Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Types of Tours
There are two types of docent activities in the garden. The first is when there is a scheduled formal tour and the other is a general introduction, greeting and information about the history and attributes of the plants and the Santa Fe area. The second is the one that is most used whenever a docent is on duty. Most guests only want a general introduction then a walk through the garden by themselves. When this is the case the docent will walk around the garden asking guests from time to time if they have any questions about the garden or the area and point out special plants of interest for the particular season. It is also good to know where the guests are from so that you can compare their home environment with ours.
The more formal docent tour will include a complete garden walk with the guest(s) throughout the garden with explanations in particular about the plants, the garden attributes, histories, area resources and ethnobotanical information. This usually occurs when a tour has been planned beforehand. Rarely do individuals want a complete guided tour by themselves.
Greet the guests
Welcome the guests to the Santa Fe Botanical Garden. Ask where they are from and their reason for visiting the garden. Ask about their particular interest and experiences in gardening. Ask if they have any particular questions about the garden. What plants do they like to grow where they live? What are their past experiences with plants? People are usually interested in talking about their own experiences.
Give a short history and description of the garden
The garden is divided into three sections- the Orchard Garden, Ojos y Manos and the Pinion-Juniper Woodland. Each part is very different from the others. The idea for the garden began in 1987 with a small group of local gardeners, botanists and environmentally oriented citizens.
The Santa Fe Botanical Garden is operated as a non-profit organization on a long-term lease of land from the city of Santa Fe and the State of New Mexico. It currently occupies approximately 19 acres, with about 8-¼ acres developed. Some of the land will be left as is to give visitors an idea of what the land looked like before it became the Botanical Garden.
It was sculpted out of the Arroyo de los Pinos that runs from Museum Hill to the Rio Grande. The first phase, the Orchard Garden, was opened in July, 2013. The second phase, Ojos y Manos (Eyes and Hands) opened On October 22, 2016 and the newest phase the Pinion-Juniper Woodland opened in the summer of 2021. Garden guests come from many parts of the U.S. and from around the world. Many of them do not know much about the Santa Fe area. Some common questions and answers are:
* Q=What type of climate is Santa Fe? A=Santa Fe is in an area called a semi-arid steppe. It is at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It has a very dry, high climate with intense sunlight. The garden is about 7,200 feet above sea level and has an average of 325 sunny days per year. During the summer months there are only 3-6 days of temperatures above 90° F. The average temperature is 86° F in July and lows near 17° in January. There are usually 9-14 inches of precipitation a year with most of it coming as rain in the monsoon season of July and August. The average snowfall in town is 32 inches per winter and up to 300 inches in the ski area. The crisp, cold air usually begins in October and ends in April. The humidity is sometimes less than 20% with nights and early mornings very cool throughout the year.
*Q=How is the garden watered? A=The garden is watered on a drip system with spot watering throughout the garden. The water is purchased from the city. About 60% of the available water in Santa Fe is pumped out of the Rio Grande River from the San Juan-Chama diversion project through the Buckman Direct Diversion Treatment Facility (BDD) and about 40% from the two municipal mountain reservoirs above the city and Groundwater City Wells.
There are 24 irrigation zones in the Orchard Gardens, of which 20 are active. Various zones are programmed with different watering schedules. On average the overall gardens are watered about 2x/week for about 45 minutes. Areas watered more frequently during the hottest times (late May through early July, typically) are the Rose/Lavender gardens and Orchard Perennial Borders. The Ojos Y Manos Gardens are watered 1x/week for 35 or 40 minutes except for the agricultural terrace which requires more water for the vegetable plants.
*Q=What are the mountains around Santa Fe some of which can be seen from the garden? New Mexico has more types of volcanoes than any other state. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are at the southern end of the Rocky Mountain chain of mountains which begin in Canada. They were pushed up about 27 million years ago as one big chunk of rock. The Santa Fe ski area is 10,350 ft. above sea level and Wheeler Peak, the highest point above Taos, is 13,167 ft. Most of the other mountains that can be seen from Santa Fe are volcanoes. The Sandia Mountains above Albuquerque and the Manzano Mountains in the south, however were caused by tilted fault blocks. The Rio Grande River flows in a rift or crack in the earth between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the ranges to the west. The Jemez Mountains are the remains of a super volcano whose eruptions have continued intermittently from 14 million years ago. The last eruption was about 1.3 million years ago.
