprints...and those spines!

Dormant, blonde Deergrass. Like I'm sure. Totally! But some mountains managed to make it into the shot:

And just outside the walls of our compound...evergreen Gray Oak and Desert or Shrub Live Oak along the arroyo:

Desert Live Oak - tardily deciduous to evergreen, but always spiny leaf margins like hollies, in time for Christmas interest:

And a favorite. Pincushion-like accent, Blue or Gray Sotol:

That's Dasylirion wheeleri, Liza. It's everywhere, thriving in Abq, Las Cruces, and El Paso. But not up north; too cold.

Eddie - "What a stressed-out cactus. Don't you water it?" Wally - "Knock it off, Eddie. That's a Beavertail Cactus in winter":

Rock Penstemon...I know, more plants with prickly leaf margins! But this is the first time I've noticed some prickles are reddish:

Thanks for your Foliage Follow Up, Pam! Foliage can even filter the wrath of The Death Star...all the above was photographed today.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - 12/11

2011-12-15T17:10:00.004-07:00

Thanks, Carol at May Dreams Gardens, for hosting so many garden bloggers to share what's blooming.

Here is what I saw in mid-November, before we shifted from a touch warmer to far colder, than typical. 1F at house, 5F in Abq and 8F in Las Cruces, spotty temperatures either side of that range, ended it all.

Mexican Blue Sage / Salvia chamaedryoides:

Desert Bahia / Bahia absinthifolia:

Rarely, a stray flower on Rock Penstemon or Autumn Sage is out in mid-December. More often, Rosemary is.

Maybe it will warm back up, closer to normal, and I can report on some Rosemary plants in bloom, bees buzzing about...and certainly Winter Jasmine? And maybe it will warm to above normal, as I dream!

And I'm thankful for the .67" of rain this week over 2 days. That helps me total .90" of precip, 2X my "wet" foothill locale's December average.

Last Flowers

2011-12-07T04:00:00.018-07:00

This winter began in earnest; a deep, large and windy storm system pulled in very cold air behind it. It seems such storms have become more common. Our once-gradual changes to winter are now unusual.

12/1: the start of persistent, far-cooler-than-average weather, in contrast to recent, slightly-wamer-than-average weather:

Arctic air pushed through our mountains easily, yet the low level moisture moving in from the east was dammed up by the same mountains, as usual. But 50F then (a little cooler than average) felt much colder, with steady winds over 40 mph, and gusts increasing over 80 mph into the evening.

The cold increased, storm winds died down, and moist air came in. Voila, 2" of snow! Snow is not the same as cold; it is simply precipitation that occurs when the air is cold enough throughout - about <35F.

Lavender's last blooms, during 80+ mph wind gusts:

This and a neighbor's lavenders were flowering in a much milder winter on 12/31/99. (and kept flowering into early January)

Some plants in Abq and El Paso flowered for the first time this fall, thanks to optimum rainfall and temperatures that followed a very dry spring and summer, as well as record freezes last winter. Around town, it was mostly the usual fall bloomers finishing out November, plus some oddballs like Banana AKA Datil Yucca.

I'll have to write a list of plants that typically flower late, vs. those that can, since such things need documentation.

Remember this potted Red Yucca? It sent up a flower stalk in response to cool October weather and 1.62" of rain:

A hard 23F freeze last week, now 36+ hours of icy winds this week with snow, and it is finished. It was enjoyable watching it to see how far it would go with developing flowers...no dice! And lately, record cold hit.

For now, we'll have to settle for blooms on rosemary plants - assuming more typical weather returns?

Gray Plants, Colored Walls

2011-12-05T04:49:00.002-07:00

Gray plants are all the rage where I live. But they are rarely used well, unlike those one can observe in good designs or in our wild spaces.

A November trip to El Paso, Alamito Gardens is a public housing project that I designed in 2008 for Moore Nordell Kroeger Architects:

Chinquapin Oak turned, the clean evergreen foliage of Pale Yucca / Yucca rupicola pulling off the cool season look.

This would not work with feathery, deciduous grays. Imagine gray twigs all winter? Reality over flowery prose - like "tapestries of colors", then stating how "our area is brown", commonly used to justify design and plant choices missing the mark of a space's needs.

Blue Sotol AKA Gray Sotol / Dasylirion wheeleri:

Some elements at work:

1) low budget, installation to maintenance
2) colored walls (notably red), native stone
3) evergreen in prominent locations
4) mature plant sizes considered for their spaces
5) microclimate - prairie yuccas E walls, desert sotols W walls
6) natives where they work, adapteds where natives don't work
7) bold foliage against random stone patterns
8) spiny leaf margins against a contrasting color
9) flowering lantanas ~~died~~ stolen, never replaced; succulents live on
10) massings of the same plant species, to unify

Shop For Patterns

2011-12-02T13:35:00.006-07:00

When out and about, take notice at what landscape patterns work - where and why. Back to La Cantera in San Antonio.

Tan stone vs. foliage; metal agave in a pot vs. live agaves in the ground:

Tall elements (tower or live oak) with low plant masses at bases of each; wild live oaks in back with transplanted live oak in foreground, which one drives underneath:

And these won't shed limbs on your nice car in storms, unlike Abq's favorite trash tree, cottonwood, which does shed. Had to take a dig at those who diss quality like oaks, in favor of short-term fixes that grow fast, leaving the bill for others to pay. (!)

Nasty drought, but with recent rains, a Kerrville overpass sees new blooms of Orange Zexmenia / Wedelia hispida. But where? Where rain runoff stops at, then spreads, along an impervious barrier - here, the ugly concrete bridge embankment!

But they don't grow all over; just along the concrete. Zexmenia is a perennial; these have not colonized where drought and mowers disturb. Even if there was no mowing, there is more moisture at the edge.

In a landscape, got lemons? Make lemonade. Change the grades to move water where you need it to go, then plant accordingly.

Can't control gravity or where water runs? No one can the first. Right plant, right place. Make the uncontrollable your friend.

Oh yeah!

And back to ~~shopping~~ La Cantera. Boulders with large succulents in back of the viewshed, low lantanas in front, and the negative space of Buffalograss turf in front of that, between the lantana and the curb.

