Exposure: Full sun
Water: medium
Height and Spread: H 80’ X W 60'
Blooming Season: N/A
Description:
This beautiful specimen tree is a stunning focal point in any landscape. Its blue-green to silvery pendulous branches create an attractive form and provide nesting sites and food for birds. The Deodar Cedar grows well in all types of soils but doesn’t like soggy feet. Once established in the landscape, it is considered drought tolerant.
Exposure: Full sun
Water: Rainwater
Height and Spread: H 2’ X W 5'
Blooming Season: NA
Description:
Mormon Tea is a desert adapted evergreen shrub that has been around since before the dinosaurs roamed the planet. It is an ideal native plant for your full sun landscape and does well in well-drained soil. Ephedra, also known as Joint Fir, can be used successfully as a ground cover, erosion control and does well in rock gardens. This perennial lacks leaves but relies on photosynthesis occurring in its green, jointed stems and is very easy to grow once started.
Winter is the best time to rethink your high water use turfgrass and create a plan for a xeriscape yard of desert-friendly plants. A desert friendly xeriscape will help you save water, reduce maintenance, encourage pollinators, and beat the heat of the summer. We define a desert friendly xeriscape as a landscape that has half of the total landscape area with desert friendly plants selected from our Xeriscape Guide and typically watered with drip systems or by hand.
Water Authority residential customers who transform their landscapes from high water use turfgrass to a desert friendly xeriscape can qualify for a $1.00 per square foot rebate. If you are interested in participating in the Desert Friendly Xeriscape Conversion Rebate, please do not start your turf removal project until you have applied online to the program and schedule an initial inspection. An initial inspection is required before removing your grass lawn to see if your project qualifies. If you answer yes to the questions below, your landscape meets the minimum requirements.
To learn more about this rebate visit our Residential Xeriscape Conversion Rebate page.
With drought conditions predicted to continue for the foreseeable future, we’re likely to water more often this spring and summer. Make every drop count – and keep us on track to meet our conservation goals – by performing routine maintenance to maximize your sprinkler system’s efficiency.
Monthly
Spring
Early Summer
Fall
Winter
In an arid city like Albuquerque, trees and the urban forest are even more important than in places with more moisture. Trees provide shade and habitat, and help cool the urban landscape. To sustain a healthy canopy trees require special care given the arid climate, ongoing drought, and warming temperatures. This year’s hot, dry conditions highlight the need for New Mexicans to take even more care of their trees – and to plan for which species will grow best in increasingly warm conditions. This was especially true this past September when a windstorm wreaked havoc on trees throughout the city.
In collaboration with Our Land New Mexico, a local environmental show on NMPBS, we are sharing a short (7 minute) episode they did about the urban forest in Albuquerque.
The episode discusses how the vitality of a city can be measured in part by the health of its trees and plant life. There is also evidence that tells us how exposure to nature provides emotional and social benefits, lowers stress levels and encourages more community engagement in residential settings.
We encourage you to take care of your trees to support our urban forest and if you are adding a new tree email AskAnExpert@abcwua.org with questions. Local tree experts around the Southwest, including conservation staff from the Water Authority, with the guidance of the Nature Conservancy, have put together a climate-ready tree list that includes trees that will thrive in our current and future climate.