As gardeners or homeowners, we plant what we plant for a wide variety of reasons: Our neighbors have it. The homeowner’s association list includes it. We see it around town or in the nurseries or garden centers that we visit. Though often big box stores order the same plants for New Mexico as they do for Arizona and California. Unless we are a landscape or horticulture professional, we often make choices based on what we see around us.
We live in a desert environment where water is precious and getting more so as the population grows and resources shrink. Climate and soil conditions that are poor and alkaline also affect what plants thrive in our area. Forty to fifty years ago the plants listed below were commonly used because they were the only plants available at the nurseries. Today through the diligent work of the local horticulture industry and local demand we now have many more plant alternatives that are better suited, less finicky and require less water.
Here are a few plants we may want to reconsider before adding them to our landscapes.
Japanese maple: Who doesn’t love the graceful form and fine texture of this beautiful small tree? However, this plant needs shade and quite a bit of water, which many of our gardens have in short supply. They prefer acidic soil, while ours is alkaline. Without adding lots of organic material and copious amounts of irrigation, they struggle in most gardens, with leaf margins burned and dry by summer’s end. Alternatives: Purple Smoke Tree, Mexican Elderberry
Leaf scorch from sun exposure on Japanese maple.
Aspen: These belong in the high mountains, where temperatures are cooler, moisture is more plentiful and eons of leaf litter have enriched the soil. It is not fond of heat and likes lots of water. This tree looks best in its naturally occurring zone. Some aspen 30-plus years old can be found around town, but they are few and far between. Alternatives: New Mexico Olive (white bark) or the Jujube (multi trunked tall and skinny)
Boxwood: While an old favorite for clipped hedges (which we don’t recommend doing for any shrub) and its evergreen presence, boxwood is out of place in our high desert climate. Like many frequently used plants, this one was brought here by transplanted humans who longed for what they knew from a home somewhere else, with soil and water conditions much more favorable to this species, like England. Alternatives:Leucophyllum,lavender, Turpentine bush, rosemary
Barberry: Like boxwood, this is another old favorite from the East Coast. With many varieties, it has been long used, but ultimately not always long lived due to its soil and water preferences that don’t match ours. Alternatives: Fernbush, Ephedra, winter Jasmine, cotoneasters, leucophyllum.
Euonymus: Used for its mostly evergreen nature and variety of color and form, this plant can struggle here. Prone to scale insect infestations and drought dieback, this plant can be more demanding of care and chemicals than many people wish to offer. Alternatives:Greenleaf santolina, Turpentine bush, Pancho manzanita.
Green ash (or ash in general): Ash trees became one of the most widely planted species in the 1970s and 1980s. We have since learned that not all are hardy to the infrequent but deadly low temperatures that some winters bring. Worse, though, is the increasing threat from the invasive emerald ash borer, a beetle that is devastating this tree species across the country. Preferring plentiful water and improved soil, this tree is not happy here for long. Alternatives:Common Hackberry,Frontier elm, Lacebark Elm
Stress, disease and insufficient water damage on green ash.
Magnolia: This tree is happiest in warmer, milder climates where rich soil, nutrition and rainfall are in good supply, none of which is the norm here. It prefers acidic soils so existing ones may need acid treatment to keep healthy. Alternatives: Arizona Rosewood
Heavenly bamboo: Often not given the water it needs to be happy, this plant can look sparse and burned at the edges. If not pruned regularly, it can become straggly and top heavy. In some parts of the country, the berries appear to be toxic to birds that feed on them. Alternatives: Big Bluestem,Maximillian sunflower, Indian ricegrass
Ponderosa pine: This native mountain tree can struggle at our elevation without lots of water, and the heat of the city can result in browning and drying of the needles. Requiring thick organic mulch under the canopy, this tree needs care and attention to succeed out of its habitat. There are great existing specimens around town. To keep existing ponderosas healthy direct rainwater towards root zone, add organic mulch, add adequate fall and winter watering in our now warm and dry winters and do not prune when the tree is stressed. Alternatives:Stone pine,Afghan pine
Heat stress and insufficient watering damage on ponderosa pine.
While many of the plants mentioned in this article can be found in local landscapes and gardens, it is usually because they were planted long ago when it was cooler and grass lawns were plentiful. Many are now receiving special care, lots of water beyond what any xeriscape would require.
