Local Desert Friendly Landscapes Reveal

Congrats to the ten winners of our first annual Water Authority Desert Friendly Landscape Contest! Thank you for sharing your beautiful gardens with us. They will be an inspiration for others to make the switch to desert-friendly landscapes.

A transformation from an unhealthy-looking, high-water use turfscape to a colorful xeriscape medley.

This family was ready to change out their high-water and high-maintenance front lawn grass to a desert-friendly landscape. Their new low-water and low-maintenance yard features 94 desert-friendly xeriscape plants. They worked with a professional company on the design, to remove the sod and to install the drip system and new plants. Plants were selected from the Xeriscape Guide provided by their contractor.

By transforming their yard to a xeriscape, they were able to save a total of 156,000 gallons of water within the first year and get a $1,300 rebate from the Water Authority for the conversion. They saved even more money because the contractor was able to reuse existing irrigation valves to convert the spray to a drip system. The best part, they say is “the variety of colors from the plants and the birds and butterflies the landscape attracts”. They also receive many compliments from neighbors and friends, which makes them feel proud.

Talk about creating a diverse and lush yard! This desert-friendly landscape has all the right elements.

As a retired landscape architect Richard Bumstead had the pleasure of designing and installing his own landscape during the beginning of the pandemic. Like many Albuquerque yards, his front yard located in the center of the city was covered with junipers and gravel. Removing them opened up a large area, creating a blank slate and the opportunity to diversify his landscape. Having spent most of his career in Chicago, Richard was not very familiar with the local plants. He read many New Mexico plant books, including Judith Phillips, “Growing the Southwest Garden” and the “Down to Earth” guide from Albuquerque Master Gardeners. The staff at Plants of the Southwest and Jericho were also a big help as he prepared his landscape plan. His visible front yard is now full of native pollinator plants along with three trees that are local favorites: Pinon Pine, Desert Willow and New Mexico Locust.

Richard waters his established plants once a month in the winter and only once a week during the irrigation season. He says the key to having a good-looking landscape is to prepare the soil and water plants to the right depth.

Since he has a more protected backyard, Richard was able to add many shade-loving plants as well as foraging plants like strawberries, rhubarb, tomatoes, an apricot tree and a variety of herbs. Find his extensive plant list here.

After: Close up of Fleabane Daisy, with Grey Desert Spoon and Silver Mound artemisia in the background.

From Bermuda Grassland to a Desert Friendly Landscape!

Geri Martinez’s property, which is located in one of the older areas of town surrounded by large established trees, had the kind of yard that’s typically found in Albuquerque’s UNM and Ridgecrest neighborhoods. It was covered in Bermuda grass and had a large mulberry tree. Geri was ready to refresh the front yard of her 60+ year-old home. With the help of a landscape designer, she came up with a planting design plan.

Geri, an avid DIY’er, installed her own plants and irrigation system. To help her figure out what to plant and how to set up the irrigation system, she read local publications from nurseries, attended workshops and used a professional landscape design to determine plants locations.

Geri loves sitting outside and watching the birds and bees that are attracted to her landscape. Saving water has been her goal. She’s not only reduced her front yard water use but also the amount of water she uses indoors. She has low-flow fixtures inside the home and utilizes rain barrels to supplement her landscape’s irrigation during the rainy season. Geri is proud to have a visually-appealing landscape that conserves water.

Learn more by reading these articles:

Make this the year that you replace your thirsty lawn with a desert-friendly xeriscape.

WA Customers list the “Top Reasons to Convert a Lawn to a Desert-Friendly Xeriscape”

Desert Friendly Xeriscape Conversion Rebates

Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org

Water-Wise Vegetable Gardening

With our hot summers and low precipitation, growing vegetables in NM can be challenging. This talk will provide strategies and recommendations for growers to cultivate a thriving vegetable harvest in the region. Discussion will include irrigation and infrastructure suggestions, as well as selection of vegetable varieties that are well-adapted to the area.

