A beautiful garden does not, in fact, depend on plants. Although rare, there are gardens that have a special sense of space, scale, light, texture, time, place, vitality, etc., with very few added plants or none whatsoever. Mostly however, we do use a lot of plants to structure garden environments, and mostly for aesthetic purposes (a rather encompassing and fascinating subject) and most of that for spatial effects already mentioned, but which I would like to repeat: an appealing sense of space, scale, light, texture, time, place, vitality, etc.

We can accomplish the most basic and important parts of that using native plants through the very same process of inspired planning and critical eyeballing that goes into designing the most traditional garden, and simultaneously gain additional ecological benefits. But, we aren’t really doing this. There are very few examples of striking and luscious landscape and garden designs composed principally of what I would like to refer to as wild New Mexico natives (not cultivars, varieties, or related taxon). Because I believe aesthetics have a powerful influence on our behavior, I also think they’re an important element in efforts to move the needle further toward the use & care of wild natives in residential and urban design. In other words, I consider some of the lag in applying simple advice from environmental science to be a design problem.

My intention here is simply to explore inspired design with wild natives. As interesting examples become available, I will be posting them here. In many cases, I’m sure there will be non-natives appearing in the mix. The point is not purity, but possibility. As interesting examples become available, I will be posting them here. For the time being, you will find the more standard isolated photo images of New Mexico native species that are both exceptionally beautiful and possess a particularly useful wild compatibility with local environment.

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Topics: Supplemental watering, Forage, Pollinators, Soils, Maintenance