Xeriscape

If you ever visited my house in Schuylerville during the growing season, you know how much I enjoyed my gardens there.  I had several perennial gardens and an ever-expanding vegetable garden.  Mowing was a huge chore from April through October, and my biggest gardening challenges were the high water table and clay soil, which combined to create what we affectionately called, "Camp Swampy."  Many of you were concerned about how much I would miss my gardens when I moved to the desert.  My plan is to embrace the new climate and not to try to make my New Mexico yard look like New York.  I started learning about xeriscape before we moved, and on my first visit to ABQ, I found the nursery "Plants of the Southwest," which gave me lots of inspiration and got me excited to learn more about water-wise gardening.

The house we bought is sort of half-way xeriscaped, which is OK because it gives me work to do but isn't overwhelming.  The hardscape is done, and quite nicely too, with brick, stone, concrete, and wood ties.  There is an irrigation system installed, with zones on a programmable timer.  Unfortunately, one zone has a leak so we can't use that one yet, but I'm hoping to avoid a lot of watering anyway.  There are some large pine trees and one tall juniper and some ground-cover juniper.  There are also a few crab apple trees, which I'm not sure are the best choice for the desert, but they seem to be well-established, so hopefully they will survive without a lot of water.

There are also some small pyracantha (firethorn), which are well-suited to ABQ, and a gorgeous purple-flowered tree that's all over the city but that I have not yet identified.

There are different types of yucca, some prickly pear cactus, a tiny cholla cactus, and some donkey-tail spurge (euphorbia). 

There are also quite a few rose bushes.  I'll probably have to wait a while to find out what type.

The folks who sold us the house apparently had some landscaping done before putting the house on the market.  Some questionable choices were made, including several arborvitae.  Then the house didn't sell as quickly as they expected, and they ended up moving out and discontinuing the irrigation.  By the time we moved in (December) I could see that the arborvitae were dying, and I chose to do nothing so that I could justify what I'm about to do, which is to replace them with plants I like!  I'm going to visit the nurseries and do some more research, but I know I definitely want agave and more of the large, tree-like yucca.  There are some really neat exotic-looking prickly pear cultivars that I might like as well. 

My main concern is that I want to water just enough so that we don't lose the large trees.  I received a flyer in the mail from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority offering a free class in drought-efficient irrigation!  The "Drought Smart Class" gives "suggestions on how to best support your landscape during our current extended drought including when to water, how often, and how long to run your irrigation system."   Yea, a class!  My inner geek is so happy.  I also get a $20.00 credit on my water bill for attending.  I'm planning to go next weekend.

The other challenge I have set for myself is to find something green, drought-tolerant, and walk-on-able with which to replace the small strip of grass behind the patio so that I don't have to use the sprinklers.  I didn't bring a lawn mower to ABQ, so that's also an issue.  Stephen said, "I bet if you don't water that grass, you won't have to worry about mowing it," and he was correct.  It's just about dead.   

I figure that if I save all that water on the landscape by xeriscaping, I can use some in pots or raised beds to grow a few veggies and herbs.  What I miss terribly about my Schuylerville garden is the ability to walk into the yard and harvest my dinner.  Or my breakfast!  Starting with fiddleheads and asparagus in the spring, and ending with the kale and chard that survived the first frost, I loved that part of gardening the most.  I'm planning to start herbs in pots this weekend, in fact.  It will make me happy to just have something growing that I can eat.

Can you identify this plant?