Inspiration for High Desert Gardening
The 2023 Placitas Garden Tour was held on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Check out our 2023 Gardens!
1. Shifting Moods & Views Garden
Subdivision: Tierra Madre
Owner/ Designer: Joann and Scott Mackenzie
Garden Type or Features: Beautifully hardscaped property with a large wraparound courtyard and outdoor sculptures.
Artist in the Garden: Sabina Turner
Description: Joann and Scott MacKenzie have lived in this Placitas home for 12 years, experimenting with almost every type of plant, shrub, flower or grass while transforming their landscape to emphasize simplicity, dog friendliness, soothing water sounds, views of the Sandias and occasional splashes of color from flowers and Native American sculptures and metal artwork from their overflowing collection. Over the years, they added a backyard entertainment space with flagstone pathways and concrete steps that lead to a more private sitting area by the back door, which is perfect for morning newspaper and coffee.
2. Larga Vista Garden
Subdivision: Anasazi Trails
Owner/ Designer: Sharon and George Arthur
Garden Type or Feature: An intentional garden planted to complement both the architecture of the home and its placement on a prominent Placitas ridge.
Artist in the Garden: Meg Leonard
Description: The Larga Vista (Long View) Garden is an intentional garden planted to complement both the architecture of the home and its placement on a prominent Placitas ridge. Homeowners Sharon and George Arthur, who had the home designed and built, moved in and started the garden in 2018.
3. Small Pleasurer’s Garden
Subdivision: Sundance Mesa
Owner/ Designer: P.K. and Dean Williams
Garden Type or Feature: A smaller, beautifully landscaped and colorful garden oasis with access and unencumbered north views of the desert Albuquerque open space. The owner, P.K. Williams will be creating art in her own garden during the day of the garden tour on Sunday September 10, 2023.
Artist in the Garden: P.K. Williams
Description: When P.K. and Dean Williams moved to Placitas in 2019, they found a home with all the makings for a garden they could call their own. The previous owners had planted shade trees, created a small turf area and installed flowers beds in the backyard and front patio. They enhanced it by adding cool places to sit and enjoy the outdoor vistas Placitas is known for.
4. Placitas Winery
Subdivision: Village of Placitas
Owner/ Designer: Barb, Ty & Evan Belknap
Garden Type or Features: Placitas Winery, a vineyard, historic fruit orchard, and home property, sits on the western edge of the Village of Placitas and consists of a tasting room, an open-air event center, a hybrid Syrah grape vineyard, a variety of fruit trees, and an outdoor seating area with mature trees and accent plants. There is plenty of parking with a 360-degree drive through (separate entrance and exit roads.)
Artist in the Garden: Erica Wendel-Oglesby
Description: Barb and Ty Belknap do more than grow fruit and sell wine at their 4-acre Placitas Winery. They also maintain a window into the populations who inhabited the location long before they took possession in 2018. Visitors to the orchard, winery and rustic event space get a rare glimpse of the fertile floodplain and a way of life that has supported cultures for many centuries.
5. The Flowing Garden
Subdivision: Pinon Bluff/ Juniper Hills
Owner/ Designer: Rob Yin and Jill Hensley
Garden Type or Features: This property has a great variety of trees along with native and native adapted shrubs, grasses, cacti and other perennials. See the partial plant list below. The owners created an intricate terraced pathway with rest stops to view the Las Huertas canyon ridge and the North face of the Sandia mountain.
Artist in the Garden: Jude Rudder
Description: Jill Hensley and Rob Yin built their house in Placitas in 2016 on a narrow, one-acre property that sits on top of a ridge that falls steeply down to Las Huertas Creek. It came with a few native shrubs and a stunning view of the northernmost Sandias, so they quickly turned to landscaper Jesus Sotelo for initial xeriscaping and trees that include Austrian Pines, Piñons, Alligator Juniper, Aspens and Yucca.
6. Magnificent Mesa
Subdivision: Ideal Acres
Owners: R. Rene Strong
Garden Type or Features: A beautifully landscaped and productive remote garden property with mature fruit trees, raised garden beds, native shrubs, and perennial flowers planted against awe inspiring panoramic mesa views Cabazon peak and the Jemez Mountains.
Artist in the Garden: Mary Louise (Mary Lou) Skelton
Description: After a long search for property that would blend her desire for solitude and memories of a childhood in Corrales and summers with her grandparents in Santa Fe, René Strong settled on a two-acre parcel near the end of the road in northeastern Placitas. Magnificent views of Cabezon and the Jemez Mountains sealed the deal, and in 2020 she retired to her “dream home” and began making it her own.
Video Slideshow of Prior Placitas Garden Tours
