Regenerating and Restoring

Dismantling the front and side "yards" of 6790' MuRefuge is moving along.

This blooming White Tufted Evening Primrose 
(Oenothera caespito, Santa Fe)
was planted just a few days ago after cardboard
and organic compost from Reunity Resources
covered the narrow space between the walkway
and the smooth river rock "swale"
designed to catch rain water from the two front canales.

"Cross Currents," paintings by Penelope Gottlieb are presently on exhibit at the Gerald P. Peters Gallery, the former Bandilier House, on Paseo de Peralta. With her painting, this Santa Barbara, California, artist is making a "political" statement regarding the primarily, as she sees it, human impact on the rapidly declining biodiversity and hastening "the Sixth Extinction" here on Planet Earth. Her theme is painting invasive plant species onto copies of John James Audubon's fine bird prints. A local friend when she saw the coverage in the local paper thought the art works "grim." And that they are.

Plants seem to be purchased and planted by humans to suit their individual preferences without regard to consequences for Mother Earth and all her inhabitants. Globalization is rapidly happening not only in the economic and political arenas but in the animal and plant kingdoms as well. Perhaps it would behoove all of us to entertain a view of what is extraordinary in the local plant community rather then exotics from other parts of the world.

Purple Prairie Clover ( Dalea purpurea)
Slender, airy perennial growing to two feet.
The bright purple flowers tare wonderful when dried since they keep their color.
This plant is a nitrogen fixer as well as very drought tolerant.
This picture was taken along the dry Santa Fe River bed
on one of our morning walks.
One has been planted in the front into the sheet mulching.

The local plant community is part of the local habitat providing food, shelter and respite for the animal and birds. Last week while leaving from a delicious lunch at the The Kitchen at Plants of the Southwest, we noticed that a different female Sage Thrasher was sitting on eggs in the middle "condo" in the cholla cactus.  Several weeks prior the Sage Thrasher family in the upper condo had departed after the babies fledged. One of the workers commented on the crucial importance of the cholla to the local birds that nest in these prickly plants. He went on the say that fewer and fewer Santa Feians are planting cholla in their gardens and many are removing natives that have been growing in their gardens. However, as I move along with restoring the habitat at 6790' MuRefuge, I am amazed at the increasing awareness people in this region of our country are having of the loss of diversity and its effect.

Back to the topic "regenerating and restoring:" Reactions from neighbors and others passing by to the gravel and exotic plant removal in our front yard are pretty amazing to me. Two men bicycled by with one saying to the other, "That woman knows what she is doing" as I was removing landscape cloth, mulching and planting native plants. As I began the cardboard and wood chip mulching, a male neighbor asked as he drove by, "Do you want any more cardboard boxes?" "Yes," was my reply and he dropped off his extras. And just a few days ago, two women neighbors across the street were sitting on the low adobe "fence" chatting and greeted me with, "We were just talking about you and its all good" in reference to the labor intensive but simple process of sheet mulching, which regenerates the soil. 

12 cubic yards of freshly chipped mostly Spruce and
Apricot, recently delivered by Coates Tree Service.

Sheet mulching is a way to reuse items like worn out natural fiber clothing (jeans, underwear, tee shirts, etc.) so they do not go into the landfill. Moving boxes of which we had many with our recent move or cardboard boxes picked up from local appliance, hardware and grocery stores, straw, raked up leaves and tree trimmings that are usually available from local tree trimming companies can be layered on top of natural fabric, if using, begin with layering cardboard next to the soil. This practice is a way to suppress weeds as well as regenerate the soil by providing microorganisms and worms an ideal place to thrive. Native perennials, shrubs, trees and annuals love BEing planted into regenerated soil. An added benefit here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the soil that has been regenerated using this practice of sheet mulching is much cooler than the temperature of the prevalent naturally occurring adobe which gets really hot with daytime temperatures in the 90's and the extremely low humidity. 

It is common practice here to use landscape cloth which is made from plastic (petroleum based) is usually laid next to the ground with loads of gravel or rocks are placed atop. As you can imagine the ground beneath this prevalent landscaping technique which uses no water is pretty devoid of any types of living BEings. 

The many truck loads of Santa Fe gravel are slowly disappearing from 6790' MuRefuge. A delightful man who answered the Craigslist posting for "free Santa Fe gravel to anyone who wants to remove it," is using it to cover a 1000' long dirt road. A Win-Win for both of us. 

The landscape fabric is leaving as well, as you can see from the picture below which shows the exposed adobe soil.

The area between the two sidewalks in the upper part
of this picture has now been completely mulched.
"Looking beautiful," was a comment by a friend recently dropping by.
And the plant on the left side of the lower half of the picture
has now found a "forever home" along with the 6 other remaining plants.
Earlier, before it got so hot, two other people took plants,
so now all the vegetation that was planted through landscape cloth
to prepare this property for sale are gone. Before the monsoon
rainy season - all Santa Feians are hopeful one will happen -
all the Santa Fe gravel will be gone as well.

Most all of those humans walking by comment on "the hard work" I am doing, to which I reply, "I love regenerating the soil and restoring the native habitat,"
then I