Desert friendly xeriscapes are a great way to replace high-water-use turf grass with something beautiful, low-water-use and wildlife-friendly. Many Albuquerque area homeowners are taking their conversion projects a step further and choosing wood chip mulch over gravel or other aggregate, which can get hot and allow weeds to pop up.
Our featured homeowner replaced 2,000 square feet of high-water-use grass lawn with a xeriscape filled with a variety of local native plants. Their lawn had become too high maintenance to keep up, and they were interested in a more water efficient yard that was pollinator friendly and low maintenance. The shrubs they chose include chamisa, cherry sage and catmint. Flowering plants include Mexican primrose, dwarf plumbago, desert marigold, creeping germander and penstemon. A mix of ornamental grasses such as Karl Forester, blue avena and muhly grass as well as a native desert willow tree round out the landscape.
Additional Facts on Mulches:
Wood chip mulch insulates plant roots from both heat and cold, reducing moisture loss from the soil by evaporation, feeding beneficial soil microorganisms that enhance plant growth and improving soil health. This makes the soil more sponge-like and better able to hold water. By installing 3-4 inches of mulch over bare dirt, weeds are reduced, the soil is enriched and new plants retain more moisture.
Another benefit of organic mulches is that they can visually accommodate a little bit of leaf litter, reducing the need for constant raking and clean-up. A thin top dressing of mulch added every two to three years keeps the landscape looking fresh and replaces the material that has broken down to sustain the soil. Organic mulches are lightweight, making them easy to transport in a wheelbarrow and spread with a rake.
Mulches are available in bags from most local garden centers (avoid the dyed ones as the colors will fade) and in bulk from several retailers in the Albuquerque area. When you buy from local bulk retailers, you are supporting the recycling of local organic materials that may otherwise end up in a landfill and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Buying in bulk also means less plastic! Mulch is sometimes available at no cost from local tree trimming companies. In addition, Bernalillo County offers free mulch to residents who load it themselves at the East Mountain Transfer Station. County staff can load the mulch in your vehicle with a tractor for a $5 charge. The county also will deliver 30 cubic yards of mulch for $60, plus $2 a round trip mile for delivery. Mulches are a renewable resource that will improve landscape health and conserve water.
In areas of higher wind exposure or periodic inundation with water, use a wood chip mulch that is irregularly shaped and sized as the pieces will knit together better. This type of mulch can include recycled yard waste and tree trimmings as well as commercially available, locally processed wood products.
Property Data:
Grass converted to desert friendly xeriscape: 2,150 square feet
Total gallons saved in one year since conversion: 10,000 gallons.
Total rebate received: $2,250 (extra $100 bonus for using organic mulch)
Thinking about converting your yard from high-water-use grass to xeriscape? Check out the Desert Friendly Xeriscape Rebate page to learn more about the qualifications, requirements and process to apply for this generous rebate. Additionally, xeriscape rebate participants get 25% off the cost of installing bulk organic mulch, up to $100. If you want to top dress mulch around your trees, take advantage of our Treebates. You are welcome to contact our xeriscape specialist, Carl Christensen, at cwchristensen@abcwua.org or 505-289-3026.
Authors: Amos Arber, Xeriscape Rebate Inspector with the Water Resources Conservation Department for the Water Authority, and landscape architect Jill Brown, ASLA, MyLandscapeCoach.com. Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.or
The word Mediterranean may bring to mind rows of lavender in southern France, an Italian villa or maybe a Spanish courtyard or Greek olive orchard. These areas around the Mediterranean Sea all share unique plants and garden design methods that are part of their allure in movies, marketing and as tourist destinations. Luckily for residents of the Albuquerque area, the mediterranean climate is similar enough to that of our high desert home that many mediterranean plants can be successfully grown here. (Note: There are other coastal areas of the world that are climatically so similar to the area around the Mediterranean Sea that they are also known as having mediterranean climates. These areas include parts of South Africa, Australia, Chile and California. A capital “M” is used for the Mediterranean place in the world, while a lowercase “m” refers to the climate that includes all five regions.)
Albuquerque has hot and increasingly dry summers, just like the Mediterranean. This means that plants from both places do best with deep watering to reach their deep, drought-adapted roots and a good layer of organic mulch to keep moisture in the soil. Most mediterranean plants prefer full sun, although a few can tolerate some shade. Mediterranean places tend to have soils with good drainage, so make sure to keep mediterranean plants away from any areas with clay or caliche.
