Subdivision: Tierra Madre
Owner: Nina Amir Lacey and Ron Lacey
Garden Type or Features: Judith Phillips designed a spring-fall blooming, low-water use landscape complete with a labyrinth for the owners..
Artist in the Garden: Lisa Avila.
Click here to download this garden’s Garden Plant List.
Click here to download the Medicine Wheel.
Description:
Nina was influenced by her late mother, an avid gardener who loved roses. After her death, Nina commissioned an install of the landscape plan designer Judith Phillips created for them, which includes a memorial rose garden.
The couple started planning for their high desert landscape in 2022, when they purchased the then 20-year-old property. Phillips created a spring-fall blooming, low-water use landscape complete with a labyrinth. In the summer of 2023, Jesus and Miguel Sotelo of MAS Landscaping carried out Judith’s plan, including irrigation.
Nina strives to create sanctuaries outside her homes. The natural outdoor surroundings function as a spiritual space experienced by those who enter the garden. The hardscape offers numerous places to sit and enjoy the colorful flowers and views of the mesas and Sandia Mountains. A shaman sculpture near the front entrance presides over the home and garden.
The back courtyard includes a stone fountain from Range West in Madrid, NM, surrounded by transplanted salvia, several colors or iris, and two trellises of yellow Carolina Jasmine. The couple built a new patio outside the master bedroom featuring a variety of grasses and plants blooming amongst the rocks.
Nina and Ron have gained confidence in their southwest gardening abilities and planted a cactus garden outside the courtyard. Additionally, they created a Native American medicine wheel not far from their labyrinth and are naturalizing their property by adding agaves and cactus and cholla transplants. Even the dog run blooms with yerba santa, wisteria, and an olive tree.
Fragrant roses are Nina’s favorite plants, as well as any flower that can be cut and enjoyed inside.
