Work to transform the backyard continues. I snapped this Before shot so I can look back and go “Hot damn!” (It had scruffy dead lawn before, but the very nice man I hired to dig holes stripped it out.)
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
It turns out that there's an image description on the picture that clarifies it as New Mexico! And other comments suggest that I was probably wrong about the previous location too. XD
Said Nice Man is currently digging a dry riverbed through it for drainage during monsoon season. The rest will be raised beds of native plants (and a couple salvias, because I’m not made of stone.)
We have a teeny postage stamp of lawn that the dogs decorate with yellow patches. The rest is brick pathways and planting beds with native and water-thrifty non-natives. A lot of non-native species, including salvias, will thrive in the Albuquerque metro area.
I’m in range for S. greggi, which has a lot of variations, but I’m on the prowl for others. To my infinite sorrow, the one specialty nursery closed down.
I've found Salvia greggi to be pretty bullet resistant (metaphorically speaking). I do container gardening so I have to water frequently in Texas summer. But autumn sage just looks a bit off when it gets dry, not dramatically drooping.
Alas! I know places that have seed to ship (Larner Seeds is my go-to for CA natives), but it's infinitely easier to get baby plants. Of my sages, white sage (apiana) is the prettiest and nicest-smelling, and the nursery cultivar Bee's Bliss is a low, spreading sage great for ground cover.
Nice, I'm doing a similar thing with raised beds of native plants. Also plopping in some larger shrubs, transplanting a few trees, and replacing as much lawn as I can
I've been very much looking forward to seeing what you're going to do with new backyard. Especially as I will likely end up living in Albuquerque at some point and would want to remove the house's lawns and stuff.
One pretty nice thing about ABQ is that quite a lot of lawns have already gone away, courtesy of some sweet Water Board subsidies for removing grass and replacing it with rock or xeriscaping.
It's great stuff in a wetter climate! Well, until the moss starts devouring all the concrete in the area. I should get a pressure washer at some point...
Our house has a lawn. I have been studiously ignoring it and willing it to die for the last four years. CA actually getting rain is thwarting this. Xeriscape would make life much easier but is also not exactly native for the area.
It took a decade of malicious neglect + a layer of free wood chips to kill my lawn off, and now that we’re getting some wet years, the darn thing is trying to make a comeback.
sheet mulching is your friend! just make sure to fertilize/compost first, since you don't want the process of breaking down the cardboard to take nitrogen from the soil and leave it depleted. (appliance stores and autobody shops are good places to get BIG cardboard boxes)
Tarping the lawn with 4 mil painters plastic (black) over the summer should do the trick, if you are willing (yes, I did that). It will kill a large portion of the seed base.
We've gone full native in front and back, and it is wonderful. We have all sorts of wildlife showing up now.
my entire front garden is lovely walkable yerba buena! it has even escaped into the neighbors' yard (where it is sadly not appreciated) and is taking over their over-mulched and abandoned mess of a space. l love the smell when it's walked on or crushed a bit.
They ARE and I’ve been arguing with my mother for a decade about it. She’s one of those stuck in their ways boomers who thinks lawns are essential and won’t budge on having one. Even though she doesn’t maintain it so it looks like absolute shit.
Nice! Any plans for sages (we've got several in our front and back)? Our two most prominent are white sage and hummingbird sage? Just a warning that they can get big (as we discovered).
Applause for backyard transformation!! Back here in the east (and 1 state north of where you used to be) we are going through a re-working of our yard to improve crappy drainage - so I know that 'dry riverbed' is likely to serve you well!
Me (on my weird side-ways slope 😐) gets a rain garden!
That looks like our backyard in Tucson years ago. All crushed rock, Gambel's quails and babies parading on top of the wall every spring, posturing collared lizards, the incomparable smell of the desert when it rains.
Real question: you get petrichor in the desert? I thought it came from specifically vegetation interacting with rainfall. Or am I misunderstanding you?
Oh my, yes: creosote bush mostly, but mesquite and so many more (there’s a bush I don’t know the name of that has small sweet licorice-smelling yellow flowers in particular), and the dust is a big part of it too.
Comments
i once got to see a hedge of "blue fortune" that audibly hummed with bees
I'll be following this garden project! Might get some fun ideas for my own, since I desperately want to de-xeriscape it and fill it with natives.
They probably won't be this helpful.
I miss blue mtns and adobe walls and breakfast burritos and..and..
1) Not 100+ years old
2) Actually fits a car larger than a Model T
3) Has working utilities, not just $UNKNOWN_TIMESCALE abandoned knob & tube
We've gone full native in front and back, and it is wonderful. We have all sorts of wildlife showing up now.
I’m excited to see what you do with it.
PP
Me (on my weird side-ways slope 😐) gets a rain garden!
Lucky you!
So, god blood on rocks. 🤔