There are, however, a few very important differences between Albuquerque and mediterranean climates. The most significant of these differences is temperature: As coastal areas, mediterranean climates don’t get very cold. It is rare to have snow or anything other than a light freeze. Many mediterranean plants are not cold hardy enough to grow in the high desert. Others may require a protected area in a courtyard or along a south-facing wall for extra warmth. The mediterranean plants that are more cold hardy and generally do well here can still be killed by the combination of freezing temperatures and wet soil. So, as temperatures drop in the fall, stop watering your mediterranean plants and don’t start again until the chance of frost has passed in spring.
While selecting mediterranean plants for your landscape, you can also incorporate a few simple Mediterranean garden design strategies. The starting point for any Mediterranean garden is evergreen trees and shrubs. Think olive trees, Italian cypress and statuesque pines. However, since olive trees are not cold hardy in Albuquerque, instead try an escarpment live oak. Their glossy dark green leaves are a great substitute for an olive, and they are an important species for pollinators. Although Italian cypress can grow in Albuquerque (and was planted profusely in the 1970s), it is not particularly well-adapted here. A better choice is an upright juniper cultivar, such as Keteleeri. And while a Mediterranean stone pine or Aleppo pine would do well in a protected courtyard, Afghan pine is another option with better cold hardiness. Arizona rosewood, turpentine bush and manzanita hybrids are a few evergreen shrubs that will give your landscape a Mediterranean flavor.
Next, include some plants with light silvery-blue leaves to contrast with the evergreens suggested above. Silvery-blue foliage is a plant adaptation to intense solar radiation, so many mediterranean and locally native plants share this quality. Mediterranean natives with this striking color include lavender, gopher spurge and grey lavender cotton (which actually has yellow flowers), while silver-leafed native plants include sand sage, germander sage and chamisa. There are also many locally native plants with silvery leaves that provide contrasting shape as well as color: Agaves, desert spoon, blue Nolina and yuccas all can accent your landscape beautifully. Of course, these locally native plants will be easier to grow and will provide better pollinator habitat than mediterranean imports.
Edible plants and herbs have always been another important part of Mediterranean gardens. Rosemary, lavender, oregano, thyme, chives and culinary sage all hail from the Mediterranean and do well in Albuquerque. Mediterranean fruit trees, such as fig, pomegranate and apricot can flourish but do require a little extra water. This water need can be met by roof runoff if you plant them in a well-drained rainwater harvesting basin or swale. Fruits and herbs all provide flowers in addition to food. However, if you’re looking for an extra splash of color, red hot poker, moonshine yarrow and Bowle’s mauve are all mediterranean options.
Whatever mediterranean plants you choose, just remember to keep their roots dry when it’s cold out, make sure the soil drains well and give them a nice layer of wood mulch. They will repay you with a beautiful and low water use landscape for years to come.
Mediterranean plant options
Shade tree: Japanese pagoda
Evergreen trees: Keteleeri juniper, escarpment live oak
Small flowering trees: Vitex, crape myrtle
Large plants (5-8' tall/wide): Fernbush, blue Nolina, evergreen sumac
Medium plants (3-5' tall/wide): Rosemary, large agave (americana, ovata, havardiana), lavender, red hot poker, pink muhly grass
When I mention black currants while talking fruit trees and shrubs with people in Albuquerque, I have come to expect that we are often starting the conversation thinking about different things. Most commonly, people have experienced or heard about the European black currant, Ribes nigrum.
They recall an earthy, resinous flavor with nice sweetness and a tart finishing kick. European currants are best reserved for cooking. With their strong flavor, they make incredible sauces and condiments and are equally delicious as preserves and in pies and tarts. These black currants have a devoted following. Because the flavor is very distinct, I have found people often have a binary reaction when I mention the fruit: either pleasurable nostalgia or occasionally disinterest or dislike.
The other thing people confuse for black currants are little dried raisins, similarly dark in color and confusingly sold as “currants.” These fruits are made from “raisins de Corinthe,” Greek grapes grown, dried and shipped for hundreds of years from a port of that name. These are not the black currants I am talking about.
While I do like eating and growing the European black currant here in Albuquerque (mostly as a shady understory plant), I am much more excited about our native black currant — Ribes aureum— the clove currant, aka golden or buffalo currant.
The clove currant is more fruity, less funky and a bit sweeter than its European counterpart. There is still some pleasing complexity and tartness to the fruit, but nothing mouth-puckering. They are perfect for fresh eating — or freeze them so they can be thrown in a smoothie or used as a blueberry replacement in pancakes when the snow flies. The fruits can get nice and large for a currant, from ¼ inch up to ¾ inch in size, with a shiny, blue/black color. Even the shrubs themselves are a bit larger, reaching 5 to 6 feet at maturity.
