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The 505 Outside Blog covers topics on desert friendly landscapes practices, landscape maintenance, irrigation principles, and seasonal tips.

Recipe for a High Desert Meadow

Recipe for a High Desert Meadow

Being someone so immersed in planting design in my daily life and someone who is so plainly in love with plants, both wild and cultivated, it can be difficult to narrow my focus and play favorites. I owe this relationship with plants unequivocally to my grandmother...

Efficient Irrigation Rebate Highlights

Efficient Irrigation Rebate Highlights

The Water Authority offers several rebates for irrigation efficiency equipment that might help you reduce water use your yard. You also can contact a Water Authority irrigation specialist at AskAnExpert@abcwua.org for a consultation or efficient irrigation...

Food Forests, a Prehistoric Agroecosystem for your Backyard

Food Forests, a Prehistoric Agroecosystem for your Backyard

Food forests and edible landscapes have been around for a very long time. They are what helped ancient humans survive and thrive. Hunter-gatherers likely did not expend precious energy by wandering aimlessly, hoping to find sustenance, but rather they were able to...

Kaleidoscape: Vivid Blooms Create a Rainbow of Color

Kaleidoscape: Vivid Blooms Create a Rainbow of Color

Color has a more dramatic impact in a garden if plants with strong flower colors are juxtaposed against one another. In this Kaleidoscape design by Judith Phillips, the blue-purple blooms of dwarf butterfly bush, desert sage, catmint, lavender and vitex are contrasted...

Bosque Restoration Would Benefit Endangered Fish

Bosque Restoration Would Benefit Endangered Fish

Water flowing from the Southside Water Reclamation Plant is so clear that a person can see rocks at the bottom of the riverbed, and the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority is trying to make that outflow a better habitat for fish and more accessible...

Loungescape: A Strikingly Beautiful and Low Maintenance Yard

Loungescape: A Strikingly Beautiful and Low Maintenance Yard

A lot goes into creating a landscape plan, and it helps to have some expert help. Local landscape architect George Radnovich, FASLA, created this design for those opting for a low maintenance yard. You can follow his design right down to each individual plant or...

5 in 5: Our 5 most read articles in our 5 years!

5 in 5: Our 5 most read articles in our 5 years!

In celebration of five years of bringing you 505Outside, we’d like to share our most popular articles from the website. 505Outside is your resource for beautiful, desert friendly landscapes. Desert friendly landscapes are resilient, sustainable, enjoyable and...

Albuquerque Soils

Albuquerque Soils

Albuquerque has a variety of soil types. Learning what type of soil is in your yard is a critical step to understanding how water will infiltrate the soil and how long specific plants need to be watered to get the water to the correct depth. VALLEY SOILS Valley soils...

Wildscape Landscape Plan: A Celebration of Wildlife in Your Landscape

Wildscape Landscape Plan: A Celebration of Wildlife in Your Landscape

A lot goes into designing a landscape; hence, there’s an entire profession called landscape architecture devoted to designing outdoor spaces. We won’t be able to make you a landscape architect today, but we’re sharing a unique landscape plan designed by New Mexico...

Coolscape Landscape Plan: A Cool and Calming Southwestern Oasis

Coolscape Landscape Plan: A Cool and Calming Southwestern Oasis

A lot goes into designing a landscape, hence there’s an entire profession called landscape architecture devoted to designing outdoor spaces. We won’t be able to make you a landscape architect today, but we’re sharing a unique landscape plan designed by landscape...

How to Build a Trellis

How to Build a Trellis

One of the questions the Water Authority xeriscape inspector gets asked most often is how to inexpensively build a trellis for vines. You can make a DIY trellis from materials that are easy to find at your local hardware store. Off-the-shelf trellises can be...

Cultivating Inner and Outer Climate Resilience

Cultivating Inner and Outer Climate Resilience

It’s been a rough few months in the 505. We’re having a challenging gardening season, to say the least. Dry. Hot. Intense. The unraveling of our climate has been on full display. Whether you’re choosing more adaptive plants and creating habitat or beginning your...

DIY Xeriscape Conversions that Use Wood Chip Mulch

DIY Xeriscape Conversions that Use Wood Chip Mulch

As Albuquerque area homeowners convert their high-water-use turf grass to desert friendly xeriscapes, many are opting for wood chip mulch rather than gravel or other aggregate, which can be hot and allow weeds to pop up.  The Water Authority checked in on two...