One should adapt that for their region, as I would the latter two in my part of the desert. Purple lantana is usually an annual due to my cold, so I would use something else. And where such visual-only turf needs irrigation, which in the desert is unwise land use away from parks, golf courses, or back yards; another substitute or use those same plants at a different spacing or grouping. (San Antonio average annual precipitation = 28-30".....Abq average annual precipitation = 6-12".....Buffalograss grown as denser turf = 20-25" / year)

Whether like me (light shopping), or others I know (major shopping), look for landscape lessons everywhere!

End of Fall - Plant Gloom or Glory?

2011-11-30T04:00:00.052-07:00

Fall ends about December 1 at our latitude in the US, meteorologically-speaking. As opposed to the less accurate astronomical calender some use for seasons. Feet on the ground, I'll enjoy the now!

Threeleaf Sumac on time, on a dry slope, evergreens Desert Live Oak and Beargrass framing it. And those boulders!

Some of our falls and winters have been warmer, but others cooler - perhaps this fall is about right, since it lies in the middle! This fall certainly started earlier, but it has shaped up more like we would expect, though without much warmth or chill. I prefer to enjoy it for not being as cold as some past years.

Thirsty Arizona Ash peaking in the park and in backyards.

On time. More of the same in city landscapes.

Up here, you might notice a plant pattern missing in town, just below:

No evergreen oaks or desert grassland species obvious or used well.

Hard for that to catch on, with city "leaders" and hort "pros" aiming to hide the desert with Midwest and Rocky Mountain High. They prefer a canopy of leafy trees that need so much water, only to give back so much gray and brown all winter. Not very generous!

Creating an oasis over the whole city, instead of oasis pockets in the right places, gives us no visual interest, identity or conservation; it merely covers the entire uplands of a desert city. We are neither part of such a confused cross of Des Moines, Missoula, and their precious Sawn-tah Fayyy.

Weird. I prefer the real patterns that make our place truly great!

I enjoy our skies, the drought and winter-induced red of stressed prickly pear cacti, how deciduous Threeleaf Sumac highlights our evergreen oaks, and how those same oaks both contrast the dormant Black Grama grasses and grow denser on northerly aspects beyond. (greater moisture availability...it's a desert out there!) I try to apply such concepts in my designs, even if the supplies or dominant mindset do not help.

I don't long for low, dark skies or cold...or the plants that nourishes. Or look like 90-day-growing-season garden splashes displayed in some catalogs. Arcticists - the glass is half-full ones. When I want to ski, I'll go there and ski - I don't bring it down to the desert!

Such fruitful abundance, for drought and brutal winter cold episodes! Cool season interest is more than red twigs on snow.

Fishhook Barrel cacti and Smooth Prickly Pear primed to reproduce!

The last stand of Cowpen Daisy on a freeway slope, spared of Yankee Horticulture inclinations, at least so far:

Though the firm who designed this "park" didn't get the memo. Hope you like brown and gray twigs all winter! The old guard actually do.

How depressing lame landscape design is!

Enjoy the few blooms of Globemallow now, since it is about finished! Taken Thanksgiving day. A nice surprise; a little late.

It won't resume growth until next spring. No need for guilt we are not getting Minnesota or Rocky Mountain weather, or this is because of global warming! 'Cause we aren't Mankato or Jackson Hole...thankfully!

Still no guilt for me. Because soon, this is the only plant Abq will see flowers on, until late January! Rosemary:

We're not warm enough to have the winter lushness or flowering of such places as Honolulu, coastal California, or Savannah. Bummer, but we can deal with that. And we are not cold enough to bundle up like even Santa Feans do, let alone like people in places like Chicago or Salt Lake City must - or to have to settle for their staple of plants. We can do far better than the latter.

Enjoy and apply the life we have to work with, not what a few chose for us.

I think this honey bee agrees with me!

Las Cruces Projects Starting!

2011-11-28T04:00:00.087-07:00

Part 1 of many, for a new development in northeast Las Cruces, now being installed. Most are at some point in the design process.

Too bad the landscape contractor selected for this part of the project, did not follow the grades designed on the plans, and that I was not called to inspect before plants and irrigation were installed. Tree substitutes were rushed without my approval, typical of how nurseries work here. Hence, more of the same.

But I've seen worse. And much of this landscape and parking are temporary.

Much of the parking and plantings are to be reconfigured in the future, once the final clubhouse is built. Not my decision on that approach. But since this contractor was not ideal, in my view, no problem. Though not following my design, plant massing, and losing water harvesting is a big deal.

The golf course has been in place for many months, and the temporary clubhouse is now in place:

The GC superintendent is a great guy, and I also extend that same compliment to the developer team. Flexible, able to get a hit off of wild curve balls thrown at them by the City of Las Cruces process, etc.

Oops, this is golf. I meant they are making par, regardless of gusty winds.

And it was a windy, bitterly chilly afternoon that I met with the developer here, but on another project. In the afternoon sun, the new plantings for the temporary parking area were laid out well and should bring several years of delight to golfers using the Red Hawk Golf Club.

Texas Redbud, Blue Sotol, and Angelita Daisy poised to grow. Regal Mist Grass too, ditto the Lacebark Elm trees.

Landforms were intended and designed to mimic those on the golf course beyond, plant masses to do the same.

If only not following the plan can stop, involving me in inspections in the right order can start, then the rest of this project will be good. Leave me out of the process, and it will fail...keep me involved, and it will succeed.

At least this is just the start!

Sunrise Scenes

2011-11-25T15:30:00.003-07:00

We who get to live in the desert southwest see sunrises (and sunsets) like this so often. It is much about the mountains, dust in the air, plant forms, and high and mid-level clouds - especially common fall into winter.

I hope you enjoy this progression towards sunrise from the front patio, this Thanksgiving morning.

To the southeast:

And to the east:

Pink & White in Fall

2011-11-23T04:20:00.104-07:00

Wright's Buckwheat / Eriogonum wrightii is native to the uplands of the Chihuahuan Desert and adjacent foothills:

It is flowering right now, looking like that for weeks, even during this unrelenting drought, only a few light rains since August!

This flowering is quite on-time and not late. Unless one compares to some of the early, colder falls we've had recently. Weather records go back 100 years, and I've been observing our plants and weather for 20 years, and learning about weather and climate since I was 8.

In fact, fall began early this year. And Wright's Buckwheat flowers goes on as life does, taking the fluxes better than the media.

It deserves far greater and more effective use in our landscapes and gardens, but so far, one is only likely to find it in the wild. I have seen it occasionally available from regional growers in quantities, as well as from local micro-nurseries in small numbers. Perhaps someday...