As an ornamental, the clove currant is a bit too floppy for a hedge, and they do send out runners — so consider yourself warned. However, if you give them a little space as a focal point in the garden, you will be rewarded with abundant dangling, bell-shaped yellow flowers in the spring that draw you across the yard with an overpowering vanilla and clove scent and, of course, all the incredible life that visits the flowers for their nectar. You will also get to see them with their dusky-crimson foliage in the fall. For most of the summer, you and the birds can keep eating the fruits as they ripen singly or in small clusters.
Clove currants handle the New Mexico sun and heat with grace, but they are quite adaptable and can do well with partial and even full shade. Along the river, they are only occasionally shaded out by taller thickets. If you’re out wandering in the bosque this spring, keep an eye out (or follow your nose) for these incredible flowers and fruits.
Author: Graeme Davis is an ISA certified arborist and the owner of Flora Fauna Farm, a nursery that focuses on plants that grow well in the high desert. Flora Fauna Farm grows a diversity of edible trees and shrubs, useful native plants and unique landscape plants curiously underrepresented in the urban canopy of Albuquerque. You can see its offerings at www.florafauna.farm.
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 the rosarian, who, when asked which rose was her favorite, would always reply, “The one that’s in front of me right now.” Therefore, I shall restrain myself for the purpose of this article to the seeded meadow in the high desert. I hope you will find the selections mentioned compelling enough to consider them and possibly experiment a little!
It was actually at my grandmother’s house that, in 2009, a friend and I, fresh out of the landscape architecture program at the University of New Mexico, germinated our first meadow from seed. We had stabilized 99% of the site’s steep grades with retaining walls, but a pesky little 300-square-foot sliver of dead sod at about a 30% slope seemed forever destined to erode out the driveway and down the storm sewer — rats!
There was an existing sprinkler system in place, and we were therefore able to provide timed irrigation to the surface of the soil without having to dig a bunch of new trenches and put a bunch of new plastic piping in the ground. A little idea sparked: Why not just seed a meadow! The cost of ingredients would be relatively low, and, given how cooked our bodies were from the work we’d already invested, a little bit of (somewhat) instant gratification sounded downright appealing.
On a late spring day, we bounced a springy roll of burlap out of the truck bed and onto our shoulders, then tossed the following in a large paper grocery bag:
2 small packets of Indian paintbrush (Castileja lanata)
2 small packets of mullein (Verbascum thapsis)
A couple of handfuls of grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) and species tulip bulbs collected from excavation on site
We prepared the soil minimally for the seed mix, scuffing a couple of 2-cubic-foot bags of compost into the top inch or two of soil with a hard rake. We then hand-broadcasted the seed atop the loose dirt, east-west and then north-south, followed by lightly raking the seed and soil together to mix the two. Lastly, using a generous fistful of (100-ish) sod staples, we tightly pinned a single layer of burlap to the surface. The burlap serves as the secret ingredient in the concoction of a high desert meadow, especially on a slope. It serves a couple of purposes: First, it secures the soil and seed mixture, ensuring it doesn’t wash away in rivulets from the sprinklers or get blown away by the wind; it also holds onto a little moisture while allowing the emerging cotyledons — the plants’ first leaves — enough elbow room to squeeze into the sunlight.
Straightening up and drying our foreheads, both a bit chuffed at how easy that’d all been, we started taking wagers. “Which of the wildflower seeds do you think will bloom first?” I asked. “My money’s on the Indian paintbrush,” said my friend, fully aware that Indian paintbrush is hemi-parasitic and relies on blue grama to survive. I cracked up. He cracked up! If there seemed to be a clear underdog in the race, that was it!
We set the sprinklers to run for five minutes twice a day and after a couple weeks had passed, we teased the burlap from the surface, revealing a uniform green carpet. At the margins of the sliver of meadow there was a distinct green border of sprouts ceasing right where the burlap was cut. Neither of us had expected it.
By the end of that summer, we had nearly weaned the meadow off irrigation. The grasses and perennial wildflowers had come in marvelously. Now, as we near the spring season of 2024, and the first winter jasmine shrubs and daffodils are blooming, I drive by that yard in the Sandia foothills and think to myself how one of the best performing landscapes I ever had a hand in was also one of the easiest and least expensive.
Each year, there continues to be a succession of blooms. In springtime, grape hyacinth emerges first, followed by a flush of Indian paintbrush and then purple prairie clover. The grasses green up in May and mature through August, and the little bluestem holds a warm, russet color through the winter.
