Now that the weather is colder, curl up with a book and
learn more about our global and local water resources.
Here are a few of my favorites to get you started. If you’ve
got a water book to recommend for future newsletters, please email me at kyuhas@abcwua.org
For a thought-provoking read about the effect of rising sea
levels throughout the world, pick up The Water Will Come: Rising Seas,
Sinking Cities And The Remaking Of The Civilized World by Jeff Goddell. He
uses a blend of science and first-person accounts to create an engaging and
informative read. This book made many top book lists when it was released in
2017.
Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity by
Sandra Postel explores many projects, including some in New Mexico, that work
with nature to enhance and preserve the earth’s water resources. Ms. Postel is
a world-renowned water expert we’re lucky to have living with us here in New
Mexico.
Another New Mexico book is A Song for the River by
Philip Connors. This is beautiful, meditative exploration of his time in the
Gila National Forest and of the Gila River. Those who want more of Mr. Connors’
writing on the Southwest should also pick up the multiple award-winning Fire
Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout.
Finally, for those who want to get started dreaming about their
spring garden, try Growing the Southwest Garden: Regional Ornamental
Gardening or any of the other gorgeous, picture-laden titles by Judith
Phillips, another author we are lucky to call our own. Her beautiful books can
be found at local bookstores and libraries.
Author: Katherine Yuhas, Water Resources Division Manager with Albuquerque Bernalillo Water Utility Authority
Some of our best landscaping practices can be learned from Mother
Nature. Every autumn, leaves fall to the ground, sheltering the soil and beneficial
organisms, returning organic matter back to the ground, and perpetuating the nutrient
cycling essential for good plant health. This year we want you to think about leaving
those leaves in your garden. When we allow leaves to follow their natural life cycle,
we can enjoy a colorful tapestry on our landscape as well as all the benefits provided
by an organic mulch.
With these tips, you can spend less time raking leaves into plastic
bags and enjoy more fall fun:
When designing your landscape, make your pathways
and hardscapes above the level of your planting areas. The wind will naturally blow
leaves into the low spots where they will support soil and plant health. This also
happens to be a great water harvesting strategy.
Use organic mulches instead of gravel. Organic mulches
such as wood mulch are visually accommodating to leaf litter (meaning you won’t
notice them as much), allow for the leaves to decompose into the porous spaces and
build soil. Leaves break down to virtually nothing in this environment. If you prefer
a tidy look, follow up with a light topdressing of mulch for a finished appearance.
If the leaf load is too much to manage directly under
your trees, rake the leaves a little off the top and distribute them throughout
your yard – ideally to a compost heap where the leaf litter will become an excellent
soil amendment for your spring garden. Note: if you have chickens, they will turn
your leaves into next to nothing in a matter of days.
If you have a lawn, run your lawn mower over the
leaves and let the crumbled litter work its way back into the soil. The addition
of organic material to your lawn in the fall will give a boost to your lawn when
it wakes up in the spring.
There are a few instances when you should remove fall
leaf litter. Leaves from diseased plants – particularly fruit trees and roses -
should be taken to a compost facility to be recycled. While you can try to compost
them yourself, be advised that most backyard compost piles do not reach a high enough
temperature to kill pathogens. Also, xeric plants that grow naturally in rocky terrain
will be susceptible to crown rot if organic material is piled up around their bases.
Leaving fall leaves has another great benefit – it is carbon neutral. Carbon is sequestered in the soil, leaf blowers and plastic bags are removed from the equation, leaves don’t end up in a landfill or produce methane gas, and no transport to the landfill is required. It’s a win-win when we let Mother Nature be our guide.
Author: Paulina Aguilera-Eaton, Water Conservation Specialist with Albuquerque Bernalillo Water Utility Authority
Your landscape needs a lot less water in September than it did in the summertime. About 35 percent less on average. The days may still be warm, but shorter days and cooler nights in the months of September, October and November means less evaporation, which means less irrigation is required. Adjust your irrigation controller following the Fall Season Watering Recommendations to save water and money this Fall.