There are plenty of native or desert adapted plants with similar shape, form, autumn color and pleasing texture that thrive in our specific climate that can be used in place of the plants reviewed here.
There are many sources of information, and the internet can be a dangerous place. When you look up a plant, chances are the article is based on research from the Midwest, East Coast or Pacific Northwest so it does not represent our local conditions.
Instead, look for books by local authors. Compare notes with neighbors. Check out our Xeriscape Guide for information and plant lists that are updated as we learn more about our wonderful desert home. A high desert landscape can be colorful, lovely and a home for birds, bees, butterflies and us humans who live in and care for them.
Just as we take shelter when the weather turns colder, so does your yard. Below are our DIY tips for how to prepare your yard for winter.
WATERING
Water on warm days (daytime temperatures above 40 degrees and nighttime temperatures above 37 degrees).
For drip irrigation on trees and shrubs, water twice a month for 80-100 minutes per cycle.
For hose watering trees and shrubs, water twice a month for 55 minutes per cycle.
For spray watering a lawn, water eight times per month for 7-10 minutes per cycle.
For high efficiency micro rotors on a lawn, water eight times per month for 40-50 minutes per cycle.
Skip watering if it rains more than ½ an inch or snows more than 6 inches.
Special Exceptions
Newly installed plants (shrubs planted within one year) and trees (trees planted within three years) are more susceptible to damage from dry conditions and should be watered more frequently than established plants. Water new shrubs to a depth of 18” three times a month in the winter. Try watering trees to a depth of 24 inches twice a month in the winter.
Evergreen trees lose water through their needles in cold, dry winter winds faster than their roots can absorb it. They need more stored-up water going into the winter season to make up for that so, it is especially important to provide enough water in the fall and during dry, warm spells in the winter.
When watering any tree, remember to apply water out to the edge of the tree’s canopy drip line and beyond. Most established trees have a root spread equal to their height and beyond. Water deeply and avoid spraying foliage. Watering to the right depth depends on your specific soil, so you will want to measure how much time it takes water to reach 24 inches deep in your soil. Read this article for tips on measuring watering depth.
LAWNS
Cool Season Grass
Mow your lawn to 3-3.5 inches. Grass left too long over the winter can develop brown patches. Dethatch your lawn by raking it through to remove built up debris.
Rake or blow off leaves that have fallen on your lawn to avoid brown spots. Save those leaves to use as mulch around your garden and trees.
Aerate next time it is warm. Before aerating, run the irrigation and flag all your spray heads or rotors. This prevents inadvertently creating the need for sprinkler repairs! Aerate the whole lawn in one direction and then again perpendicular to the first pass.
Top dress with compost. Compost acts as a fertilizer, adds moisture retention capacity and improves overall soil and root health.
Warm Season Grass
Grass can be left at full height during winter to provide habitat.
TREES
Apply a thin layer of compost, about ½ inch, to provide nutrients.
Add 3″-4″ of shredded wood chip mulch around the trees drip line but keep away from the trunk base, about 6″. Mulch helps insulate the soil from temperature extremes, retains soil moisture and keeps weeds out. Treebates for bulk organic mulch are available.
IRRIGATION
Turn off your irrigation system. Cold temperatures 40 degrees or lower mean it is time to give your irrigation system a rest. To avoid damage to your system, we recommend setting it to the OFF position. Since it is important to make sure your landscape stays healthy in the winter, find a warm day once a month to irrigate. After watering, set your system to the OFF position again. Skip watering if it rains more than ½ an inch or snows more than 6 inches.
Insulate pipes and faucets in unheated areas. Wrap exposed water pipes in unheated areas (such as a garage, basement, crawl space or space beneath your mobile home) with insulation or heat tape. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully.
From the leafy corridors along the Rio Grande to the resilient specimens lining our streets and parks, trees are much more than just scenery — they are essential to our health, happiness and sense of place. Residents and visitors alike have come to appreciate, love and depend on Albuquerque’s urban forest, which transforms our city in countless ways.
For many, the presence of mature trees is a sign of a thriving, welcoming community.
The City of Albuquerque’s Urban Forestry staff has taken an active role in cataloging and celebrating the city’s best tree specimens. The Urban Forestry team within Parks and Recreation maintains a list of “champion trees” — remarkable individuals recognized for their size, age, beauty or historical significance.
