7b - Project - La Tienda

What do you do when Eldorado is on restricted watering, La Tienda has a barren planting area, the nearby arroyo is full of discarded concrete and many species of cacti, including the endangered Santa Fe Cholla, need a new home?

You create a cactus garden.

As a gift to the community, La Tienda developers, Destiny and Steve, generously gave the Cactus Rescue Project the opportunity to establish a demonstration cactus garden at La Tienda. Not only to help beautify this space, but to educate and promote interest in cacti as well.

Three of the Project members, Joe, Nancy and "Obie" used locally available materials, tons of salvaged "arroyo-crete" hundreds of buckets of arroyo sand, (Can you say hernia?), to put in a beautiful cactus garden.

The garden contains approximately 160 cacti, many of which have been salvaged, homegrown or are locally available. This environment also contains yucca, agave, sotol and, (with luck), an Ocotillo. Once established, the garden should flourish without any supplemental water. Cacti provide an excellent, affordable and beautiful landscaping alternative. They attract bees and birds and are ideally suited to New Mexico's climate where water conservation is paramount.

Thanks go to Destiny and Steve for their vision and community spirit and many thanks to the Cactus Rescue Project for their time, dedication and commitment.