Ramping down your landscape irrigation does not mean you
need to stop watering all together. If you have a lawn, cut back to two days
per week. Cut back to two to four days a month for trees. Fall is when trees,
shrubs and other perennial plants get busy growing their roots, and proper watering
supports this activity. After spending the summer putting energy into growing
leaves, flowers and fruit producing plants take advantage of the fall season by
anchoring their root system to the earth. It’s important to fortify root systems
during the Fall so they have a stronger trunk and stem during the winter
season.
Fall season is also a great time to put in new plants, for the
same reason – they spend their time growing their root system instead of leaves
and flowers. But new plants need more frequent watering to help them get established.
Keep in mind that new plants need at least a month to anchor in the ground before
the first freeze, so don’t plant too late in the season to avoid damage.
And remember it is not necessary to irrigate when it rains, or on days following a good rain event (or about a 1/2" of rain). Using nature as your source of water encourages a desert friendly landscape.
Want to know how much your landscape really needs? Call 505-289-3003 to schedule a free, efficient irrigation consultation with a Water Authority expert.
The Water Authority encourages efficient outdoor water use for beautiful landscapes. With some 40 percent of our drinking water going to landscaping, improving outdoor water use efficiency is now the main focus of the Water Authority’s conservation efforts. But irrigation efficiency doesn't mean you can't have a beautiful, desert friendly yard. Below is your three-step plan for a beautiful, desert friendly yard.
1. Service your irrigation system by checking for leaks and malfunctions.
Low-maintenance landscapes are great, but there’s no such thing as a “no-maintenance” irrigation system. A single broken sprinkler head flowing at 15 gallons per minute will waste 900 gallons in one hour of use. Service your system regularly, and check it often for leaks and malfunctions.
2. Set your turf irrigation timer to water by the numbers.
Adjust your irrigation timer according to the season. For turf, water by the numbers: One day per week in March, two days per week in April and May, three days per week in the summer, and ramp down in the Fall. For other landscapes, follow the Seasonal watering recommendations. Call today for a free irrigation consultation.
3. Select desert friendly plants that thrive in our dry climate.
There are literally hundreds of plant options to choose
from that will thrive in our desert climate. And there are rebates available for
replacing turf with a desert friendly landscape.
If you follow this three-step plan, you’re sure to have
landscape success.
One of the
great advantages of desert-adapted plants is the wealth of colorful flowers
they produce, a boon to gardeners and pollinators alike. Plants that bloom in
autumn offer pollen and nectar for insects and, if the seed heads are left to
ripen, a late season food source for birds.
After a long hot summer, some plants think the cool of fall means it’s spring again and burst into bloom with renewed vibrance. Salvia greggii is commonly called autumn sage because, even though it flowers brilliantly in spring and lightly all summer, fall brings on another strong show. Responding to the cooler, longer nights in autumn, Salvia’s late season color becomes even more intense. Autumn sage is a compact shrub that grows 2-feet tall and 3-feet wide, with small dark green leaves and spikes of flowers in red, rose pink, coral, purple or white. Hummingbirds and bees are frequent visitors. Autumn sage prefers well-drained soil and deep watering (24 to 30 inches) every week or two while blooming, monthly or less in winter.
Autumn sage, Salvia greggii
Many ornamental grasses are their showiest in autumn, too. There are several varieties of little bluestem Schizachryium scoparium with 12-inch wide clumps of narrow blue-green leaves and 24-inch tall slender stems bearing fuzzy seed heads. ‘Blaze’ little bluestem turns scarlet in fall and ‘The Blues’ turns a beautiful pink. Both keep their color into winter when they fade to a rich bronzy brown. The color is our reward for supplying the little extra water these grasses need.
Native grasses are also important larval food for butterflies and produce nutritious seeds for songbirds, bringing color on wings to the garden. Since the seed heads are a large part of the reason they are planted, ornamental grasses should be left uncut until early spring. Then, trim them a few inches from the ground so the new growth is not stymied by having to push through old stubble to reach sunlight.
