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Water Conservation Garden

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Open daily, dawn to dusk

~ Enlarge the pictures by clicking on them ~

The Water Conservation Garden is a project of the Valley Improvement Assn. in Valencia County, New Mexico.  It's located at Rio Grande Veterans Memorial Park, off DeHaan Blvd., east of the UNM Valencia Campus, south of Pasitos de Cielo.  It is impressive!

The garden was designed by Judith Phillips, a recognized leader in water conserving landscapes, and author of Southwestern Landscape with Native Plants.

Developed in 1995, the garden is an education, beautification and water management project.  It provides a water conservation model, and is a place where native and low water use plants, native vegetation and xeriscape principles provide a colorful, creative and varied landscape adaptable to residential settings.

Plants used in the garden are trees; shrubs and vines; wildflowers and grasses; prairie plants; and borders and beds.  Trees: Desert Willow; Chitalpa; Pinyon; Escarpment Live Oak; Vitex; Chinese Pistache; New Mexico Olive.  Shrubs and Vines: Algerita; Apache Plume; Autumn Amber Prostrate Sumac; Beargrass; Blue Rug Juniper; Broom Dalea; Bush Penstemon; Chamisa; Cherry Sage; Coral Beauty Cotoneaster; Desert Honeysuckle; Dwarf Butterfly Bush; Engelmann Prickly Pear; English Lavender; Fernbush; Green Ephedra; Hillspire Juniper; Littleleaf Mock Orange; Littleleaf Sumac; Pencil Cholla; Red Cascade Rose; Red Yucca; Shadscale; Silverberry; Silver Lace Vine; Spanish Broom; Thread Sage; Utah Serviceberry.  Wildflowers and Grasses: Buffalograss; Blue Grama.  Prairie Plants:  Gayfeather; Golden Aster; Flame Flower; Indian Ricegrass; Sand Bluestem; Sideoats Grama.  Borders and Beds: Bush Morning Glory; Cardinal Penstemon; Desert Penstemon; Desert Mule's Ears; Desert Zinnia; Flat Topped Buckwheat; Giant Four O'Clock; Giant Sacaton; Golden Aster; James Buckwheat; Moonshine Yarrow; Ovalleaf Buckwheat; Palmer Penstemon; Pineleaf Penstemon; Prairie Sage; Purple Iceplant; Russian Sage; Sand Lovegrass; Scarlet Globe Mallow; Sunset Penstemon; Threadgrass; Yerba Mansa; Yellow Iceplant.

As you go through the garden, you'll see that each plant is identified, in order to assist you in selecting the plants you'll want around your own home.

The Garden project earned the Bureau of Reclamation Water Conservation Award in 1996.

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Landscaping for water conservation is called Xeriscape.  It is based on seven principles:

  • Good landscape planning and design
  • Turf (or grass) in appropriate areas such as back yards and play areas
  • Efficient irrigation, especially drip irrigation
  • Low-water-use plants, grouped by water use
  • Soil amendments
  • Use of mulches
  • Appropriate maintenance

The benefits to using a xeric plan are: a varied landscape, reduced water use, decreased yard maintenance and reduced outdoor water use by 30-80%, efficient irrigation, plants grouped by water needs and a colorful palette of plant varieties, creating a functional, lush, colorful water-saving landscape. ~From A Water Conservation Garden, a VIA publication

  
 

©2005 Valley Improvement Association
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Lisa Ann Bernard of the Online Design Team
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