Subdivision: Vista de la Montana
Owner/ Designer: Erica Wendel – Oglesby and Jon Ghahate
Garden Type or Features: Wildlife friendly garden with mature cottonwood trees providing a sanctuary for bobcats and birds alike. Flower and vegetable gardening. The owner will be displaying her recently published photo bird book. Proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit the Las Placitas. Association. The Bernalillo Master Gardeners will provide education on amending soils.
Artist in the Garden: Christine Brunet Lecomte.
Description:
“Our garden is a labor of love that brings joy not only to us, but the birds, pollinators and animals that come through the Placitas Wildlife Corridor for water, seeds and refuge. It is where we go to relax, eat meals, and let the cat explore and sun bath while under our supervision.” – Erica and Jon
This garden has been a work in progress since 2004. The newest addition to this legacy garden is the west end garden. Jon removed all the grass from the west yard, struggled with removing cottonwood tree roots, and had drip lines installed in a wheel spoke pattern allowing flexibility to insert additional lines where they decided to plant bushes, bulb areas, and hoop gardens for veggies. Erica designed the garden areas, and the flagstone pathway installation was installed by Jon.
Realizing that they had a large supply of empty wine bottles and at the same time wanting to come up with a unique way to keep the mulch in the garden and the stones on the other side of the flagstone pathway, Erica found the answer at Pinterest: a wine bottle garden border. Their cat, Cali, loves to lick the water from the bottom of the wine bottles after it rains! They now have a recycled greenhouse that a neighbor donated.
Other unique focal points of the property are a solar fountain in the west garden, a mosaic bird bath in the front courtyard and a mosaic covered pizza oven in the backyard. The later items were made by mosaicist, Erica.
Sunflowers, Moonbeam yarrow and salvia are some the owners’ favorite plants because they reliably come back every year and for the later bloom twice a year. They love the cottonwood trees because the mom bobcats use them for kitten naps while they hunt and the hawks make nests and raise their young in them!
Erica and Jon have achieved amended soil in their garden areas using a combination of topsoil and compost. To irrigate they use drip and small sprayers for some plants and low water use sprinklers for the small area of grass in the backyard. Three rainwater barrels are used to collect their “magic water” for plant watering throughout the year.
Erica recently self-published a story book for children on the Cooper’s Hawks that have made their home in the cottonwoods on their property including her spectacular photographs of these magnificent creatures. This book will be on view and for sale on Sunday September 13during the Placitas Garden Tour. Proceeds from the book sale will be donated to the Las Placitas Association (LPA.) LPA is a conservation group with a mission to protect the open spaces of Placitas. Representatives from the LPA will be present at the Placitas Community Library on the day of the Tour.
Education: Bernalillo County Master Composters