Instructor: Stephanie Walker, PhD. Professor and Vegetable Specialist, New Mexico State University, Extension Plant Sciences Department.

Maintaining Tree Health During Drought

Learn from Albuquerque’s leading tree expert how to identify drought stress in trees, understand their responses to drought, and implement strategies to keep them alive and thriving in hot, dry weather.

Instructor: Joran Viers, Board Certified Master Arborist and Municipal Specialist, International Society of Arboriculture (ISA). Senior Arborist, Legacy Tree Company, Albuquerque. Former City Forester, City of Albuquerque

Creating a Drought-Tolerant Refuge for Yourself and Wildlife

Instructor: Laurel Ladwig, M.S. She is the ABQ Backyard Refuge Program Director for the Friends of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, a part-time faculty member in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, and Associate Director of the R.H. Mallory Center for Community Geography at the University of New Mexico and is enthusiastic about all opportunities to encourage people to develop a relationship with our wild neighbors.

Designing Resilient Landscapes: Plant Adaptations, Communities, and Selection for Arid Environments

Instructor: Maria Thomas is the Curator of Plants at the ABQ BioPark where she manages the botanical exhibits, plant collections, horticultural staff, and related programs for the 150-acre public park and garden. Additionally, Maria is an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Mexico in the Landscape Architecture department.

Climate-Ready Trees- Planting for a Warmer and (Hopefully) Shadier Future

Instructor: Marisa Y. Thompson, PhD Extension Urban Horticulture Specialist. New Mexico State University Department of Extension Plant Sciences, Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center, Think Trees NM, President of the Board (2023-current).

Plant Adaptations to Heat & Drought

Noticing the Ways Plants Thrive in our Yards and Natural Areas Learn how to Recognize Drought-Adapted Traits in Everyday Plants all Around Us.

Hose Bib Tree Irrigation System for Your Trees: Simple Systems for Thriving Trees!

Instructor: Richard Perce has twenty years’ experience working with trees and irrigation here in New Mexico. He is a former certified arborist and currently holds the Irrigation Association’s Landscape Irrigation Auditor certification and is a certified QWEL irrigation instructor. He worked as a landscape contractor for more than a decade and is the Water Authority’s former Irrigation Efficiency Specialist. He also has a Masters of Community and Regional Planning from UNM and currently works at Anthropopulus Design + Planning.

Passive Rainwater Harvesting

This workshop introduces participants to the principles and practices of passive rainwater harvesting. Attendees will learn how to capture, slow, spread, and infiltrate rainwater into the landscape using simple, low-cost methods such as swales, berms, and basins. The workshop emphasizes working with the natural flow of water to reduce runoff, prevent erosion, and support healthy soil and plant life. By implementing passive rainwater harvesting, participants can conserve water, and create more resilient, self-sustaining landscapes.

Instructors: Anthony Luketich, Natural Resource Scientist, Anthony Luketich is a Natural Resources Scientist for Bernalillo County where he is focused on water conservation and water-wise landscape practices. He received a degree in Watershed Management and Ecohydrology from the University of Arizona where he studied the relationship between trees and water. Anthony has worked across the Southwest US as a research scientist as well as a water harvesting field technician where he became a certified water harvesting practitioner.

Bobby Mullin, Natural Resource Scientist, Bernalillo County Stormwater Quality Program Bobby Mullin is a Natural Resource Scientist for Bernalillo County in the Stormwater Quality Program. He focuses on improving stormwater quality in the Middle Rio Grande Watershed and promoting sustainable and resilient landscapes using Green Stormwater Infrastructure and rainwater harvesting. Bobby received his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Bucknell University in 2011. Before joining Bernalillo County, he had worked as an environmental consultant remediating contaminated soil and groundwater and as a Research Scientist studying the impacts of climate change, drought and plant mortality in New Mexico ecosystems.

Xeriscape: The Desert Friendly Yard

Join us for learning all of the tips, and benefits of our Xeriscape program!

3 Steps to Landscape Success

Service, Settings, and Selection are the keys to landscape success!