Here it is in a design in Abq's Thomas Village; I'm unsure why I haven't specified it in my regional designs.

As a testament to it's adaptability, here it is growing all over the hillsides of the parched Jarilla Mtns near Orogrande:

It is shrivelled up, since it is April, but ready to grow with some rain.

And in the cooler, barely arid Albuquerque foothills during the monsoon season. 1500' higher in elevation, and 220 miles north.

Wright's Buckwheat only needs some soaking rain, or deep, infrequent drip irrigation, to explode back into life!

Evergreen and compact, perfect scale for small landscape areas, it is one of the latest plants to bloom until the onset of winter. If monsoon season rains are abundant, it starts blooming in August. It usually flowers until early December, with the nicest color later in that period.

Someday, this overlooked signature plant of the region just might overshadow the popular, but far less adapted plants.

Foliage Follow-up - 11/11

2011-11-17T11:00:00.003-07:00

I was late (of course), but glad I waited to post! Nice fall color is on the usual autumnal staples of the desert in Las Vegas, but I saw equally nice foliage home in Albuquerque, in our exquisite morning light.

Las Vegas, Nevada
Soaptree Yucca, Abq's favorite pincushion plant is happy here, too:

These young, small plants are just as nice as when they are old and 15'-20' tall, heads shimmering in the desert sky. Unless noted, that and more at the Gardens at the Springs Preserve, a quick drive west of the strip.

Grizzly Bear Cactus, AKA Mojave Prickly Pear:

This character joined me enjoying Palmer Penstemon and Apache Plume:

Desert Holly / Atriplex hymenilytra:

It's foliage is as cool as our native oaks, and almost as cool as a cactus!

Ocotillo foliage also delivers color, and desert skies show it off:

Christmas lights at the cactus garden at Ethel M:

It was Amy's idea to come here, but M.L. kept things crazy. Plant people are more fun than plant phobes! We were about to buy a few chocolate-covered bourbon creme delicacies to enjoy!

"What happens in 'Vegas'..."

...still makes it onto my blog. Chinese Pistache in Boulder City goes on with fall color seemingly forever, like in Abq or El Paso:

Albuquerque, Nuevo Mexico

Beaked Yucca with the usual stucco and sky:

This morning light! Beargrass front, a Texas Honey Mesquite turning above, and the neighbor's Desert Willow losing leaves. Great with her tile roof and those desert mountains beyond.

Beargrass' curly-cue foliage is green most of the day, but not at dawn while facing into the sunlight.

Autumn Sage - this "Prom Queen" plant is known for its flowering, but the waxy coating on the foliage is nice, too:

Thanks Pam/Digging for hosting our personal takes on the leafier, spikier side of the plant world!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - ABQ & Las Vegas

2011-11-15T14:00:00.009-07:00

Albuquerque, my house. I took these yesterday, as I had to catch a flight. But all should look the same through Saturday.

We've had a few light frosts and 2 hard freezes, but with so many hours warmer and sunny, some plants keep on. Other plants are on their last flowers and will soon pass until next year. Some plants usually last longer than this fall, but others are typical in their life cycle.

Local natives = **

Regional natives = *

*Penstemon baccharifolius / Rock Penstemon:

This species really got hit by last week's 26F low. It often has a few blooms until the few days after Thanksgiving.

**Feather Dalea / Dalea formosa:

*Turpentine Bush / Ericameria laricifolia 'Aguirre':

A few plants here are in bloom lightly at the base. I guess it didn't reproduce enough the last 13 years...

And with all this seed on several plants, there will be more popping up all over the neighborhood. It reseeds like crazy!

**Slimleaf Golden Aster / Machaerantha linerifolia:

**Oreganillo or Beebrush / Aloysia wrightii:

The fragrance of the foliage may be second here only to creosote bush...delightful! Soon, it will lose its leaves.

*Red Yucca / Hesperaloe parviflora:

This particular plant was potted up in the summer, and is protected by the front ramada, so it keeps chugging along, though I do not think these flowers will open up before it gets really cold!

*'Lavender Spice' or Mexican Oregano / Poliomintha madrensis 'Lavender Spice':

*Damianita / Chrysactinia mexicana:

The ones inside the courtyard are mostly volunteers, but they are still producing. They get more water and possibly a bit more shelter than the many planted outside the walls. It produces copious amounts of seed, too. I pull out many I don't want. The foliage smells divinely minty!

*Scarlet Bouvardia / Bouvardia ternifolia:

I apologize for that blurry photo, but the camera does not cooperate on that plant!

*Crimson Sage / Salvia henryi:

Lavender / Lavendula spp. (I forget which one):

Lavender can flower a bit in the winter if it is mild enough, but I wouldn't count on that this winter; I bet a repeat of last winter.

*Dahlberg Daisy / Thymophylla tenuiloba:

Reseeds like the dickens. I do not buy these much anymore...last time in 2005? Texans also know the yucca it is trying to choke out.

*Gooding's Verbena / Glandularia goodingii:

And last but not least, *Autumn Sage / Salvia greggii. It may be overused, but it pulls off late fall blooms in Abq consistently.

A reddish form:

And a pink form:

Las Vegas NV. And on Tuesday itself, I just saw this. Cool to post from 2 different cities 580 miles apart the same day! It is over 10F warmer than Abq, so some plants are still in bloom, but finished at home.

Yes, I am at the Gardens at the Springs Preserve. Too chilly (& smoggy) to be dining outside on the patio, but you know how I am an al fresco fanatic. So, I'll make this fast, then back to work for me, and heat!

Texas Ranger / Leucophyllum spp. shrub between tree and yucca on the right:

Purple Lantana / Lantana montevidensis:

Angelita Daisy / Tetraneuris acaulis:

Apache Plume / Fallugia paradoxa:

Thanks, Carol of May Dreams Gardens, for hosting yet another Bloom Day!

Fall: Our 2nd Spring

2011-11-14T04:10:00.007-07:00

This weekend! Mojave desert native Silver Cholla / Cylindropuntia echinocarpa is potted, in front of Deergrass / Muhlenbergia rigens and Mexican Blue Sage, and our inexpensive CMU wall, painted purple.

That, after a hard freeze Thurs AM (26F low), and 3 other frosts (27-32F lows) the previous 10 days, with high temperatures 5-10F cooler than average. The plants still think it's fall; they must know more than I do.

