Desert Gardening

Not having a green thumb nor being a gardener an inordinate amount of time is spent gardening at PPR.  In the past, buying plants from nursery's was the way new plants arrived at the Painted Pony Resort.  But not any more, instead gardening skills were developed in an attempt to grow new plants for the estate.

Awhile back trees were purchased and stored on the estate, but a number up and died.  All received the same amount of water and care, yet some would inexplicably die.  Frustrated and to combat this loss of investment dollars it was decided to grow trees and other plants from seed and cuttings.  Starting with spineless prickly pear cactus pads provided by Mountain Valley Lodge the first attempt was successful.  Planted around the estate and at the entrance to the Rustic Cabin, as long as the transplanted cactus were protected from the rabbits by chicken wire they survived.  Without chicken wire the rabbits and cattle destroyed everything.  The next attempt was Agave (starting with drought tolerant plants seemed prudent since my gardening skills were initially non-existent).  Several small Agave were rooted and successfully transplanted but the Javelina also found them tasty and the first crop of Agave were lost to rooting Javelina.  But eventually by protecting the plants from these browsers the problem was resolved.

Emboldened by the initial success with drought tolerant plants, oaks were chosen for the next try.  Oaks grow on the estate and in the fall acorns abound.  Usually, these are removed from the courtyards and left on the open landscape surrounding the houses where the birds and other wildlife consume them.  This past fall though several hundred acorns were saved and used for the next experiment at growing plants for the estate.  The acorns were bagged in wet potting soil and left in the refrigerator for several months.  Once germinated the acorns were transplanted to 1 gallon buckets outside.  Watering and watching the buckets on the ground for any sign of sprouting was slow.  After several months nothing came up.  Periodic soil disturbances were noted in the containers and eventually the realization dawned that something must be stealing the buried germinated acorns.  Emptying several buckets no germinated acorns were found.  The best guess is that by keeping the buckets on the ground rodents and birds were digging up the acorns for food.  So, more germinated acorns were planted and this time the buckets were raised off the ground, see below.  After another couple of months of daily watering small sprouts began to appear.  Over a dozen oaks have sprouted so far and once established these will be transplanted to individual containers and then replanted for use as a wind break at the Rustic Cabin.

While a slow process, the results of these gardening experiments are proving fruitful and will provide the estate with locally grown plant resources.  The next species will be the Afghan Pines found on the estate.  A number of pines were lost as a result of irrigation problems in combination with the big freeze 2 years ago and require replacement. 

A Christmas cactus, Agave, and Spineless Prickly Pear grown for the estate

An Oak seedling sprouting

Keeping the germinated oaks above the ground reduces rodent activity

Addendum:  Five of the 20 sprouted oak seedlings now have leaves as other seedlings sprout in the makeshift raised planters.

Five seedlings have leafed out in this experiment.  Empty buckets and buckets of dirt are the controls.

Spring in the Garden

The front garden at the Painted Pony Resort is one of the first things guests see when they arrive so it is an important visual component in the presentation of the estate.  The goal is that when arriving guests round the corner of the driveway and catch their first close up view of the main estate buildings they ask themselves "what is this doing out here?".  A nice presentation is the first reward for those driving into the bubble and as a consequence a good deal of time is spent working in garden to insure it is visually pleasing and inviting.  Currently, the Ocotillo are in bloom and with their large red clusters of flowers they are particularly enticing.  Commonly used as living fences in the desert, Ocotillo are visually unique succulents. The local hummingbirds also find the flowers enticing and they can be seen gathering nectar from the individual flowers.  Note, that the Yucca are also starting to bloom (in the background in the first photograph below) and should soon be filling the garden with large white flowers which should attract the yucca moths.

A 10 -12' high specimen of Ocotillo

Ocotillo flowers

Another grouping of bright red Ocotillo flowers

Garden Panorama

The arrival of the monsoons has certainly helped the front garden.  The butterfly bushes have bloomed as well as a number of other plants and the garden is full of honey bees, butterflies, and the occasional hummingbird all competing for nectar.    The recently planted perennials have taken hold and a transplanted lantana has new growth.  There are 3 species/varieties of lantana in the front garden, a yellow flowering species, a purple, and a multicolored flowering species.  The lantana are very hardy plants and have been cut back to the roots several times and they always recover nicely.  The blooms attract butterflies and many plants constantly bloom throughout the summer.    One of the recently planted perennials, Sacred Datura, is already producing flowers.  Datura wrightii may be found along the road side in Arizona and New Mexico and seemed like a hardy addition to the garden, low growing it will make a nice addition to offset some of the tall yuccas and ocotillo and add a new color to blooms in the garden.

