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 irrigation systems to know what to do?
Having an efficient automatic irrigation system can be financially affordable for homeowners, especially with help from our rebates. Homeowners can choose to install or update a spray or drip irrigation system. To figure out your budget using our rebates, consider the following questions: How much can I spend on irrigation updates this year? It’s important to be realistic about what you can spend and stick to your budget. You don’t necessarily need to spend thousands of dollars to begin saving water. We offer rebates to help you cover some of the costs. Upgrades don’t have to be completed all at once. They can be done in phases.
Check out our New Irrigation Efficiency Guide: Beautiful Landscapes with Less Water. Download the guide here.
Have you wondered what the City of Albuquerque is doing to support sustainability? The Sustainability Office is leading the city government’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing our economy and protecting residents’ health.
What does the Sustainability Office do?
The Sustainability Office was created by Mayor Keller in 2019 and is housed in the Environmental Health Department. The office focuses on implementing projects and policies to equitably address climate change and environmental impacts across Albuquerque. One of the office’s major undertakings includes the development of the 2021 Climate Action Plan (CAP), whose core authors are 19 task force members representing frontline communities in Albuquerque. The 2021 CAP includes 50 strategies organized into seven categories. It is both a response to City Resolution R-19-187’s declaration of a climate emergency and an update of the city’s 2009 Climate Plan.
The office is headed by Sustainability Officer Kelsey Rader and has expanded to include Sustainability Specialist Denise Gonzalez, Sustainable Transportation Specialist Albert Lee and Sustainable Waste Specialist Sandra West. These staff members help implement the 2021 CAP goals and track progress for the public while taking guidance from community members. The office detailed recent progress in the first-ever CAP Implementation Report, which describes projects such as the expansion of publicly accessible, city-owned electric vehicle (EV) charging stations from two charging ports (aka plugs) to 36 ports as of July 2022. Other recent sustainability wins for Albuquerque include:
The Sustainability Office’s staff is looking forward to a year full of progress and new projects. For example, the office recently released heat-impact data collected in collaboration with NASA. The data will help staff decide where siting projects are most needed and better understanding the impact of heat-mitigation projects. In the transportation sector, residents can look forward to hearing more about EV rideshares and public transit access. In terms of waste reduction, the office is focusing on reducing food loss and waste and supporting community composting. Learn more about the Sustainability Office’s work.
Why are partners including the Water Authority important?
The success of citywide initiatives and goals rely on collaborations with partner organizations and support from the community. The Water Authority is a particularly important partner as water and waste are an integral part of many sustainability initiatives, including the mayor’s tree planting goal. The work that residents, the Water Authority, other like-minded organizations and the city are doing to reduce water waste and strategically utilize water in our homes and landscapes is an integral part of creating a healthy, resilient and equitable Albuquerque for all.
How can I stay informed or get involved?
To hear updates directly from the Sustainability Office, sign up for the Sustainability Office newsletter by emailing sustainability@cabq.gov. The office wants to hear from residents during quarterly CAP community engagement meetings and public surveys and is now asking for input on public transit and traffic safety issues. To share your input, please complete the survey this month (available in English and Spanish) and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. For those who want to dive into more information, please explore resources on the city’s website at www.cabq.gov/sustainability.
Albuquerque’s Sustainability Office (left to right) includes Sandra West, Kelsey Rader, Denise Gonzalez and Albert Lee.
There are misconceptions about how to prune a tree. Here are seven things you need to know before you begin.
1. Always have a reason for each cut you make on a tree. A beautiful day and hearing you need to prune now are not the right reasons. The main reasons we trim our trees are to support strong tree structure, encourage fruit production, prevent damage, provide clearance to avoid conflicts, shape the tree for aesthetic reasons and repair the tree from previous damage.
2. Chose the right time of the year. There are good times of the year to prune. Pruning at other times can lead to tree distress and disease. Prune during late winter and early spring, just as trees are coming out of dormancy and will be actively growing soon. For fruit trees, wait until they have flowered before pruning to encourage production and direct growth.
3. Use good hand tools, including a bypass hand pruner and scabbard, 8” folding hand saw, long reach pruner and orchard ladder (step ladders on uneven ground can be dangerous). As fun as they may seem, never use a chainsaw unless operating from the ground below shoulder height. Always wear PPE including safety chaps. Remember to sterilize tools with alcohol or Lysol spray when moving between trees.