Xeriscape Conversions on the West Side that Use Wood Chip Mulch

Xeriscape Conversions on the West Side that Use Wood Chip Mulch

As homes around the Greater Albuquerque Area are converting their high-water-use turf grass to desert friendly xeriscapes, many are choosing to use wood chip mulch instead of gravel or other aggregate, which can be hot and allow weeds to pop up.  The Water...

Wildscape Landscape Type

Wildscape Landscape Type

The Albuquerque metro area has a wide variety of landscapes. These include desert friendly landscapes, lush pollinator friendly xeriscapes and wildscapes or prairie plantings where native grasses and wildflowers bring the feel of a prairie to a yard and attract...

Xeriscape Conversions That Use Shredded Wood Chip Mulch

Xeriscape Conversions That Use Shredded Wood Chip Mulch

As homeowners around the Greater Albuquerque area are converting their high-water use turfgrass areas to desert-friendly xeriscapes, many are choosing to use wood chip mulch instead of gravel, which can be hot, expensive and also very good at cultivating weeds. Gravel...

Rain Garden Landscape Type

Rain Garden Landscape Type

The Albuquerque metro area has a wide variety of landscape types, which include desert-friendly landscapes, lush pollinator-friendly xeriscapes and wildscapes or prairie plantings where native grasses and wildflowers bring the feel of a prairie to a yard. Rain gardens...

The “Wow Factor” – Summer Containers Simplified

The “Wow Factor” – Summer Containers Simplified

One of our favorite things to do at Bennu Organics is design container gardens. We like to talk about the “wow factor,” and containers are a fantastic way to add stunning, season-long color to our landscapes without digging a single hole in our hard, unforgiving soil....

Edible Garden Landscape Type

Edible Garden Landscape Type

The Albuquerque metro area has a wide variety of landscapes. These include desert-friendly landscapes, lush pollinator-friendly xeriscapes and wildscapes or prairie plantings where native grasses and wildflowers bring the feel of a prairie to a yard. Rain gardens are...

Drip System in Raised Beds or Veggie Rows

Drip System in Raised Beds or Veggie Rows

Edible garden landscapes need to have dedicated valves so they can be watered more frequently than our average desert-friendly landscapes. These landscapes should not be watered at the same time as the rest of the drip zones. The key to growing the best quality...

Backyard Composting Basics

Backyard Composting Basics

Why is it important to compost? Between 30 and 50 percent of residential waste could be composted instead of put in a landfill, which would reduce the volume of trash and the production of greenhouse gas. Compost is nature’s way of recycling nutrients by using...

How to Make a More Efficient Turfgrass Landscape in Albuquerque

How to Make a More Efficient Turfgrass Landscape in Albuquerque

Typically, a conventional turfgrass yard includes a few large trees and some planting beds for flowers and shrubs around the foundation of the home. This type of yard often has a couple of existing irrigation valves for sprinkler irrigation. A conventional turfgrass...

5 Ways to Save Money when Transforming your Yard

5 Ways to Save Money when Transforming your Yard

Are you ready to remove your lawn and create a desert-friendly landscape but worried about the cost? Below are cost-savings tips for transforming your yard. Plant price tags: For homeowners wanting to transform their yards, it’s easy to feel sticker shock when adding...

Xeriscape Landscape Type

Xeriscape Landscape Type

The Albuquerque metro area has a variety of landscapes. These include desert-friendly landscapes, such as lush, pollinator-friendly xeriscapes, and wildscapes or prairie plantings, where native grasses and wildflowers bring the feel of a prairie to a yard. Rain...

Steps for Improving Your Irrigation Efficiency

Steps for Improving Your Irrigation Efficiency

Most irrigation work can be done by the homeowner, except for one component. Tapping into your home's main water line needs to be done by a licensed contractor to ensure it is completed safely. To help homeowners know how to select and work with a contractor, we have...

Improving Irrigation Efficiency Can Be Affordable!

Improving Irrigation Efficiency Can Be Affordable!

Does the thought of making changes to your yard seem costly? Can you still get reasonable benefits from just changing a few things instead of your whole yard? Do you feel overwhelmed because you don't know where to start? Do you feel like you don't know enough about...

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Water Conservation Program
P.O. Box 568
Albuquerque, NM 87103-0568

www.abcwua.org

505-842-WATR  Option 4

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P.O. Box 568
Albuquerque, NM 87103-0568
505-842-WATR