*Q=Are all the plants in the garden native to New Mexico? Many of the plants are local, however most were chosen from similar ecosystems. All the plants in the garden were chosen with the Santa Fe climate in mind. These plants are called the "Signature Plants."
*Q=Answers to some of the garden's structural questions:
1. Who designed the garden? the nationally known architect W. Gary Smith
2. Who was the general contractor? PBI Associates
3. Who did the landscaping? Mountain West GolfScapes
4. Who designed the structural archway & other steel structures? They were designed by Beverly Spears and built by Lex Lucius.
5. Who designed and built the rainscaping within the garden? Craig Sponholtz of Dryland Solutions and Reese Baker of Raincatcher
6. Who built the stone walls throughout the garden? the New Mexico Stone Company
7. Who made the "Emergence" sculptures on the side of the Meadow Garden? Taos artist Candyce Garrett
8. What common animals are found in the garden? The garden has cottontail rabbits, skinks, many kinds of insects (the harvester ants make the large mounds of dirt), pocket gophers, birds, rock squirrels, pack rats, mice, lizards and an occasional snake. The long-tailed lizard is the Desert Grassland Whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis uniparens) and the grey one is the Sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus spp.) that is actually a type of iguana.
The Orchard Garden
The Orchard Garden is approximately 2 1/2 acres. A major feature is the La Rambla water drainage system. This system runs through the garden from the top of the garden to the Arroyo de los Pinos. The garden was sculpted out of the arroyo drainage. There are Zuni Bowls that are made up of deep holes filled with large rocks throughout the drainage system to help catch the flowing water before dumping the water into the arroyo below. The Meadow Garden will also hold many gallons for the absorption of water as well if it fills up from the rain.
There are three ramadas or shelters in the garden. The Welcome Ramada, the South Ramada and North Ramada. These areas were patterned after the ramadas used by the native puebloans as outdoor working areas. The original ramadas were covered in brush and protected the inhabitants from the outdoor elements.
The main walkway will take you along the lavender and roses to the entrance to the orchard. The orchard is made up of six kinds of fruit trees that grow and produce fruit in our area- apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, an apricot and a sour cherry tree. Around the orchard are planted various perennials and grasses. There are also various bulbs that are planted in the orchard.
From the orchard are stairs that lead to the Dry Garden or "Hot Box." This area is surrounded by a native stone wall. It has no water available to it other than what comes from the sky. It has never been irrigated. In it are different varieties of cacti, agaves and Mojave sage. It is also accessible from the main path for those who do not wish to, or are unable to, use stairs.
The path then leads down to the Red Bridge. On the incline there are several trees, penstemon and other xeric plants and shrubs. The Red Bridge allows access to the other two parts of the garden- Ojos y Manos and the Pinion-Juniper Woodland. The bridge is a 1913 style "Warren Pony Truss" design and was obtained when the Bibb family County Road was diverted to another location. The bridge was obtained and moved from its original location not far from Kearny Gap (the gap in the mountains between the prairie and the Rio Grande) to the garden. It was reconditioned, painted red, widened and placed over the Arroyo de los Pinos early in the garden's history. Below the bridge is a gabion that was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as a free-standing structure to retain the sediment eroding from the Museum Hill area. All the sediment behind it has come down from the arroyo bed above it.
The Arroyo Trails
The Arroyo Trails are public trails in the Arroyo de los Pinos that separates the Orchard Garden from Ojos y Manos. The trails are surrounded by high deer fencing so that people and deer walking in the arroyo cannot enter the garden. A series of steps in the arroyo enables the walkers to get around obstacles close to the Red Bridge.
Ojos y Manos (Eyes and Hands)
This area of the garden opened in 2016. It was created as an educational area to demonstrate the ethnobotanical uses of the native plants. It is approximately 2 1/2acres. It was created out of a mound of earth that extended from above the Berlin Gathering Place almost to the bridge. The hill where it was formed was dug out and then everything was replaced from the ground up adding rocks and paths. Two major attributes are the hills close to the bridge. One represents Monte del Luna and the other Monte del Sol, the two peaks to the east of the garden. Only Monte del Sol is visible from the garden.
