Seeing clouds many mornings with afternoons less hot, I enjoyed my workout hikes and the drives through my old design once again. Last summer, that is.
Photos from 8/30/2023:
Dasylirion wheeleri and Yucca faxoniana shine for the drive north on Anthem, along with a volunteer Chilopsis linearis tree.
The masses and pops of color are Leucophyllum zygophyllum ‘Cimarron’. Their spicy but sweet fragrance through open car windows is what the doctor ordered.
While flowers are fleeting, and my work is about how gardens and landscapes shouldn’t rely on flowers for interest, their response to milder, wetter weather mirrors the human response.
At the intersection to enter the neighborhood, moisture-fueled flowering compliments the more static wildscape and plantings.
The low entry wall or monumentation once shown in plan may have been deleted by the developer, but I might add it back using Adobe Illustrator!
Framing my photos to avoid maintenance pitfalls is needed more than I prefer, but the sins of add-ons that ruin their investment, such as out-of-place boulders or plant clutter, have another techie solution: Adobe Photoshop. The only person who should be ashamed of such photo edits is the doer of the sin, not the clean-up crew!
Photoshop and cropping worked well, at least to my eyes.
Even without my entry wall, repetition of plants and their forms, plus some randomness, proved the winner here.
The same ‘Cimarron’ Ranger plants had already finished flowering inside the entry median, while they were at peak bloom on the sides and longer median on Anthem.
On the other side of the Las Estancias neighborhood entry, the drip emitters may no longer be functioning. That’s based on the declining vigor of the yuccas and Nolina greenei.
The new maintenance contractor, directed by their association instead of the developer, seems more qualified to do productive maintenance.
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Almost home and back to work, a nearby neighborhood is where good luck made its rare appearance.
Front yard landscape photos aren’t easy to get, where mostly retired people live. But that day, this couple’s land-scraper hadn’t yet chopped back their Rose of Sharon / Hibiscus syriacus, and there was no sign of either person.
Just me for some covert photos, except for their (probably) door camera!
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Gladly, we’re slowly warming up into what looks to be a pleasant, longer spring.
Though it’s months from our area’s plant growth peak, even the hottest and driest weeks of summer prior are nowhere in sight. Meaning there’s time to enjoy more of these past and current drive-bys.
This past spring, I was out and about in Albuquerque for car service, some work, and a workout hike. Plus, a break from my daily routine.
Though spring was late to start, the weather was quite pleasant after the first day. Since I couldn’t visit the previous winter and see landscapes in their cool season appearance, dormancy lingered for me this time.
Photos are from April 6-7, 2023:
Late afternoon light at Bill’s home showed off his Euphorbia rigida in flower mode, with evergreen Nolina greenei among still-bare Forestiera neomexicana.
After some work and then a drive in the valley to find a few old projects and interesting plants, I changed into jeans and a nicer shirt. It was time for a quick stop by a firm I do some independent contractor work for.
enter the car park, as Siri sayslooking south
Their firm fronts a busy street through a number of office parks, one of several with landscapes moving past that town’s pre-2000 aspirations towards Midwestern lolipop trees and lawns.
The design by that same firm masses plants native to the greater region on the frontage. Cochineal-spotted Opuntia lindheimeri from Texas greens up the concrete wall, softened by state grass, Bouteloua gracilis. From the mid-elevations of central Arizona to southwestern New Mexico, beefy Nolina microcarpa fills in with bluish Dasylirion wheeleri.
After a half hour there, I drove on now-busy I-25 and I-40 up to the foothills to get in a seriously steep hike before indulging at a new restaurant by UNM.
near the trailhead, a landscape is maturingthis microclimate west of the house is helping these tender Nolina nelsoni
That landscape and water harvesting cistern is by another designer, but it uses some locally and regionally native plants in a loose arrangement.
After a quick change back into a tee, shorts, and hiking boots, I hit the trail. That soft crunch of decomposed granite soil as I headed uphill was what I needed. The sun on my back felt a bit warm, at least combined with the constant effort of the nearly-1,000-foot climb in under a mile.
“The mountain lion-colored hills”, someone else wrote for here.
Also powering through a tan background of granite rock are evergreen plant forms, including Cylindropuntia imbricata, Nolina greenei, Yucca baccata, Quercus turbinella, and Cercocarpus brevifolius.
dry season is December-JuneOenothera albicaulisTrail #365, sans mountain bikelooking down already
I’m enjoying this crazy quilt of color … tapestry of prairie and montane … bold but spare mix of foothill and desert grassland plants, though the monsoon season was months away.
With many opportunities to stop and catch one’s breath, the ideas flow.
Strong plants hold down these dry slopes, where even the xeric oaks have spiky leaves, with Nolina and various grasses underneath. Big views, soft and sharp, bold, and bodacious, though awaiting soaking rain to pop some floral displays and elusive greens.
Quercus turbinellathe distant high point was my goalthis view never gets old
Warm season grasses dotting the area, an occasional, larger green plant adds mass and visual interest. To all the wild birds, lizards, or pollinators, plenty of great places to hang out when people like me are near or far. Opuntia engelmannii and the previously mentioned plants are in attendance.