Many make excuses now, saying "New Mexico is brown". No - wrong plants, wrong place, and desert-disconnected design.

When well-designed, the cool season landscape (Nov-March), is far from dull in Albuquerque and the Desert SW. A few clues:

1) contrast of hardscape forms and plant massing, especially those with year-round bones and live foliage

2) appropriate native and adapted species

3) sculpture plants (flowers are fleeting)

4) soft plants behind evergreens and spiky plants

Mexican Blue Sage / Salvia chamaedryoides is still flowering nicely. Only some bees, moths, and butterflies left. The hummingbirds left early this year, as in recent years. They know something I don't, too.

Execution, Excuses, Excellence

2011-11-11T04:00:00.116-07:00

Al-fresco dining (outdoor dining, in "fresh" air) - a great place to be, at home or going out. Tucson, late May 2009.

I could linger for hours at a place that looked like this restaurant! (maybe my next Tucson trip?) I think these people agree that same day, now a toasty 90F nighttime.

Such ambiance! Consider all the factors designed into it that work - a blank slate that many have. Some bare piece of land, building, patio. This is about how it was covered - and also, how it was not covered.

Yes - design principles; lighting vs. dimming; angles; hardscape; bold vs. soft plants (most native); simplicity; ordinary materials used unusually. No - lack of imagination, excuses, or cheapening.

What works? What could work? What do you wish your favorite restaurant or own patio had, to make it a destination?

Tara Dillard on her enjoyable blog often writes, my paraphrase, "don't use anything in your garden that people at your estate sale won't fight over." No mention or intention of expensive. Touche!

Cafe Terra Cotta in Tucson once offered a great al-fresco dining experience, plus good food at a decent price.

Not great food, but great outdoor settings to dine in made good food a great experience! One could choose between their nicely-designed east or west patios, depending on the view or need to be out of the sun.

I ate there twice. The new ownership had much to work with, since Cafe Terra Cotta was already established, busy, and had great appeal, including those patios - but I'm told they made bad business decisions. All gone.

So much for having a great set-up!

This is what's remaining of their east patio and cactus garden, perched above an arroyo. I once dined right there with a colleague.

I am no pollyanna or phony optimist; I am a realist. But no stinkin' thinkin'! You are the only great set-up to work from.

No lame excuses. Every person and place has something great to aspire to. All can and should do well with what they have.

Sculpture along Sunrise Drive in Tucson, the Catalina foothills beyond, located near both previous restaurants.

Wordless Wednesday - Purple Three Awn

2011-11-09T04:30:00.002-07:00

Office Space

2011-11-07T04:07:00.004-07:00

An infill area near the busy Paseo del Norte corridor, and a last-minute office space landscape design with a contractor:

The Paseo Nuevo site was once typical desert grassland common to the upper Chihuahuan Desert. I incorporated some of those plants as ornamentals, adding others native to dryland areas in the world, or to adjacent ecoregions.

It was to be a LEED bronze or silver project - something I found out after the fact, since my contractor friend missed that requirement, including the required documentation. (I already design projects that are some measure of "sustainable", so my stuff is together) It's only time and fees, and we all know I have so much of those to give!

On a recent fall morning, I visited with a graduate student in the UNM Masters of Landscape Architecture program, who selected this as a class project. It was an honor meeting Adam, explaining how this project type happens, including how irrelavant many of my peers are in providing services on projects not on the government gravy train - fees, design styles, time, etcetera. He gets it!

Trees - Escarpment Live Oak, Faxon Yucca. Understory plants - Trailing Rosemary, Purple Threeawn, grama grasses, Beargrass, Red Yucca, Angelita Daisy (AKA Four Nerve Daisy).

And that desert mountain backdrop is a WOW - it would not look right with habitual boreal or wet climate trees and plants.

The now-overused Trailing Rosemary is still stunning in the low morning light:

Common used more uncommonly in a hot exposure, grasses crowding it, to take advantage of rainfall runoff.

More areas of this landscape in a future post! Good, bad, and ugly.

Friday F's

2011-11-04T07:37:00.003-06:00

Friday, fall.

It can mean only 1 thing in the desert southwest. The weekend, to get inspired and fresh air. Isn't it always time for that?

The Rio Grande Botanic Gardens, unfortunately, do not display effective planting design and appropriate maintenance like I wish they did. Yet, one can still find nice vignettes and better plants. And enjoy...

Foliage turning, on small trees sized for our shrinking spaces:

Upland ecoregional native Prairie Flame Sumac / Rhus lanceolata

Fauna you won't see in cooler and/or wet places:

Roadrunner / Geococcyx californianus looking for a reptilian dinner surrounded with assorted rainbow cacti (Echinocereus spp), Cane Cholla / Cylindropuntia spinosior, and Giant Hesperaloe / Hesperaloe funifera. All local or ecoregional natives!

Spiky flora to view!

Chihuahuan Desert region native plants evoke where Albuquerque is ecologically, and where our gardens should be.

Friends to share our still-too-uncommon native plants with:

Foothills riparian native Arizona Alder / Alnus oblongifolia.

And even fountains that move beyond the norm:

Scenes photographed 11/1/11, on a Monday, though...

Wordless Wednesday - Bees and Beebrush

2011-11-02T14:56:00.001-06:00

Halloween afternoon...

Nolina texana

2011-11-02T04:00:00.007-06:00

1.
What is sold and commonly planted as Beargrass / Nolina texana in Albuquerque (CNM Workforce Training Center, Abq):

In a container (Plants of the Southwest, Abq NM):

And in the wild. These are typical plants one can find growing in the foothills of the Chihuahuan Desert, above the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico - Sandia, Manzano & Organ mtns included, and west to SE Arizona (Elena Gallegos Open Space, Abq):

I've collected seed from populations in the foothills of the Sandia and Manzano mountains, which Mountain States Wholesale Nursery in Arizona has grown out and sold to many landscapes.

Some taxonomists, botanists, and native plant enthusiasts say that the above are really Nolina greenei, named after the first ones discovered (called a type locality), in the warm canyons of SE Colorado, near the Baca - Las Animas County lines. And yes, I"ve been there!

Except that is Dan Johnson of the Denver Botanic Gardens between two Beargrass specimens in far SE Colorado (Jesus Canyon)...I was holding the camera, though.

