- Author: Lorraine Remer
I visited family in Albuquerque a few weeks ago. While there, my sister Joanne Mc Entire (Querenciagreen.org) took me on a tour of a community garden called LA Mesa Neighborhood Garden Park. Joanne is a community planner who has been working on green infrastructure projects in the urban areas of Albuquerque. She helped with the design and building of this garden park about 2 years ago from the perspective of water harvesting rain from the monsoon season. She described the many steps and community groups that were involved to convert a third of an acre corner plot that was nothing but flat compacted soil. Shaping the land with contours, swales and basins so all rainfall would be put to the best use was integrated with amending the soil to both hold the rain water and not be lost in the arid climate and to create a vibrant rich soil for the the new drought tolerant plants. Four inches of woody mulch topping was added to prevent aridity from occurring. The selection of drought tolerant plants includes grasses, succulents and sages which needed initial watering from the neighborhood volunteers to get through the first year of dry weather.
My tour and discussion with Joanne sparked my appreciation and understanding about the essential elements in creating a garden with limited rainfall in an arid climate. The community team effort is pivotal from the design and implementation phases to guarantee success. Various volunteer groups to do the hard foundation work and planting was an integral part of the project. Residents in the Mesa neighborhood enjoy and take pride in this garden as the children in the school across the street take tours of the garden and parents wait for their children after school in the garden which provides a little shade and a touch of beauty.