Keeping on, the land tries to be a woodland or at least a dwarfed one. It’s really an open chaparral, at the elevation and dryness limits of desert grassland and chaparral.
The only times I saw a ringtail cat were right below, twice in 15 years of hikes. No pics, but they’re like small raccoons. The real cats are few but don’t like you seeing them.
“Ringtail Gorge”
Do you see why I stress and design with plenty of evergreen and sculpture plants, when flowering is fleeting and growth comes in quick sprints, only to fade?
A garden depending on flowers and mesic grasses is a very plain version of what all these foothills are, without the greens of cacti, yuccas, and live oaks. Not to mention the foothills have those huge granite boulders forming the look and mood, which cannot be obtained or afforded in the nearby gardens in town.
Now, the trail levels out, with a higher vantage point than previous views.
Corydalis aureathe state tree: Piñon
That’s Pinus edulis, here with more Opuntia engelmannii and Yucca baccata. At least today, while sticking to Latin or botanical names. There’s some ducking through a boulder tunnel, and a gentle climb or two left to the high point.
a natural granite crevice garden, sans fussy perennials
The last bit of that day’s trail, usually with plenty of Verbena wrightii, Castilleja integra, or Corydalis / Scrambled Eggs coloring up the greenish grama grasses by this time of year. Had there been more cool season moisture. No such luck, yet we’re in luck with those Cylindropuntia imbricata, larger than most below – more rain and soil.
Flowers or not: the reward, other than staying in shape.
ahhhhhh
Rush hour? What rush hour? I named this The Perch while looking up at it from my last home, so long ago. From up here, one can see 75 miles west to Mount Taylor or south to the Magdalena Mountains near Socorro. Possibly further?
But this is the top of that hike – to compare, my old house is 5,650 ft elevation.
another natural crevice gardenand back downgreen always wins for me
10 minutes from my car, 10 minutes on the freeway with rush hour over and going the opposite direction, anyway.
Good music cranked up, the sunroof is open as I drove towards into the western skies. Enough time to get back to Bill’s home on lower ground, freshen up, put on fresh clothes, and make our dinner reservation at Mesa Provisions.
And yes, it was a great meal and experience!
rise and shinearound the block
Yucca rostrata, Yucca baccata, Yucca recurvifolia – the yucca state.
Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’, an Agave salmiana, and other members of my own plant palette were seen around, as I sought out good coffee, to get some work completed. Of course, I was armed with a couple croissants, seated outside at a patio table.
My last full day ended by catching up with Will at the above firm at his home, the workday over. His neighbors Rick and Diane, who I haven’t seen in well over a decade, were there. We sat by his pool, in the shade, and talked planning and plants, and personal updates.
I’ll post a bit more on Rick and Diane’s landscape another time.
Rick’s / Diane’s front
Those last two photos were from the neighborhood opposite Indian School from Will and Rick, enroute to dinner in that strangely, now unfamiliar town that’s changed little. The masses of two sotols were by far one of the more appealing plantings nearby: Dasylirion wheeleri in blue-green, Dasylirion texanum or D. leiophyllum in green.
Paired with the contemporary home and low retaining / garden wall, that front area didn’t try to do too much but fail. It did all that was necessary, then spoke clearly.
The pines and Yucca faxoniana, with soon-to-green up Chilopsis linearis, finished the statement.
This year I made my usual spring visit to an Albuquerque client when the weather was cooler, a month earlier than usual. With the west’s delayed spring, it was a more relaxed but needed time.
Photos are from April 7 and 8, 2023:
The evening light was fine, before heading out for dinner at a new place in Nob Hill.
Bill’s front garden saw us off with evergreens like foothills-native Beargrass / Nolina greenei and adapted Korean Boxwood / Buxus microphylla, as Desert Olive / Forestiera neomexicana was still not leafed out.
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In back at his casita, this greeted me using some of the same greenery as in front, but arranged differently. Defying seasonal change, its inviting manner will give a few surprises, especially the months of flowering and hummingbird attractions of Mexican Oregano / Poliomintha madrensis ‘Lavender Spice’.
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Dinner may have been amazing, but so was walking outside to a new day in this same spot. Fresh morning light greeted the possibilities, some the same and some new.
Light and shadows, whatever. It’s time for breakfast!
While the Desert Olive isn’t buying that they’re well into spring, Gopher Plant / Euphorbia rigida doesn’t care. The soft and fresh coolness feels invigorating.
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A few weeks later, the southern US, yet adapted, part of Bill’s back garden showed off.
His existing Pendulous Yucca / Yucca recurvifolia and our design’s addition of Crossvine / Bignonia capreolata began the first and stronger of their two bloom seasons, spring edging out fall. (photos by ME Lebeck)
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We didn’t spend much time in front and especially in the back garden. Though you may have picked up on what makes this work:
Greens are essential for impact – use at least 50% evergreen plants.
Let flowers be pops of color between the extremes of summer heat and winter chill, like how they work in the desert. Don’t force flowers into the spotlight, but instead, let flowers play a secondary role until they move to center stage on their own.
Structure and mass with fewer plant species, then mix in random surprises. Not the other way around.
It's A Dry Heat 