The City of Albuquerque’s Champion Tree GIS site shows the locations of all 23 Champion trees around public spaces managed by the city and includes information on their species, size, history and unique features. To use, simply click on one of the circles to learn all about the specific tree, its properties and its location.
Whether you’re a lifelong resident or a newcomer to Albuquerque, exploring the city’s champion trees is a unique way to visit our numerous parks and streetscapes plus celebrate the trees that make our urban environment vibrant and resilient.
In addition to managing 30,000 trees across 300 city parks, Urban Forestry has launched the Let’s Plant ABQ initiative. This initiative aims to plant 100,000 trees by 2030 to provide one tree for every child as a gift from one generation to the next. To track these trees, Urban Forestry uses software called Treeplotter for inventorying, planning and growing our urban canopy. As well as tracking Champion trees, Urban Forestry maintains a robust inventory of all trees in city parks where residents are welcome to explore our urban canopy, including ecosystem benefits of our trees. Urban Forestry’s data aids in informed decision making for urban designs and developments. Understanding what we have can help us preserve and enhance our urban forest.
Let’s continue to love, depend on and protect the trees that make Albuquerque a truly special place to live. You can help by planting more new trees; check out the Water Authority’s Treebates.
All good things start with a solid plan. Developing a landscape plan saves you not only time and money but also makes it more likely you’ll end up with a beautiful yard. A few generous local landscape architects donated their time and put together some design templates for a typical front yard for our 505Outside subscribers. This month, we’re sharing a mountain-inspired landscape.
The example landscape template below is for a north or east facing yard and creates the effect of a Rocky Mountain forest while using heat and drought tolerant plants that grow well in town. Take a look and get inspired to recreate this in your own yard.
In the heart of Albuquerque, the Rio Grande Bosque includes 4,300 acres of protected cottonwood gallery forest. It’s a great natural space to find inspiration for your own landscape. The bosque is just one of many beautiful open space areas in the greater Albuquerque area that provide recreation, conservation, education, heritage and design inspiration. The plants you see in these natural areas are likely to do well in yards in that same part of town. Plants that are growing near each other will make good combinations in yards as well.
Today, we are highlighting a couple of beautiful natural areas to visit along the Rio Grande, all offering educational opportunities and recreational trails.
Paseo del Bosque Trail
This 16-mile long uninterrupted trail connects Albuquerque’s North and South valleys, starting at Alameda NW next to the Bachechi Open Space. Heading south, the paved trail passes the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park and the Albuquerque BioPark near Central Avenue before ending south of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Because this is a multiuse trail, you are likely to encounter more than bicyclists, walkers and runners. The trail also is used by people with wheelchairs, in-line skaters, equestrians, families with strollers and others. The City Parks and Recreation Department reminds users to remember that “courtesy and caution are a part of having an enjoyable and safe experience on Open Space trails.”
Paseo del Bosque multi-use trail
Bachechi Open Space
Brought to you by Bernalillo County and located along the Paseo del Bosque Trail south of Alameda NW, Bachechi is a 28-acre open space area with an Environmental Education Building that includes an indoor interpretive area and an outdoor classroom. Here, kids can grab Nature Packs, kid-sized backpacks filled with guides, hands-on supplies and activity sheets to teach kids how to explore the open space area. There are a variety of interpretive trails through native landscaping and migratory waterfowl habitat, which includes blinds for viewing the birds and other wildlife. An arboretum on the northern 8 acres of the property shows off many specimens of trees.
Environmental Education Building at Bachechi Open Space
Rio Grande Nature Center State Park
A New Mexico state park located in the middle of the city, the nature center focuses on bird watching with many wildlife viewing areas overlooking native gardens and ponds. The park also offers many trails, including loop hiking and interpretive trails plus access to the Paseo del Bosque multiuse trail.
Rio Grande Nature Center State Park
Open Space Visitor Center
The City of Albuquerque visitor center has exhibits interpreting the natural and cultural resources the Open Space Division protects. Rotating exhibits feature local artists highlighting New Mexico landscapes. Spacious indoor and outdoor bird viewing areas allow visitors to watch sandhill cranes, Canada geese and other migratory birds during the fall and winter.
A short walk leads to an agricultural demonstration garden that shows off different farming methods and the foods that were collected and cultivated in New Mexico. A longer walk goes to the LAND/ART exhibition pieces in place since 2009.
