Subdivision: Mustang Mesa
Owner/ Designer: Lisa and Jud Fink
Garden Type or Features: This Asian themed garden features unique placement of boulders to create a mountain outcropping favoring the naturalization of seedlings and providing protection for plants. A large rock waterfall provides peace for onlookers and a respite for wildlife. The Albuquerque Bonsai Club members will demonstrate the art of bonsai on small plants.
Description:
Gardening on the mesa is challenging – dry, windy, early heat, late frost, with jackrabbits and wild horses stopping by occasionally to nibble on anything that looks tasty. Lisa and Jud try to choose plants that can survive and even thrive under these conditions, though it can be difficult to know this in advance. Have you ever seen a plant labeled “horse resistant? Special attention has been paid to plants that use little of our most precious resource, water. That extends even to the small buffalo grass “lawn” in the rear courtyard, put in for the late beloved family dog, Sugar. Much of the supplemental water is handled by a drip system that schedules itself automatically based on the local weather.
The garden came together in three phases. The courtyards and the area immediately around the house were designed and installed by the late Guillermo Arriola and Young Guns Yard Control under Guillermo’s direction. The cactus gardens flanking the end of the driveway were designed and installed by Antonio Dominguez and Young Guns. The final phase, along the east side of the house, connects everything and was designed by Lisa and installed by Antonio and Young Guns. Lisa particularly loved this warm, dry spring’s abundant display of flowering red yucca in her courtyard..
Being a garden on the mesa provides great views of the Sandias in the south and of the Jemez Mountains in the north. It is common to see wild horses grazing in open spaces, or occasionally in private gardens. Lisa and Jud welcome you into their legacy garden to enjoy what they have accomplished in the last few years along with the maturity of their plants.
Education in the Garden: Placitas Resilience and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) volunteers will inform on fire and other emergency preparedness and resilience in our landscapes.
Click here to read and/or download the Fire Wise Plant Materials document.
