The Santa Fe Botanical Garden has completed arroyo restoration near Museum Hill where it is planning to build a water-wise public demonstration garden on city-owned land along the Arroyo de los Pinos.

The nonprofit has been around for more than two decades and manages both the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve and the Ortiz Mountains Education Preserve. But this project will provide it a place to call home — a permanent garden.

A main entrance to the garden is planned from the overflow parking lot near the Museum of International Folk Art, but the 11 acres stretch from Camino Lejo to Old Santa Fe Trail.

So far, the area is marked by what the group's executive director Linda Milbourn calls "bandit trails."

But that is going to change. "There are a lot of things that will happen," Milbourn said. "There will be plants growing and all that kind of thing."

Using state grants and private donations, the garden group hired construction firms Earthworks and Dry Land Solutions this month to install boulders, rock ponds and other nature-inspired mechanisms to slow water as it flows through the arroyo and encourage percolation through the soil.

Already there are newly planted native grasses sprouting along the arroyo, said Milbourn, who credits restoration ecologist Steve Vrooman with key analysis and planning for the project.

"We are going to make the site a lot wetter and able to support a greater diversity of native plants without additional water. We are just trying to make it much more productive naturally," he said.

The group hopes to install a bridge over the arroyo that will join two segments of the public space. One of two areas for demonstration gardens is planned on the high ground across the arroyo, with another developed garden area to be located at the opposite end of the land near Old Santa Fe Trail.

Organizers are looking for an "orphaned bridge," that can be relocated to the site from a place where it is no longer needed.

Garden volunteer Michael Pulman lobbied the city to let the group use nearby Amelia White Park for the garden, then learned about the Museum Hill property that might be available. The retired history professor and former garden board member likes to show off the progress to visitors.

"On the board, the first question you are asked is 'Where is the garden?' Now we've got a project that is doable ... The hard part is going to be the money," he said.

The garden began leasing land from the city in 2007 for $1 per year. The state Legislature gave about $330,000 for the project, and the rest of the nearly half-million dollars spent to date has come from private foundations and supportive garden members, said Milbourn.

Building the educational garden could ultimately cost up to $5 million, but Milbourn said the fundraisers will first try to raise $1 to $2 million for an initial investment.

Residents who are interested in a free tour of the site should call Santa Fe Botanical Garden at 471-9103.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.