Santa Fe – Fans already know that the climate, creativity, culture, and cuisine are reasons enough to visit this unique city. If you needed another reason to love Santa Fe, you have it now in the newly opened Botanical Garden. This special garden adds another level of enchantment for this high desert region, especially for gardeners!
Category: Southwest, US
A Traveling Garden
If you are going to spend a summer in the mountains what sweeter place could there be than “Happy Jack?” Once again my peppermint twist geraniums summered here escaping the killing heat of their winter home. So this week we drove up north to collect them in our new improved “geranium transporter” or Honda Ridgeline pick up w/ a topper shell so they can ride protected back to the valley. It holds nearly 25 pots of flowers with out bending or breaking of stems! Ever so much better than our previous truck!
Two birds in a tree
I spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon admiring yellow, pink, peach and red cactus blooms at the Desert Botanical Garden. Walking out I noticed a crowd looking up at something moving in a blooming palo verde tree. A road runner was flitting about in the branches. What a treat to see this rare bird in plain sight in the middle of the day! A mourning dove was sitting on a nest in the same tree. Everyone was happily watching.
Flowering Branches
Perhaps the very instant spring begins is that brief sunny moment when bare branches burst from bud to flower. Dormant limbs feeling the stir of seasonal change bud and swell with the news that winter is waning. Seemingly overnight the bleak branch canopy suddenly commands our attention as we notice the burst of flowers filling a tree. Flowers before leaves, before fruit and seed pods simply fascinate a gardener, who willingly rakes and sweeps the debris that follows the spectacular show of flowering trees.
Escalante Community Garden
What Grows along side fruits & vegetables?
When a person has a passion, a purpose and a connection to the natural world it can feed a hunger of the soul. Dave Talley, head gardener of this community garden may have found a way to prevent starvation for many people. Certainly the garden provides food for the community food pantry, so the physical hunger is reduced. Yet the contribution to the garden made by community members including many homeless individuals may be preventing the starvation of spirit that seems epidemic in so many urban souls. Richard Louv writes in his book Last Child in the Woods & in the follow up The Nature Principal about the importance of time in the natural world for keeping our mental and physical health intact. We need nature in our lives but also in our neighborhoods.  Planting seeds, petting chickens, picking peppers all introduce nature to children of all ages. This garden boasts 43 raised beds growing organic crops of broccoli, kale, leeks, cabbages, calendula, sunflowers, herbs and more. Managing all of this falls to Dave, formerly a homeless man for six years, he positively glows with enthusiasm as he point out the features of the garden. He gently strokes one of 26 hens named “Jessie” as he describes meeting the challenges of the garden. He has completed the Master Gardener certificate program and is currently enrolled in the Desert Botanical Garden training course. He supervises and manages the watering, the planting schedule and the organic practices. There are 25 fruit trees growing. There are art projects covering the walls. There are innovative planters, recycling ideas. A garden grows hope.
Forecast: Cold and Beautiful
When the temperature is freezing not many people set out to visit gardens. I, however, did just that, taking a trip to Tucson to visit Tohono Chul Park, and Garden. The frost covers were out, the air was bracing and the blue sky filled with wisps of clouds. These were repeat visits so I know the gardens are beautiful in fine weather so I expected a change of scene due to the threat of freezing temperatures.
Fruit & Vegetable Resolutions
Eyeful, Plateful, Basketful!
Oh the ritual of new year’s resolutions challenging us to be our better self has come around again. The predictable but valid ones reappear; save money, spread kindness, and eat better are high on the list. As gardeners, at least one of our resolutions is likely to include something related to fruits and vegetables. We not only resolve to eat more fruits and vegetables but to grow our own bountiful harvest! There are many wonderful reasons deeply rooted in our souls which drive us to succeed, yet how disappointing when our seeds of optimism dry up. However, I have a fruit and vegetable resolution that is truly attainable. Resolve to get an eyeful of the beauty fruits and vegetables provide all year long.
Hospital Gardens
If you are at the hospital there is probably a crisis going on in your life and your mind is in a whirl (arriving babies quite the exception.) Once there as you navigate the many halls and pods of rooms you may rush by a garden. Healing gardens and meditation gardens are part of many hospitals. Banner Desert Hospital in Mesa, AZ has gardens. I recently spent three days rushing through the halls here and found the Harmony Garden, Bistro Garden, Children’s and Train garden.
La Posada Hotel & Gardens
Sometimes the treasures closest to home are the ones we miss. One of our Arizona treasures is La Posada Resort in Winslow, AZ. Built in 1929 it is described as “the last great railroad hotel.” It is Mary Coulter’s architectural masterpiece. She designed 21 projects for Fred Harvey. “Mary Coulter was hired by the Fred Harvey Company in 1903 to design fine hotels, restaurants, and gift shops along the Santa Fe Railway. She became America’s most influential woman designer. . . . This was her favorite project, the only time she was allowed to design everything from the buildings (to the china, maid’s uniforms,) to the gardens.”(laposada.org) Her plan was to create an oasis in the high plateau of the Colorado River to greet the guests arriving by train. LaPosada opened in 1930 and in a turn of history’s fortunes, her garden plans were never fully realized.
Rio Grande Bio Park, Botanical Garden
Even on a 100 degree day this garden is a cool place to be. Only 15 years old, this 36-acre botanical garden was built in the site of a city park that had fallen into disrepair. As a result, mature cottonwood and elm trees provide shade all throughout the garden. The entry courtyard is spacious and decorative. As you enter the garden through beautiful, ornate bronze gates, the first space to catch your eye is the children’s fantasy garden with a castle tower and dragon. The dragon towers up above the trees with fabric wings and a spine planted with rounded boxwood. The castle tower floor is a sand pit ready for play. Walking through the castle courtyard, you find yourself in a land of giants. This garden grows huge carrots, radishes, and onions. The tools of the giants are scattered about. There is a rake, trowel, watering can, and flower pots, all fit for the giant. A motion activated bee begins buzzing overhead as you enter the potting area. You walk into the interior of a monstrous pumpkin with the seeds and stringy center dangling overhead. The tree trunks open up for play, you may slide down to another level. This imaginative garden space is a bit of magic for all ages.