Metro ABQ Parade of Gardens Tour '21 -- Sandia Heights & North ABQ Acres

The 2021 Parade of Gardens in ABQ Tour

The Metro ABQ Parade of Gardens Tour was back on this year! Hundreds of the curious headed to five gardens surrounding luxury homes in the northeast quadrant of the city. Sandia Heights, a Foothills community that abuts the Sandia Mountains, & North ABQ Acres, which sits just west of Sandia Heights & borders the Sandia Pueblo lands to the north, were featured.

Above & below are images of probably the most grand of the homes, with stunning Sandia Mountain & Pueblo views; yet the home with the youngest gardens on the tour. Sitting on the border between the Sandia Pueblo lands on Elena Drive (a herd of 35 buffalo roam & graze in the Pueblo pastures just across the property fence), the home & property was just completed in 2019. The layered modernist home itself is well over 6000sqft (going inside was off-limits) & the wraparound courtyards provided 360 degree views; however, the 'spray-seed' (hydroseeding)creation of the garden was what I found most interesting.

From the brochure: The owners felt that "native plants were a priority & water conservation a must. Utilizing a spray-seeding operation in early 2019, even before the house was complete, was primarily the way this property was planted in so short a time. Seeding in the upper berm included native shrubs, perennials & wildflowers. By mid-summer 2019 there was an amazing amount of vegetation growing in those areas. Additional grass spray-seeding & individual plantings of trees, shrubs, native cacti, succulents & grasses filled in the blanks."

You can see the results of the spray-seeding in the top image to the right, & on the bottom of both images directly below.

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