(Colorado is not all ski areas, tall conifers, and lofty purple mountains cloaked in snow, as John Denver strums a guitar on horseback while Saab police cars drive by...3/5 of the state is something else)

Others say the above plants are just regional subspecies of the ones in central Texas. They grow to about 4' tall X 5' wide, whether in SE Colorado, or outside Las Cruces, or in Burque.

Beargrass / Nolina texana as sold in Austin and Central Texas (Rob Roy in Austin TX):

In a container (Pam/Digging's garden):

And in the wild (Kerrville TX):

This Nolina texana is consistently finer textured and smaller than the Nolina texana found in the desert edges far to the west of central Texas. Their plants appear to grow to 3' tall X 4' wide.

What do you think?

I think nurseries need to better track the geography of where their plants originate; ditto botanists in the field. Especially since differences in size and form will affect our designs and future maintenance. And I think all of us can also learn more about what we are seeing, whether in the wild or the garden.

More on this and other Nolina species in a future post!

Courtyard at Calvary

2011-10-31T04:00:00.002-06:00

I designed this former main-entry, now secondary-entry at Calvary Chapel ABQ in '05 or '06. It was for Dekker Perich Sabatini (D/P/S), who was finishing a round of addition and renovation design to church facilities.

I added a low, curved seat wall to provide not just sitting, but tie-in different angles of the overall space. And tough plants!

It was intended to be a meditation courtyard, and it could still be. Natives like Sideoats Grama / Bouteloua curtipendula line the rectilinear spaces as clumps (as they grow in the wild in central and southern NM...we don't have meadows in the Desert SW, except in river valleys or in lofty higher mountain valleys). Meanwhile, Blue Sotol and Deergrass are behind the wall for interest.

Some water harvesting was used, but the plants there may have gotten too much water when combined with drip irrigation...so I must propose some replacements there, as well as monitor their irrigation.

By the way, I worked as an employee for D/P/S from 2003-2004.

The soft, warm crunch on the walkable area is compacted DG (DG = decomposed granite..."Santa Fe Brown" for the curious).

More signature plants of the Chihuahuan Desert region. Thompson Yucca / Yucca thompsoniana grows with low grasses and other shrubs in the wild, so why not here? More Sideoats Grama and some Red Yucca.

The only Chocolate Flower left...used to have more flowering...I was told I need to have more flowering. Well, I did...

Chaste Tree / Vitex agnus-castus is a non-native, but adapted xeric flowering dwarf tree from the Mediterranean Basin. It was used in Abq decades ago, it fell out of favor during the 1970-1990 midwest-envy phase, only to become popular once more, thanks to some xeriscape direction in town post-1995. I started using it before the primadonnas got a clue, by the way! (they were still issuing their tired "is it hardy?" question on this one, instead of learning from seeing such proven classics all over town...)

I also worked off the former paving patterns to reincorporate them into the new space - concrete pavers are cheap, but when used well, look classy. Why change something that works and is durable?

When maintenance is not as strong or informed as it should be, the plant bones remain and flowering perennials and groundcovers go away - they are more delicate.

Maintenance - must I do everything in this desert outpost? If I must do everything, then I deserve to be rich, too...

The Sandia Mountains at sunset, nicely framed with the walls & my design in the foreground! Had to throw the Sandias in.

When evening services are over, this greets departing church-goers. I designed subtle garden lighting for ambiance, via low-voltage FX Luminaire fixtures. Their LunaSonora downlight is installed in each Chaste Tree, to accent and wash light down onto small diameter tree branching.

Low uplights gently accent sculpture plants and hardscape; those are either FX's MetalloPesante or ReflectoreStellato.

The LunaSonora works on the Sideoats Grama understory, too!

Can you imagine a landscape in the Chihuahuan Desert region without native sculpture plants and grasses? Or on our countless divine evenings, those plants without subtle lighting to view them? I cannot!

Fall Foliage + Flowers

2011-10-28T05:00:00.088-06:00

The drought, the early winter storm (and 3 low temperatures of 39F), 1/4 of this year's rain in 2 days, and who knows what else, created an interesting fall season - fer sure, du-ude!

Valley Cottonwood / Populus wislizenii fall color is peaking a bit early, but a stunning drift, following the wetter ribbon of Tijeras Arroyo.

Arid desert grassland on foothills above the cottonwoods, either side, of Oneseed Juniper, Desert Live Oak, Gray Oak, loads of Beargrass and various cacti, and grama grasses. At least what is visible from 500'+ uphill.

Some cottonwoods are not at peak fall color, but they should be after winter storm #2 late this week.

Note how the larger, darker areas (the oaks, junipers, pinons) are thicker in the boulders (runoff held more...passive water harvesting), but they are dotted sparsely on less bouldery slopes (runoff not held by boulders), in response to intense competetion for water. It's a desert out there!

Wright's Verbena / Glandularia wrightii blooms until the end of November, but it is so dry, few have blooms. The Black Grama grass is the dominant here on the ground plane, but it is either really dormant or dead!

Our local Hairy Mountain Mahogany / Cercocarpus breviflorus is a spring bloomer, but many finally bloomed nearing the end of October! Better late than never - a mild November will grow them into mature seed, as this one is definitely drought-ravaged, not long for this world.

This same mountain mahogany gets more moisture (it is along an arroyo), so it is in full seed; those curly-cues are ready to get shot with the wind to sprout everywhere, land in our window screens, etc!

On this warm, windy day ahead of winter storm #2, the air is scented of recently greened-up Blue and Sideoats Grama grasses, and flowers. It smells like spring does in wetter places. Nice!

Sunflower / Helianthus annuus clumps find moist spots in the southwest, reminding me of where I grew up on the high plains of eastern metro Denver, where sunflowers dominated every empty lot!

I have not ridden a horse in 12 years! It was on the hills behind these very stables...hmmm! Might have to do that again.

So wild west!

Back down to the house and the dominant live oaks and junipers you saw from above on the dry slopes, with some dots of yellow flowering nearby. These oaks tend to look only slightly different in winter. They stay blue-green or gray-green, though many leaves fading to a duller hue...

Arizona Cottontop / Digitaria californica on a vacant lot to the west:

Californica. I know, I know. Perhaps the discoverer of that grass somehow missed it travelling 1200 miles between Texas and California, though Arizona somehow got honorable mention. Dissing New Mexico, even Texas!

