Looking behind those adobe walls

Jill Koenigsdorf | For The New Mexican

6/29/2008 - 6/29/08

"Something there is that does not love a wall" — or so Robert Frost observed (twice!) in his poem Mending Wall. But gardeners and other curious humans are always interested in what might be growing behind these familiar structures.

On two consecutive Tuesdays, July 22 and July 29, some lucky gardeners and other appreciators of unique gardens and home interiors will have the opportunity to see beyond some of Santa Fe's walls — thanks to the 63rd annual Behind Adobe Walls tour organized by the Santa Fe Garden Club. The tour is the garden club's only fundraising event of the year, and it helps support a wide range of conservation projects from Amigos Bravos, a river advocacy group, to New Mexico Environmental Law Center, to the Wilderness Alliance.

Behind Adobe Walls is the only event of its kind in Santa Fe where both the inside of the home as well as the surrounding gardens are open to ticket holders, with four different homes featured on each of the tour dates.


As a fairly recent transplant from California, my hat is off to any gardener who has made anything flourish here against the combined odds of poor soil, short growing season, high winds, gophers, untimely frosts, rabbits, water restrictions, scarcity of shade and wildly yo-yoing temperatures. I was told that more and more locals who don't want to be slaves to their gardens are turning to xeriscape. But what is life without certain flowers, I reasoned?

I was chastened as I watched my lilac blossoms brown on the bush and sunflower seedlings, even protected by upside-down strawberry carton "cages," devoured before they reached an inch in height. So imagine my delight upon entering a garden on the tour where the owner has achieved a miracle — a sense of floral abundance and serenity behind her white adobe walls.

When she arrived six years ago, the homeowner said, the entire property was lawn — something she set out to remedy. What does it take to have a successful garden here? Good dirt and lots of it. She imported truckloads of it, she said. Next, Sara McCarty, a landscaper well versed in roses, helped her choose some of the less high-maintenance rambling and climbing varieties — the flirty loose-petaled Sally Holmes and the tiny, dense, pink Rosa rugosa. Her only rule was "absolutely no tea roses."

A fan of clematis, she has trained the vigorous, purple Jackmanii and the paler lavender Ramona to climb structures around the property — from small trellises to the pergolas that form the cornerstones of an inviting portal charmingly decorated with things unexpected, such as an antique birdcage. The property was once an orchard, and a century-old pear tree and an opulent flowering crabapple provide coveted shade — and shade greatly opens up a gardener's planting options.

But perhaps the most striking feature of this garden is the fact that the owner has chosen to grow only perennials. An unusual white bleeding heart and a purple geranium called Rosanne play among the perennial anemones. The pale pink powder puff that is the Sarah Bernhardt peony bobs in the breeze, a soft frosty-green ground cover called Lamium growing hither and thither.

This property's owner — along with many other members of the Santa Fe Garden Club — has earned the title of Master Gardener, and her hard work and studies have paid off in the creation of a tranquil and varied haven. As I head off for the second preview, I note that the beauty of this tour is the fact that no one could guess from the outside of this property, close in to Canyon Road, that such a world awaits beyond its walls.


Behind Adobe Walls' twin tour criteria of a nice home and a nice garden, organizers said, do not always go hand in hand. But my second property preview, on Circle Drive, off Bishops Lodge Road, certainly meets this standard and more.

Here was a vast and winding property, perched high on a vista, one whose grounds require seven full-time gardeners to maintain. Four of these gardeners will be on hand the day of the tour to answer questions about the landscaping and plantings.

Large sculptures of grazing deer, eagle or bear are positioned in various portions of the gardens — a delight when one happens upon them — and tall sheltering pines create a sense of enclosure. This property uses lots of seasonal plantings, and a stroll through the various courtyards showed off a bevy of snapdragons, tiger lilies, hollyhocks, pansies, marigolds, cosmos, bearded iris and alliums. A diminutive variety of trumpet vine curlicued around structures behind all the flower borders.

Four fountains separate the various courtyards and levels of garden, the most spectacular being a bronze elephant that appeared to be at least 15 feet tall, trunk raised and water cascading from it into a pristine pond. While I was marveling at this work of art, a hawk swooped down for a drink, finding this fountain as irresistible as I did. In this woodsy-feeling area, clumps of Sweet William wade at the ankles of maroon bearded iris, and just beyond, foxglove abounds.

This is a property that invites ambling, as each courtyard melts into the next and yet has its own feel. Rounding another corner, an old apricot tree, reported to be quite generous with its fruit in season, faces a porch with beckoning wicker furniture and hanging baskets of petunias. Farther still, tiny red tea roses nudge white peonies and giant red poppies while pyrocantha hedges bracket this section with white flowers.


As much as the grounds invite visitors to mosey, ticket holders have only 31/2 hours — from 1 to 4:30 p.m. — to view the day's four homes and their gardens, so a good clip and comfortable shoes are necessities for tour-goers.

In 1941, organizers said, the event cost a quarter and was a drive-yourself affair. These days there are four buses to carry the ticket holders to the gardens. Each holding 55 people — many of whom have come from as far away as Texas, Colorado, even Tennessee, to explore the homes and gardens.

Many visitors come because they are building a home and are looking for ideas. Some are aficionados of Spanish art or antiques. Still others take note of varietals of plants and flowers they might be able to use in their own gardens.

But one thing they all share is an appreciation of beauty and an interest in what lies beyond those stately, mysterious, adobe walls.