Xeric

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plants and landscape (xeriscape) adapted to an arid environment

Stop to Smell the Flowers, Carefully

Bee pollinating Prickly Pear Cactus bloom

Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the flowers. But, smell carefully. The cacti are in bloom along the Dorothy Stewart trail where I saw a bee busily collecting nectar and spreading pollen on this Prickly Pear blossom. It was definitely worth taking a moment to smell the flowers to see this, despite getting drenched in a downpour later on that mountain bike ride.

More Info:

Wikipedia: Prickly Pear Cactus

Wikipedia: Bees

Rebel Without a Hose

Seed Bomb sprouting grass

Have you ever walked past an empty lot in your town and thought, 'What a waste.' You might just be a guerrilla gardener in the making. In every town and city I've ever known there are vacant lots and open patches of land that fill with weeds and trash due to neglect. What if you decided to 'adopt' an otherwise ignored patch of dirt, plant some seeds and let it grow?

Green Building with Brown Adobe

Sustainability Week 2008 logo

What: Sustainability Week and GreenBuilt Tour New Mexico
When: May 10 - 18, 2008
Where: Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos, NM

I've been reading about Green Building and scores of new ideas and technologies being developed. With so many possible building designs and techniques the choices can be overwhelming. I think it's time to check out some green homes and buildings to see what works and what doesn't. Just in time for Spring home improvement and house hunting season here comes Sustainability Week and the New Mexico GreenBuilt Tour.

Going Native in the Front Yard

Bringing Nature Home book cover

If you live in the suburbs, like I do, the yard around your home is the closest you come to the natural environment on a day to day basis. This begs the question - Is your yard a natural environment? Author Douglas Tallamy suggests that the average suburban yard is an artificial collection of exotic plants which creates an unnatural zone unsuitable to native wildlife. In his book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens Mr.

Santa Fe River Tree Planting Day

Wild Earth Guardians Stream Team

What: Stream Team Santa Fe River Tree Planting Day
When: Saturday, April 5, 2008, 10am-3pm
Where: On the Santa Fe River near Santa Fe, NM

On Saturday, April 5th join with WildEarth Guardians' members, supporters and volunteers to become a Stream Team Activist by gathering pledges and planting trees for each pledge. These trees become restored streamside habitat for wildlife such as endangered Southwest Willow Flycatchers and beavers.

Why Do Rivers Need to Be Restored?

Why I Garden #2

Purple Aster

Purple Aster - Aster Bigelovii

Native Sun(flowers)

Sunflowers - Helianthus annuus

When I first moved into my home the front and back yards were a mess. Other than (thankfully) a few trees, both the front and back yards were barren. My new home featured a landscape of bare dirt, rocks and a few weeds. The realtor offered to get the seller to pay for a load of gravel to spread in the front yard, but I said no. Crazy? Perhaps. I just can't stand gravel-scaping in lieu of actual plants. So, instead of covering up the problem, I started planning a native and xeric landscape around my home.

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