Oh well, maybe it is for the better? Because a certain mail-order catalog might rename it "Hardy Mountain Cottongrass" to market it, or a taxonomist might do a "thus saith" by renaming it "Digitaria neomexicana ssp. montana". I am sure that most people know a plant is hardy, when it is native from Laredo to Albuquerque to El Paso to Tucson to Indio.....putting "hardy" into a plant's common name is so old-guard and unflattering. Puhleeze! But I digress.

Turpentine Bush / Ericameria laricifolia is basically a chamisa gone to finishing school, with a tighter form and nicer fragrance!

Bees and butterflies know how to work these blooms!

Wordless Fall Mining & Planting

2011-10-26T04:20:00.021-06:00

A Rocky Place?

2011-10-24T04:15:00.004-06:00

You know it's a drought when a green place only gets wet when someone visiting from the desert brings the rain!

Months ago, I received an invitation to visit a garden next time in Austin, which I have been learning about here.

Classes given, conference attended, and BBQ devoured; time for a garden or two before I return to the airport, then home.

Below is a small percentage of the photos I took to capture the essence of Rock rose! A semester or two on residential design could be taught on this garden. With Jenny and her husband David, this is the convergence of English and Texan hospitality with horticulture!

Their architect designed the home to create several outdoor rooms, which became gardens. This aerial view can help one see the context, and north is up:

Entry courtyard resting area #1:

Agave ovatifolia, water trickle, and companion plants:

Entry courtyard resting area #2 (the actual front entry):

Bedroom patio - a great use of green walls, simple paving, angles, and focal points:

David formed and imprinted each of these concrete pavers, when not hauling native rock from the dry creek below their home!

That is moisture from two rain showers that passed while we dined on Jenny's breakfast under the cover of their generous patio.

I'm sure all in the drought-striken southern prairies wish for such scenes, including 1/2" of soaking rain each week...

The wild, dark and mysterious Hill Country woodland of Ashe Juniper behind their home. Pruning the stark trunks, that cross from all the individual trees, really adds an ambiance you have to experience for yourself.

Living area patio - classic use of circular forms to unite different angles. More exceptional DIY (do-it-yourself) by Jenny and Co.:

The main living / dining patio area:

This pool is just large enough to use for splashing and light swimming, and the color of water and plants, compared to the gray limestone, is stunning. Soft and sharp.....

Deep South native Spanish Bayonet / Yucca aloifolia mingles with Mexican Bush Sage / Salvia leucantha:

This cottage garden works for good reason...the use of patterns (spatial shapes, angles, rock paving layout, and plants together) is perfect during a drought with minimal drip irrigation, such as here:

Rock rose is designed. It applies owner sensibilities with what makes it's natural setting and ecoregion great.

I hope to see this again in the winter dormant season - I think I already know what makes it work visually, once the herbaceous plants are resting. But I remain open to being wrong and learning something new!

Modular paving, forming gaps that trap precipitation (and even dew here, in the land of periodic flashes of high humidity). And that provides a place for plants to reseed; one simply removes / edits out what detracts.

As a fellow rocky place dweller, granite and not limestone, this works for me with <10 nights with dew each year.

The study and edible patio:

Imagine the food grown here!

This is the view from where we dined, before I saw the gardens...their well-thought-out outdoor living spaces.

With thought and design, hard work is necessary...even accident can be good, sometimes! The crack that continues through various hand-hauled limestone rock slabs is not a geologic fault line...

The stars...David!

And Jenny! Thanks for everything, you two.

Some more images of the Rock rose garden are posted here.

Noche

2011-10-21T04:40:00.012-06:00

A garden at night can be surreal. In the desert's middle elevations, summer temperatures are tolerable without the sun, so making the nighttime experience better is crucial. And a cool fall night is great, too!

Join me on a recent night to see some benefits of landscape lighting. (just warm enough for shorts & a long sleeve tee!)

I designed the meditation courtyard for Calvary Chapel ABQ in 2005, after I went back on my own:

Spiky and grassy plant silhouettes and occasional splashes add a great place to sit on this balmy night. I took more photos earlier at sunset, and a few more in the dark, so I will post those soon.

Off to get ice cream at ABQ Uptown near the house...Desert Willow trunks and assorted grasses really pop:

ABQ Uptown was designed by Dekker Perich Sabatini, architecture to engineering to landscape architecture.

I think their street and overhead lighting is far too much, though. New Mexico has a Dark Skies Ordinance, but like many laws here in "Outlaw Cowboy-Biker Land", it is not enforced. Balancing seeing stars, human safety, and creating ambiance is something that needs much more thoughtful study and design...

Red Yucca and Threadgrass (Feathergrass) not only are illuminated, but they screen the light source from drivers and pedestrians.

That is a good thing! Almost NEVER should the light source be on display, just what it illuminates.

Thornless Maverick Honey Mesquite with Red Yucca in that very tight space (3' wide is too narrow for healthy trees):

Soft and sculptural! Threadgrass under Desert Willow trunks:

There were people on the Starbucks patio, sipping good java and talking; two even wondering why I was taking pictures.

"Duh". Albuquerque is still not connecting with outdoor living, though many now unwittingly participate in our huge number of hours where it is possible in comfort, compared to much of the US. Getting somewhere!

More Fall Flowering in ABQ

2011-10-19T04:50:00.007-06:00

This Saturday, I visited Explora and the NM Museum of Natural History, to capture some fall scenes. Grassy Tiguex Park is across Mountain Rd NW, behind this now-unkempt Chihuahuan Desert region landscape.

Designed by Craig Campbell FASLA in Santa Fe in the mid-1980's.

On the right, fall-flowering Black Dalea / Dalea frutescens 'Sierra Nigra'. It grows with Arizona Cypress, Beargrass (the larger AZ native, N. microcarpa), and some add-ons by their maintenance person.

Unkempt means some good plants sneak in, like Texas' state grass, Sideoats Grama / Bouteloua curtipendula.

Such a nice fall flower show!

Ted Hodoba suggested mixing Black Dalea with other fall flowering splashes, such as Mt. Lemmon Marigold / Tagetes lemonnii and Regal Mist Grass / Muhlenbergia capillaris. I might add that those could be used in the background of year-round structure or evergreen plants. That way in winter when they die back, they don't detract from the scene.

It's a bee magnet! I wonder what Dalea Honey might taste like?

