Entrance Remodel
Santa Fe, New Mexico
It was love at first sight. Well, first meeting anyway!
The owners had just moved to Santa Fe, and she loved gardening. Well, on the east coast anyway. In fact, she was a retired meteorologist (weather scientist, not on TV), who was ready for her her next adventures and he was a semi-retired filmmaker who loved to play with the light of New Mexico. We were three like minds! I could talk weather patterns and climate science with her, and we could totally appreciate each other’s passion for art. They wanted their beautiful new home to have beautiful gardens too. Well, we talked about water, soil, colors, labor and irrigation, and three years later we had something beautiful indeed. She loves her garden and has learned to work in a much harsher enviroonment. He now studies and videos birds. More photos coming with additions and changes!
The first thing that caught my eye was the straight as a squiggle pathway that added nothing to the garden or the eyeline of the house. The area that we were about to plant had lots of rabbit brush to the west, where the conditions were only slightly more advantageous. We eliminated 90% of the monocrop and introduced 10 different varieties.
Here the garden is maturing and spring color rewards us for the wait. In the backround, grasses and trees will show off their colors later. The path now curves to bring the visitor to the more interesting parts of the property and the eye slows down to wander.
In the late fall and early winter in Santa Fe, you can leave the grasses for winter interest or trim them to the ground. Every few years divide clumps that die out in the middle.
Big sage and blonde ambition blue gramma grass invite the eye during late fall.
pineleaf penstemon (penstemon pinefolius), may night salvia (salvia nemerosa), and jupiter's beard (centranthus ruber) are all excellent hummingbird and pollinator attractors. Native or native appropriate grasses (here miscanthus sinensis) can be interplanted for later season interest.
When they bought the house 10 years ago, there was no house interfering with their view of the Sangre de Christos. Arizona cypress trees (Hersperocyparis arizonica) were planted to help eventually obscure the view with the pinons and junipers.
Here a more mature Arizona Cypress (Hersperocyperis arizonica "blue ice") provides privacy screening, erosion control, and a beautiful outdoor mirror for the Christmas tree