New Mexico Garden Update

A winter of no rains combined with a variety of animals digging up plants including the Javelina, the front garden area at the Painted Pony Resort was not looking its' best.  But with planting some new perennials, constant watering of damaged plants, and general cleanup the garden area is looking much better.  The Gold mounds were pruned back to the roots and have come back nicely.  The damaged Yucca were pruned and new shoots were found at a number of locations where large yuccas were uprooted by Javelina (photograph below).  Although the planting area has received constant watering the butterfly bushes (a personal indicator of garden quality) have not produced the same quantity of flowers this year.  In addition, the rangeland surrounding the Painted Pony Resort is also dry which may explain the Javelina invasion.  The quality of the feed available on the surrounding range land appears poor.  As evidence, the broken dried yucca stems from the Javelina damage were placed on state land as erosion control but the local cattle quickly found the dead, dried yucca stems more palatable than the available forage on state land.  Hopefully the monsoons will kick in and support the recovery efforts not only across the property but across southern Arizona and New Mexico as well.

Four Javelina on the property (a total of 6 Javelina were causing damage)

Front garden area after cleanup and lots of watering

recovering yucca

New perennials in the garden area