Fall Freeway

2011-10-17T05:00:00.116-06:00

Years ago, freeway landscape treatments were starting to be envisioned, to better welcome people to the largest town in NM.

The latest work at the Big-I(sore) and countless medians is so terrible in design and plant choices, that I will start at one of the first large-scale landscapes, which was far better in all categories than those others.

I-40 and Rio Grande Boulevard NW is the most-travelled entrance to probably the nicest tourist, yet authentic, destination in manmade Albuquerque. And perhaps a few thought it wise to help shed Albuquerque's issue of it's "reservation near Santa Fe" schtick. Considering our Old Town may be the nicest traditional Mexican / Spanish plaza area north of Mesilla (Taos and Socorro are a close second, though), it was about time!

I-40 is the 2nd-busiest east-west freeway in the US, I am told, and for good reason, as it connects southern California with both the Great Lakes and Atlantic Seaboard (from New England to the Carolinas). The south side of this freeway interchange is a notable stand-out in design and plant concepts, over the north side.

Sites Southwest designed this freeway interchange landscape, and they did it for higher speeds in such spaces.

I detect some irrigation issues (the struggling Spanish Broom on the top terrace, the local native Giant Sacaton on the middle). The steel edging showing is really ugly and unnecessary, but the rest are positives.

Regional native Turpentine Bush / Ericameria laricifolia has toughness and refined tight mounds, to bring our golden sunshine to the fall visitor. Here, it has the room to spread and reseed, plus it is in long masses. The cardinal red of regional native California Fuschia / Epilobium canum (AKA Hummingbird Trumpet for the Cali-phobes), also massed, really does it's number now.

The Beaked Yucca / Yucca rostrata selection from Mountain States in Arizona completes the effect, though I wish they were planted with the other masses, especially the Turpentine Bush...tree yuccas look so naked without an understory of plants, or at least large rocks...

I also like the beefy, evergreen background of another regional native, Arizona Rosewood / Vauquelinia californica. Those rosewoods were not used as a continuous wall, but rather, by repeating single plants.

I'm not sure of the other sprawling shrub between the other side's rosewoods and calif. fuschia masses, but I bet it is a Threeleaf Sumac or Lady Banks' Rose.

This landscape looks good and holds together its general form any time of year (good design tends to). It was inexpensive compared to the other right-of-way landscapes mentioned previously, and has WAY more visual impact of a positive kind to anyone with design sensibilities.

And it tells of us no longer being in the Rocky Mountains or the Great Basin, but rather, in the upper reaches of the Desert Southwest, which is where every indicator of climate and species dictates it so.

Sense-of-place is so important in a place where it is mostly lost!

October Foliage Follow-Up

2011-10-16T04:50:00.020-06:00

Desert Willow arching over Mariola and Desert Candle; Twist-leaf Yucca is opposite the permeable gravel path:

All is xeric greenery celebrating the warm morning light.

Chinquapin Oak - amazing texture and leaf size for a xeric tree!

Alkali Sacaton is a local native, softening a railing and steps:

Those photos taken last week are at both Aliso projects I designed.

Deergrass and water are so inseperable:

Deergrass between the shaded wall and the flowering accent perennials, still out in the sun. Dancing in the breeze, this office building and site design was by Dekker-Perich-Sabatini.

Thanks Pam/Digging for your excellent Foliage Follow-up!

Bloom Day 10/11 in ABQ

2011-10-15T09:23:00.003-06:00

It's the peak of the post-monsoon flowering season in Abq. I'm keeping my camera handier than usual!

Chocolate Flower / Berlandiera lyrata, a locally-native wildflower:

I saw this enroute to placing plants for a water harvesting garden that I designed. The owners are allowing it to colonize as a groundcover. The chocolatey scent on this morning was intoxicating!

Angelita Daisy / Tetraneuris acaulis L (SW desert and upland native), California Fuschia / Epilobium latifolium ssp. garrettii R:

I spotted that newer landscape while revisiting some interesting plants at the former home of someone I knew. It accents the structural plant massing of Smooth Prickly Pear and Deergrass.

An established Angelita Daisy, it blooms March-November here:

My ever-fun, cheerful friend Liza enjoys flowers! A Blanket Flower in her hair, I captured her autumnal-floral look, as we toured ABQ Uptown's landscape before appetizers, margaritas. And an Angelita Daisy!

Back at the "ranch", regional native Damianita / Chrysactinia mexicana:

I have chosen to leave this bank of Damianita, volunteering along the house and in the concrete patio's control joint. But I do not let even one live just inches E of that. That would wreck the visual effect of the cool garden...the purple wall and cool-colored flowers! Always the designer.

Crimson Sage / Salvia henryi is usually a spring bloomer:

But not this year - the drought weakened many plants' flowering, if dependent mostly on rainfall, as in my garden. So, perhaps there was just enough energy left in these to flower now, not just late April? Crimson Sage is a serious hummingbird magnet, like many plants designed into this landscape. It is reproducing madly!

Thanks, Carol at May Dreams Gardens, for hosting this flowery event where we can visit so many gardens, all over!

November 1 marks the average date of the first fall frost in much of Abq (and my area), with the first hard freeze about early December. So, I should have some flowering to show next month; after that, not much. December and January here are usually just some flowering on Rosemary or Winter Jasmine, in the milder periods.

ATX Adventures

2011-10-14T05:00:00.040-06:00

This past spring, I agreed to give 2 classes. Back again!

The first class I agreed to was held 90 minutes from Austin, in Waco. It was for the Texas Trees Conference, titled "Landscape Architecture for Arborists"; Austin-Bergstrom seemed the best airport to use.

The conference covered my travel, lodging, and related expenditures, plus a small honorarium. It takes serious time to prep for such a presentation - with all ducks in a row, that means 3-10+ hours per 1 hour of speaking time. The lively Susan from the City of Grand Prairie introduced me; she was great, her getting quite the kick out of pronouncing my last name as melodic or even operatic as can be! "Cree-stee-ahhh-ni!" Very cool...

My 3 hour class went well, and during it and after (over a few beers), I learned much background on how some projects I noted were implemented. Including my El Paso "Tree Amigos" from Las Cruces! Oscar Mestas L, an unknown woman center, and Juan Blanco R (formerly known as John White).