Little bluestem Schizachryium scoparium
Perhaps the most spectacular late blooming perennial is the Maximilian sunflower Helianthus maximiliani. By early autumn, its flower stems are 5 to 7-feet tall. Established plants can spread 4 or more feet wide, shooting up dozens of flower stems. The top few feet of the stems are covered in 2-inch wide yellow sunflowers with yellow centers abuzz with bees. The show can last for several weeks in September or October, but after the flowers fade the plants become a bird buffet of seeds well into winter. Maximilian sunflowers grow best in soils that hold water well and produce the best show when watered to a depth of 2 feet weekly during the growing season, every two weeks in spring and fall and monthly or less in winter.
Maximilian sunflower, Helianthus maximiliani
Flowers aren’t the only source of fall color, either, but red leaves in fall are not the norm in New Mexico. Cottonwoods in the Bosque and aspens in the mountains are our autumn gold. Chinese pistache Pistacia chinensis has become one of the most dependable heat and drought tolerant shade trees and adds splashes of red fall foliage in the ABQ metro area. A great shade tree that is 20 to 30-feet tall at maturity with a canopy spread of 20-feet, Chinese pistache benefits from structural pruning while it is young to assure strong branching. Once well rooted, it should be watered at the edge of the branch canopy to a depth of 2 to 3 feet every few weeks during the growing season and monthly or less depending on winter moisture.
Chinese pistache, Pistacia chinensis
Author: Judith Phillips, owner of Design Oasis, landscape designer and garden writer with 30 years experience designing arid-adapted and native gardens in the high desert.
505Outside sat down with local landscape contractor Hunter Ten Broeck, owner of WaterWise Landscapes Incorporated, to chat about Water Harvesting in Albuquerque.
There are two categories of water harvesting techniques: passive water harvesting and active water harvesting. Passive water harvesting is the practice of slowing water down and encouraging it to soak into the ground. Water is collected from the source (roof, canale, downspout, or sloped earth) and directed to the landscape where the water can be immediately used by the plants. Active water harvesting uses rain barrels, cisterns, and other types of containers to store rainwater for later distribution. These typically hold as few as 200 gallons of water up to 10,000 gallons. A good calculation to remember is 1” of rain on a 1000 sq. ft. roof equals about 600 gallons of water.
Hunter
says the key to any type of water harvesting system, whether active or passive,
is to incorporate it into the landscape design. Thinking through how the rain
water will interact with your landscape and designing for that should be first
and foremost.
When asked what a homeowner could easily do to start water harvesting in their yard, Hunter recommended starting small and trying passive water harvesting. Passive systems can be as simple as a swale, a French drain (or rock burrito, as nicknamed by his staff), or more complicated systems that include building an underground soil sponge area. He says to start by finding the roof’s downspouts and canals, then provide a catch area underneath them. A catch area could be a concrete splash block or cobbles. Then direct that water away from the home via a cobble swale that runs into a planting area. This can be done easily by digging down a few inches and creating a slope away from the house into the planting area. Once the swale is dug, add cobble on top to stabilize the soil and prevent erosion.
Cobble swale located at downspout next to house.
To make Hunter’s “rock burrito” simply dig an 8” wide trench at least 12” deep and as long as necessary for the space. Slope the bottom of the trench toward the drainage area. Layer the trench with filter fabric followed by cobble or rocks. Roll the fabric over the rocks then backfill with soil. This will provide an underground collection area for water. Water will slowly soak into the ground providing moisture to adjacent planting areas.
"Rock Burrito" French drain under construction in an Albuquerque landscape.
For homeowners who are ready to tackle an active water harvesting system like a rain barrel or cistern, Hunter recommends adding a passive water harvesting system next to the active one for when the container overflows.
Passive water harvesting swale next to active water harvesting cistern.
Using every drop of water through water harvesting is an important feature Hunter incorporates into all his landscape designs.
Local Expert: Hunter Ten Broeck, Landscape Contractor and owner of WaterWise Landscapes Incorporated in Albuquerque, NM. Author: Jill Brown, ASLA Landscape Architect and owner of My Landscape Coach in Albuquerque, NM.