Hand Pruner and Bypass Pruning Shears
4. Know your tree type. To figure out your tree type and its particular needs, try some plant identification apps, read the Arbor Day Foundation brochure “what tree is that.” or take photos of the tree and ask an expert. Pictures should include the overall tree form, leaves, bark, flowers or fruit. The most common trees in the Albuquerque landscapes are honey locust, Modesto ash, Siberian elm, London planetree, desert willow, Austrian pine, ashes, ornamental pear, Afghan pine, purple leaf plum, cottonwoods, golden raintree, Chinese pistache, pinon pine, redbuds, crabapples, Navajo willow, Texas red oak and mimosa.
5. Check out your tree’s health. How much water does it need and if/when does it need to be pruned? Highly-stressed trees should not have living branches pruned or removed. A healthy tree’s overall vigor and branch growth from previous years should be around 3”- 4” of growth per year between a bud scar and a new terminal bud. Access the density of the canopy all around and under the tree. For healthy conifers look for four years’ worth of needles on a branch. Less than two years on a branch is considered stressed.
6. Know the three types of pruning cuts: heading, removal and reduction. Avoid heading unless attempting to correct damage. Removal describes cutting branches all the way back to the main trunk. Remove 1” caliper branches and avoid cutting anything bigger than 3”. Some trees, like our local cottonwood, may not be able to heal large wounds. Reduction cut is the ideal cut. It is used to redirect and subordinate growth. Reduction cutting allows the tree to heal properly. Prune back to a branch that is at least 1/3 the size of the branch removed in order to avoid excess sprouting and allow the remaining branch to assert dominance.
7. Know where and how to make the cut. Refer to the diagrams to properly identify the branch collar, which contains the Branch Protection Zone (BPZ) that has specialized tissues which resist the passage of decay organisms into the trunk. Cut about 1/2” outside the branch collar. This allows for proper wound healing. Use the following three-step method when making a cut: First, make a partial upward cut several inches out from the final cut. Next, make a full downward cut a half inch farther out to take the weight off. Lastly, make the final cut without nicking the branch collar.
By reviewing and understanding these seven tree pruning concepts you are well on your way to properly pruning your trees. Remember, tree pruning is only needed every few years. The proper watering of your trees needs to happen monthly. Check out the other tree health articles below to keep yours in tip-top shape.
Author: Amos Arber, Xeriscape Rebate Inspector with the Water Resources Conservation Department for the Water Authority. Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org
Below are some great gifts for that homeowner who likes to tinker in their yard and also save water. Practical gifts are always in style!
Xeriscape Guide and Irrigation Efficiency Guide: Check out the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority’s FREE xeriscape and irrigation guides that you can download for your stocking stuffers.
Irrigation Fanny Pack Maintenance drip kit: Drip irrigation isn’t rocket science. Fixes and tweaks can easily be done by the homeowner. This fanny pack drip maintenance kit ($40) comes with all the parts you need to maintain your system. The kit also contains two books: Irrigation Maintenance Made Easy, which teaches you how to make those simple fixes, and New Mexico Plants Made Easy, which features 60 plants that grow well in the Albuquerque area.
Hose watering system is great for homeowners who aren’t ready to install an in-ground irrigation system and need an inexpensive (under $100) way to water. The hose timer attaches to high-quality irrigation polypipe with drip emitters or connects to a professional landscape dripline. The irrigation dripline can stay in the ground year-round and be easily connected to an automatic in-ground irrigation system in the future.
Smart Controller: This handy device ($100-$200) allows you to program days of the week, times of the day and the number of minutes to automatically irrigate your landscape according to seasonal weather and plant needs. EPA Water Sense Smart Controllers adjust landscape irrigation schedules using WIFI to collect weather data in conjunction with the information you provide about your plant type, soil type and other important factors that affect the irrigation schedule. The Water Authority’s irrigation efficiency specialist says, “While an irrigation controller is a must for your landscape, a smart controller adjusts your watering based on the local weather conditions.”
Author: Jill Brown, ASLA, is a Landscape Architect and owner of My Landscape Coach in Albuquerque, NM. Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org
Homeowners are constantly looking for that perfect plant for that exact spot. Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer. Landscape designers know there are so many factors that go into placing the right plant in the right place. Sun-loving plants should be planted in sunny spaces. Shade-loving plants should be placed under trees or next to walls where they’ll be protected from our intense New Mexico sun. Be sure the area is big enough to accommodate the plant when it reaches its full mature size, and remember to place plants with similar water needs together.