Little time to see the horticultural sights of Waco, or even enough light to capture the interesting trees growing at Cameron Park. So, we drove around Baylor University after dinner, scratching our heads at all the people out on the campus, including all their lawn watering. Pondering how high their tuition must be and how immaculate a campus it was, since both of us are public university grads!

On the way out of town when the conference ended Friday, I took photos of what some forestry people made note of. The ground treatment around these parking lot Southern Live Oak trees.

It appears that Asiatic Jasmine was the original groundcover in all three parking lot planters; it is not so happy after this recent summer's scorching heat and dryness, plus the limited rooting area.

The root or volunteer sprouts on this oak actually form a more vigorous groundcover, though accidental. It is kept pruned in this tight space, where it cannot escape and look ugly, as in more open areas.

The second class was for my delightfully flaky friend Daphne:

Don't be fooled by the pretty face, but rather, note the logo on her drinking cup* - more on that later.

My class for her Travis County Master Gardener Program was titled, "Designing Landscapes: Drought to Deluge", in exchange for a local meal and dessert. It was held on the eastern fringes of Austin, one day before the first class I agreed to. What a great group of people with very thoughtful comments and questions - a rare delight to meet and interface with so many. A good web resource of theirs' is here.

As I began, I even spotted a smiling face, front row, first seen here.

Trip highlights -
10/3 Up to 2:30 am finishing slides, overslept 6 AM flight, flew out at 10:30 AM
10/3 Stubbs BBQ

10/4 Travis County Master Gardener class
10/4 Espresso at Sagra w/ Christy Ten Eyck and great conversation

10/4 Work, great people and hipster watching at Jo's
10/4 Stayed with friend, ex-San Diegoan JC
10/5 Up until 2 am finishing next presentation
10/5 Class in Waco, great programs
10/6 Lost a client.....
10/6-7 Texas Trees Conference really good
10/7 Grass fires, I-35 traffic bad
10/7 Great catching-up w/ JC back in Cedar Park, including w/ son Josh @ Mighty Fine Burgers (he hummed this song repeatedly!)

10/8 Injured my back severely, as in '94
10/8 Rock rose Garden...and it finally rained!
10/8 Wildflower Center...almost to myself
10/8 55-17, as I flew back home to the desert

Daphne got me onto Twitter. You can follow her horti-tweets here...

...as I recall how seeing her *cup was the closest I was to get to my requested Freebird burrito and her big, homemade, doughy cookie, in exchange for giving said class. I guess she is still an OK person, but do feel sorry for poor me...

Some women:-)

Probably the main highlight of my trip was my invitation to see the home and gardens of gracious homeowners Jenny and David Stocker. You probably know her blog - Rock rose. Just a preview, for now.

Visiting anyone's garden is an honor, especially those connected to their ecological place and own land. Stay tuned for a future post on what sets a very high bar for outdoor living, rocky soil or not!

Hesperaloe

2011-10-12T04:10:00.149-06:00

Hesperaloe spp. are tough plants that express a range of bold to soft.

Albuquerque can grow those I know to flawless perfection, as can El Paso, Tucson, Las Vegas and other desert southwest locales. I am not sure about each species in more humid climates to the east, but I think most would grow fine; I believe all thrive in southern California.

Bell-Flower Hesperaloe / Hesperaloe campanulata -
Albuquerque NM, far NE Heights

Giant or Coahuilan Hesperaloe / Hesperaloe funifera -

Albuquerque NM, west mesa

Albuquerque NM, foothills

Albuquerque NM, Old Town / valley

That planting was part of my original design at Explora, and there, it is planted within Blue Grama grass and suitable companions Desert Willow, Escarpment Live Oak, and Apache Plume. AZ friend Dan Goodspeed took that photo! Soft and sharp...

Red Yucca or Red Hesperaloe / Hesperaloe parviflora -

Tucson AZ, U of A campus

This evergreen sculpture plant is a favorite in the southwest and Texas, and now California, for very good reason. Red Yucca is easily used in different manners for the dryland garden.

Albuquerque NM, NE Heights

Litchfield Park AZ, under feathery Palo Brea trees

San Angelo TX, with Threadgrass

And thanks to 1.62" of rain last week, this new flower stalk appeared in this specimen, establishing in a terra cotta pot under the front shade ramada. A very cool surprise I returned home to!

Yellow Hesperaloe or Yucca / Hesperaloe parviflora 'Yellow' -

Albuquerque NM, foothills

This yellow selection always seems smaller in plant and flower stalk height than the typical red ones.

All the above appreciate part to full sun, 10"-25" annual moisture, take a variety of soils, and they need little care. Learn their mature sizes; for a lush planting, allow at least 1/3 more space than their mature spread and clearance from hardscape; even more space for less lush plantings. Susceptible to rot and the agave snout weevil, wet periods and overwatering can be tough on this plant, as can cold with some species, at least in places cooler than Abq.

I have used most Hesperaloe spp. in different settings and manners, so I will try to post that in my spare time.

Forgive me for not having any photos of Night-blooming Hesperaloe / H. nocturna, but it also grows well and thrives in central NM and the Great American Southwest!

Landscapes of Purpose

2011-10-10T04:00:00.003-06:00

A recent visit to an elementary school I designed was to review plants requiring replacement at the end of the contractor warranty period. Freeze damage complicated things, but seeing kids use it compensated.

My first of 4 meetings of that day, plus >7 hours driving round-trip.

Landscapes have uses - human, wildlife, erosion control included. This ornamental planting set into a hot west-facing terrace combines with the ramp and bench combination; it includes durable plants that can take temperature extremes, heavy jumping-stomping-running traffic (kids!), and tight spaces. Did I say it also softens up the hard surfaces?

Blue Grama / Bouteloua gracilis dominates, with accents in wider spots of Texas Mountain Laurel / Sophora secundiflora and Red Yucca / Hesperaloe parviflora.

The revegetation area using plants salvaged or rescued from site construction and grading (Torrey Yucca, Ocotillo, Lechuguilla), plus hydroseeding (including Desert Marigold), is already seeing butterfly habitat and human eye candy!

Off to the 4th and last meeting of the day on another property I designed in 2002 (soon to be renovated in areas). This butterfly is enjoying the flowers of Flame Acanthus / Anisacanthus quadrifidus ssp. wrightii.

In the last several years' barrage of hectic deadlines, countless uncompleted or delayed work and problems, I enjoy seeing how the purpose in what I do for others brings a sense of purpose to me!