The view east in the front garden

The view west in the front garden

Sacred Datura in the garden

More Wildlife in the Garden

Increased watering in the front garden has produced some nice results, combined with some additional gravel, the front garden area looks good for guests.  All except for 3 plants of the same species.  The tall woody plants have thick waxy leaves and produce tall clusters of delicate purple flowers but dense coverage of leaves only occurs above about 5'.  The original hypothesis was the differential leaf coverage was the result of a lack of water early in the growing season and the denser foliage represented new growth.  The possibility of the Javelina nibbling on the leaves came to mind but was rejected since the lack of leaves seemed to be higher than Javelina could reach.  In addition, several broken branches up high on the plant were observed, but this could have been the result of wind damage.  It did not register that other browsing species might be the culprits.  Yesterday I caught 2 deer (mule deer) in front garden area and realized immediately that these browsers explained the differential loss of foliage and the broken stems.  The local mule deer have been regularly visiting the front garden and feasting on this particular plant species.  While the deer only find this plant species appealing and have not damaged other plants, it brings to 5 the number of mammalian species which have visited the front garden smorgasbord this season including Badger (digging up water lines in search of rodents), Javelina, Deer, and of course Rabbits (cotton tail and jacks).  Just one more indication of the hard year the wildlife is experiencing with the lack of rain.  The monsoons are expected and indications such as increased cloud cover and virga is visible around the valley many days.

Results of deer browsing in the garden

Addendum

After a couple of weeks of monitoring these shrubs that seem to act as deer attractions the plants are recovering.

A recovering shrub in the front garden

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

Gardening in the New Mexico Desert, Results

It is amazing what a little water will do for thirsty plants.  Many of the problems with the irrigation system are now resolved and the work has paid off.  With the help of the owner, all the irrigation heads have been recovered and are being tested, the system flushed (again), and all the filters cleaned.  As a result all the trees have now leafed out on the property and the oaks that were dropping leaves are now a dark lush green.  Many of the plants in front of the main house are now blooming and particularly spectacular are the Yuccas.  The Blue Violets have returned and are beginning to bloom as well as the Salvia and Sage.  Finally, the Cholla behind the guest house has also started blooming.

Yucca with Portal Peak

Cholla in bloom

Something old and something new

Gardening in the Desert of Southwest New Mexico

Living in the dry high desert of New Mexico brings all kinds of challenges and recently the challenge was gardening.  The Painted Pony Resort was originally built as a private estate with 225,000 square feet of landscaping.  Running from the north side of the guest house south to the hanger and from the west side of the property to the runway there are several hundred watering heads in 6 zones controlled by 2 irrigation controllers and keeping everything running properly takes some effort.  There are a number of pine trees on the property as well as many individual planters scattered around the 3 main buildings and the pool.  Unfortunately, no information about the watering system was provided when the estate changed hands.  The irrigation was not functioning and several trees were dead as well as a number of empty planters.  Getting the irrigation restarted took some time but after draining and cleaning one of the water storage tanks of sediment and cleaning clogged irrigation lines everything appeared well.

The combination of strong rains last monsoon season and good winter rains resulted in a profusion of poppies this year, so it came as a surprise when as spring approached a number of trees began losing leaves and the perennials in one large planting area did not return.  Yet at the same time other trees on the property were leafing out.  The last major hand watering had taken place about a month ago when a number of plants were fertilized so this unexpected die back had been postponed. Investigation into the mysteries of the irrigation system started with testing water flow at the solenoid valves.  The first step was manually turning on each zone and checking for flow at the valve then walking the property looking for evidence of water.  Positive results were obtained for several zones but not all and some closely space planters were not all receiving water.  Next the irrigation heads were inspected, since many irrigation heads were originally clogged this explanation seemed a likely possibility for the lack of water.  Recovering the locations of irrigation heads is still an ongoing process but those recovered did not appear clogged nor were the drip lines.  Some irrigation heads had metal installed and could be located with a metal detector unfortunately most did not.  The next step involved deduction, what is the irrigation pattern?  What zones deliver water to which planters? This process involved back flushing from each watering head to the solenoid valve.  It turns out that all the zones meet on the west side of the property and a number of closely spaced planters receive water from different zones, explaining the lack of water at some irrigation heads when manually testing.  Working out the planter/zone relationships is ongoing and a map will be completed.  Finally, testing each zone from each controller revealed several solenoids that had stopped working or were working intermittently.  So new solenoids were ordered and hopefully this will solve the problem.  The best bet for desert gardens are drought tolerant low water water plants like Yuccas and other native desert adapted plants and avoid high maintenance species.

recovering perennial

Yucca in bloom