The gathering place is surrounded on two sides by raised terraced beds. This is where vegetables are grown in the summer months. All of the produce is donated to the Santa Fe Food Depot and to Kitchen Angels. Behind the gathering place is a mosaic created by the architect W. Gary Smith. It illustrates the "Three Sisters" of agricultural crops grown by the various indigenous peoples of North America- winter squash, maize (corn) and climbing beans. These were the staple crops grown by the native people before the arrival of the Spanish. Believe it or not one of the major crops for which New Mexico is known, green chile, was not grown in New Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish. The native chile plants originated in Bolivia. Chile was used as seasoning by the Aztecs. When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs of Mexico they were introduced to the taste of chile, took the seeds to be planted in Spain and were brought to New Mexico with the early Spanish settlers.
There are two hornos in the garden. An horno is an outdoor oven made from adobe bricks and mortar on a platform. The concept was brought to the area by the first Spanish settlers. The idea of the horno originally came from North Africa to Spain by the Moors. Since the native Americans only made bread (tortillas) from corn and had no wheat, there was no need for an oven. The Spanish brought wheat seeds with them from Spain and needed an oven to bake their bread. According to the official Santa Fe Botanical Garden's website: "students in the Santa Fe Community College’s Adobe Construction Program — taught through the college’s School of Trades, Advanced Technologies and Sustainability — rebuilt the large horno from the ground up. (This was done because '(they) have been rebuilt after storm damage in 2020 caused one to collapse and left the other in need of repair.') Where the original hornos were cob ovens — built with adobe mud sculpted over a sand mold — the new large horno was built with sun-dried adobe bricks purchased from New Mexico Earth Adobes in Albuquerque. The first layer of bricks was reinforced with Portland cement to help guard against future water damage, and lime was added into the first batch of adobe mud plaster for the same purpose." Further information concerning the building and maintence of an horno can be found on the Eldorado Windy Farm webpage.
The four areas in this garden demonstrate the pre-Columbian diet in New Mexico, weaving and color, tools and construction and medicine. Almost all of the plants in Ojos y Manos were used ethnobotanically by the Native Americans and the early Spanish settlers. A few of them however, were planted purely as ornamentals.
Pinion-Juniper Woodland
This is the most recent section of the garden. It encompasses 3.25 acres and was opened in 2021. It represents the area before any improvements were made on the land. The purpose of this garden is to preserve and share the ecosystem that is so special to Northern New Mexico. There are only two types of trees, the Pinion Pine (Pinus edulis) and Oneseed Juniper (Juniperus monosperma) that are native to this area. They cover over 100 million acres in 10 states and are the most common forest type in the Southwest. The aspen, willow, cottonwood, Ponderosa pine, firs and spruce are found in other bio niches in the state.
There will be low pressure drip irrigation in some places to provide germination sites for seeds. Erosion control stonework will be installed by Dryland Solutions. The Pinions will be sprayed with horticultural oil in the spring to control pinion needle scale (Matsucoccus acalyptus) as needed.
There are other plants in the woodland as well. The hemiparasitic plants - Juniper mistletoe (Phoradendron juniperinum)and Indian paintbrush (Castilleja spp.). Other plants in the area are tree cholla (Cylindropuntia imbricata), prickly pear (Opuntia phaeocantha), hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus fendleri), ring muhly grass (Muhlenbergia torreyi), gallenta grass (Hilaria jamesii), blue gramma grass (Bouteloua gracillis), snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae) and rose heath aster (Chaetopappa ericoides).
In 2021 the garden acquired Pollinator Trail Plant Kits from the Xerces Society. Each kit consists of thirty-two 2-inch posts of perennials and one 1 gallon or tube of shrub or tree. Plants from these kits were planted in all of the various sections of the Garden.
Garden Soils in the Santa Fe Botanical Garden Maintenance Materials Applications to SFBG Plants Kit Species of Pollinator Plants provided by the Xerces Society