While the flax initially performed well and provided early color, it has had the least longevity of any of the wildflowers. The mullein seeds germinated well and formed soft rosettes, but the current residents of the property sadly weeded it out of the meadow for aesthetic reasons. The purple prairie clover flowers profusely every summer with irrigation once or twice a week. But, the real star of the show, from that first year until this day is — I never thought I’d say it — the underdog, Indian paintbrush.
Learn more about specific types of gardening here:
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 evaluate the landscape around them and learn to harvest food occurring naturally in their habitats.
Forest edges were rich sources of diverse plant species, and ancient humans learned what species were edible, where to find them and even ways to support and encourage the growth of plants useful to them. Food forests or edible landscapes have evolved and adapted over thousands of years as humans’ hands and minds have learned to design them to their nutritional needs and geographic limitations. A food forest will be very different depending on where it is in the world, but all share some common traits that can be adapted to almost any climate.
Food forests are very different from traditional farming or growing a vegetable garden. They are designed to mimic the natural forest edge, where species producing edible fruits, nuts, berries, roots and tubers grow in natural layers. We can imitate this pattern with species of our choosing that will do well in our hardiness zone and climate. There are many references and publications on the subject and a quick internet search is an easy way to begin, as is your local bookstore’s gardening section.
The philosophy of permaculture design, popularized over the last few decades, has brought a new awareness to our landscape and garden design; we have learned to make use of topography, natural water movement, soil structure and amendments, sun and shade patterns over the seasons, and the importance of pollinators and wildlife in our gardens and lives. A food forest is a functional, beautiful and diverse way to garden holistically.
When you imagine your food forest, think about the layers of plant species and the food sources they provide. First, at the outer edge, there is the canopy, the tallest layer of trees. These might be fruit- or nut-bearing deciduous trees or even some conifers here or there, as even a pine tree has edible parts, and the needles make a fine tea.
The second story is a mid-level layer of smaller trees, such as semi-dwarf or dwarf apple, peach and plum trees. Under the smaller fruit trees comes the shrub layer. If shaded, it could be currants or gooseberries. If sunnier, perhaps raspberries or blackberries.
After the shrubs comes the herbaceous layer, planted with perennial herbs like rosemary, garden sage and thyme. Ground covers like strawberries can sprawl under and around, followed by root crops like carrots, radishes and more. Vining plants are important, too. Some, like sweet potatoes, can be both root and vine. Others, like grapes, can utilize the structure of the trees to move up through the branches, making harvesting an easy task.
In some environments, you can grow edible mushrooms as part of the lowest layer; they will feed on the decomposing mulch and decaying wood that is part of the forest floor. Mulch is critical in any garden or landscape and a necessity in a healthy food forest. Fallen leaves are an excellent natural mulch as are wood chips. Leaving or intentionally placing dead branches and logs is a great way to recycle nutrients naturally into the soil profile. Having rocks or stones in the mix is also a very good thing as they slowly release minerals as they break down over long periods of time.
Most of the plants in your food forest will be perennials, but as you see, there are places for annual herbs or vegetables anywhere there is room and the proper amount of shade, sunlight and moisture. Companion planting is a great way to decide what goes where, and diversity is the strength of any plant community. A food forest is the oldest, most resilient agroecosystem in the world, whether occurring naturally, enhanced by human hands and minds, or entirely created by intention and design.
Some of the benefits of a food forest are increased harvests based on diversity, nutrient storage and water retention in soil protected by mulch and overstory; healthy soil holding a host of beneficial microorganisms; and less weed and pest populations, again due to density and diversity, and therefore less maintenance and inputs (think fertilizer, weed control). Of course, organic principles are the way to go when growing anything you plan on consuming.
Like any garden or landscape, a food forest can and should reflect the humans who are part of the ecosystem and should be a place where native plants, wildflowers and grasses all have a place in the garden, where beauty, joy and learning from Mother Nature are sources of education, nutrition, comfort and pleasure.
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 with the rose-pink and magenta blooms of desert willow, cherry sage, creeping germander, giant four o’clock, purple ice plant, red yucca and desert globemallow. Yellow tones are provided by desert zinnia, yellow ice plant, yellow yucca and Lady Banks rose.
Using several different plants with similar color palettes prolongs the blooming season and provides unity to the landscape. While vivid color may be the appeal of the garden from spring through autumn, a landscape also needs “good bones” — enough evergreen foliage and shapely plant forms to provide interest when the blooming fireworks are over for the year. rosemary, Lady Banks rose, cliffrose, desert sage, hesperaloes and cotoneaster all contribute seasonal flower color as well as evergreen foliage in a broad range of greens and silvers to carry the garden through the colder winter months. In addition to their colorful warm season blooms, the curving trunks and branches of desert willow and vitex add sculptural value all year.