One of the most frequent requests is for a year-round green plant that hides and blocks an ugly view. For a narrow space (4’ and smaller) next to a wall or a neighbor’s driveway, check out the Skyrocket juniper. It’s a blue-green, narrow columnar tree growing 15 feet tall and only four feet wide, making it the narrowest of the juniper trees. A hedge of these works great in a small narrow space where you need some height. If your space is a little wider and you want some variety, you could add Texas ranger (also known as Texas sage) and ornamental grasses.
Whichita Juniper in narrow space screening the wall.
For those two-feet-wide spaces where you don’t have the room for a wide plant but you need lots of height, you’ll want to choose vines. For sun and light shade areas choose Lady Banks roses or desert coral honeysuckle. You’ll want to keep them in check by training them up a trellis until you get the desired coverage in the very narrow space.
Lady Banks Rose Vine in narrow space.
When you have a 5’- 6’ wide area — like along a driveway or between property lines — try planting curl-leaf mountain mahogany, evergreen, narrow. In our area you’ll see it used along a driveway to create privacy between neighbors. You can vary the space by interplanting it with New Mexico olive, which has a similar shape and size, or ornamental grasses like giant sacaton and muhlenbergia rigens (deer grass), if you want more visual contrast. To add some blue-green to the mix, bring in an Artemisia species like prairie sage as ground cover.
Mountain Mahogany along driveway trained to be a natural screen between houses.
Another tried and true combination is the Arizona rosewood and prickly pear. They are beautiful together, plus they require little to no water after established.
Arizona Rosewood and Prickly Pear screening a wall.
Author: Jill Brown, ASLA, is a Landscape Architect and owner of My Landscape Coach in Albuquerque, NM. Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org
Pinyon-juniper woodlands are the largest forest cover type in NM, comprising 14.6 million acres and representing 65% of NM forests (according to USGS Gap Analysis Program–Land Cover Data). In contrast, the next largest forest cover types in NM are ponderosa pine at 5.2 million acres (23%) and mixed conifer at 1.5 million acres (7%). When it comes to junipers, New Mexicans either love them or hate them.
Those who dislike them talk about allergens and how junipers are overused, get sheared within an inch of their life and smell like urine. Those who like them appreciate their low water needs, climate adaptation, long lifespans and evergreen qualities.
Hate them or love them, Junipers are here to stay. They have so many useful qualities in our New Mexican gardens that they should be on everyone’s plant list. Choose females for no pollen, which is what is sold in local nurseries.
Below are some of the local favorites:
Carpet Juniper, Juniperus horizontalis. Blue chip, low allergen, beautiful color, low growing, does best in part shade. The species Juniperus horizontalis “Plumosa Compacta’, Andorra Juniper, is low growing 18”-20”, spreads 8’-10,’ green during growing season, burgundy in winter, looks great when planted in mass. Blue Chip is another great spreader that has beautiful year-round silver-blue foliage.
Blue Point Juniper, Juniperus chinensis Blue Point. This blue-green stately tree is pyramidal in form and has dense evergreen foliage. It makes a great windbreak when planted in lines and is a very nice front lawn Christmas tree, perfect for winter lighting. It reaches 12’ tall and is 8’ wide.
Rocky Mountain, Juniperus scopulorum, tall and narrow, dark green, tall. Pruning destroys the natural shape so it’s best to plant this in a place where it has room to grow up to 40’ tall and 20’ wide. There are many beautiful cultivars. Whichita Blue Juniper, Juniperus scopulorum ‘Whichita Blue’ is a beautiful shade of steely blue, year-round growing 10’-15’ tall and only 4’-6’ wide. ‘Skyrocket’ is a bluish-green narrow columnar tree growing 15’ tall and only 4’ wide, making it the narrowest of the juniper trees.
Alligator juniper, Juniperus deppeana, has blue-gray leaves. This tree has a thick trunk with bark that resembles that of an alligator. Unlike most junipers it has a stout, not conical, shape with great character and color. It can tolerate pruning.
Let’s give junipers a chance. If we let them follow their natural shape, these adaptable conifers are attractive, evergreen and sustainable survivors that provide habitat for birds and are quite useful in our landscapes.
Author: Jill Brown, ASLA, is a Landscape Architect and owner of My Landscape Coach in Albuquerque, NM. Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org