Open Space Visitor Center Bird Viewing Across the Farm Fields.
Maybe you recently moved into a house that has never been updated — think avocado tile in the bathroom and shag carpet in the sunken living room. You look outside and the theme continues — a sea of gravel and railroad ties. As with interiors, home exterior fashions and landscaping styles change over time. We once thought of gravel as low maintenance and tidy, but now are finding out isn’t the best choice as far as sustainability and community health. Thankfully, through the efforts of local designers, tree experts and Water Authority resources, there is a sea change in understanding the problems that gravel, weed fabric and plastic sheeting can cause in our neighborhoods.
Gravel soaks up heat and radiates it back into the neighborhood, warming up the city. We’ve also found out that gravel and weed fabric don’t discourage weeds, instead their seeds and dust settle on top, sprouting in no time. This leaves few options other than using herbicides, because pulling them can be difficult once they’re rooted in the weed fabric, and using a hoe is difficult in gravel larger than crusher fines. Additionally, tree and plant roots need two things: water and oxygen, neither of which permeate through old weed fabric clogged with silt. Wanting to install some flowering xeric plants near your new front door? That’s going to be a challenge — moving the rock out of the way, cutting the weed fabric and finding a way to install drip irrigation under the existing weed fabric and rock. Perhaps you’d like to invite pollinators to your new yard? Well, our native (and solitary) ground nesting bees won’t find a home in your yard because they can’t burrow through the weed fabric or rock to nest in the soil.
But all hope is not lost. Whether you’re aiming to remove all the gravel, just take out some around existing trees to improve their health or make your outdoor living space cooler and be sure water is soaking though the old weed fabric (or worse, plastic), there is help.
If you have a limited budget and time but want to do some good, use a piece of rebar to poke holes in the weed fabric around your existing plants. This will ensure they can use some of our precious rainfall and allow for oxygen exchange.
Have an existing tree that’s suffocating in heat absorbing rock? Time to grab the wheelbarrow and a shovel. If you’re removing small sections at a time, start with areas with the dripline of the tree. Here is where weed fabric is actually useful: In good condition it can make the gravel removal easier. Lift up the fabric carefully, using it to form the rock into piles that can be scooped up more easily. A square end shovel can be useful here because it’s less likely to rip the fabric underneath as you work. If you need to remove large rock like cobble, I recommend sitting on a protective pad and doing it by hand. Have a 5-gallon bucket or wheelbarrow right next to you to put it in. Some homeowners construct a basic wooden frame out of two-by-fours and wire mesh to make a screen to separate the gravel from dirt. Size it to fit over your wheelbarrow so you can transport the dirt more easily.
Albuquerque’s three convenience centers accept about two wheelbarrows full of rock (or dirt and concrete). Be sure not to take too much because you may be turned away. For larger amounts, you can try the Sandoval County Landfill in Rio Rancho or Southwest Landfill on Albuquerque’s southwest mesa; be sure to call first to confirm they will accept it. Alternatively, many homeowners are looking for gravel for erosion control under downspouts so try placing a FREE add on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or Nextdoor. It will most likely get picked up in no time.
Now if your whole yard is full of gravel, you’ll probably need to call in someone who is better equipped, someone with a skid steer (Bobcat). Front yards are easier, but backyards can usually be done with a smaller machine if access is limited.
The obvious question to follow is, what’s next? We recommend wood chips spread to a depth of 4 inches. This mulch (without weed fabric) helps improve the soil over time and allows the tree and plant roots to breath. It also cools the environment a few degrees compared to rock. Several suppliers in the Albuquerque area sell mulch, and they all deliver. They’ll be happy to tell you how much you need if you know the dimensions. Additionally, several places offer free or discounted mulch. Call up large tree removal companies and see if they have any or head to the East Mountain Transfer Station in Tijeras and pick up a cubic yard for $5. There is also a great website called ChipDrop that connects tree service companies with homeowners who want mulch — you may have to wait a while for the stars to align but it’s totally free.
If you’d like to speak with our experts for more tips on removing gravel and having a healthy desert-friendly yard, reach out to us at AskanExpert@abcwua.org
As in most fields, change is slow. Older ways of thinking permeate the landscape industry, but some steps in the right direction (like wood chips instead of gravel) can make a difference over time.
