Budding interests
Updated gardening encyclopedia aims to make the New Mexico landscape even more enchanting
Any New Mexican with — or without — a green thumb should be pleased with this news: The University of New Mexico Press has published a revised and expanded edition of “Best Plants for New Mexico Gardens and Landscapes.”
Like the first edition published in 1995, the new edition is encyclopedic as a resource yet eminently accessible to general readers.
The author is Baker Morrow, who’s been a practicing Albuquerque landscape architect for more than 40 years. What’s been updated? “There are many more photographs and illustrations and soil amendment techniques,” Morrow said.
“New Mexico soils are very thin — not rich in organics. If we build our soils and make them richer, our plants do better and our gardens work better for us.
“By amendments, I mean manure, compost, leaf litter, peat moss. It’s really a magical sort of thing adding organics (when you’re selecting plants). If you don’t mix it into the soil it ends up in the dump. So it’s a recycling technique. It keeps stuff out of the landfills, which is a good thing,” he added.
The revised edition contains another new and important aspect. Some native trees that have come into common use in the past few years are listed.
Among them are two trees that work well in Albuquerque and northern New Mexico, in Ruidoso and in Silver City. One is the Canada red chokecherry, a springblooming ornamental, and the other is the sensation box elder, a new variety of the box elder that Morrow said is a superb street and shade tree.
“These are new varieties of native plants that come to us from plant scientists. There are others. The desert willow now has four or five varieties because they’ve been improved in plant labs,” Morrow said.
The book’s subtitle — “Keyed to Cities and Regions in New Mexico and Adjacent Areas” — informs readers that the volume applies to every corner of our high-altitude state.
The adjacent areas are El Paso/Ciudad Juárez and Durango, Pagosa Springs, Cortez and Trinidad in southern Colorado.
The word “plants” in the title is allembracing. Besides trees, the book lists shrubs, ground covers, grasses, vines and flowers.
Morrow’s advice is aimed at homeowners, landscape gardeners, landscape contractors and nurseries.
“I think everybody in New Mexico is concerned about water, and I’ve tried to develop this new edition of ‘Best Plants’ with the use of water in mind. But it’s not a bad idea to use water for landscape gardens and plants. They bring so much in return,” Morrow said.
His recommendations are for plants that serve a particular function well, such as a tree that produces a lot of shade without requiring a lot of water or care or a shrub that protects backyards, gardens or patios from the hot spring winds that carry dust and disturb people.
“And the plant has to be good to look at and be available,” Morrow said.