Let's not mourn the fading of summer just yet. Santa Fe abounds in public gardens, parks and wildlife preserves that really sparkle in fall. You can create your own tour and feed your soul without dinging your budget.

Although the presence of grass alone does not a garden make, many in our high desert hanker after the green stuff. Fulfill your yearning with a leisurely visit to the Plaza and Cathedral Park.

Five miles north of town, the village of Tesuque's lush river-fed woods canopied by giant cottonwoods and elms recall the Land of Oz. Shidoni bronze art foundry's sculpture garden beside the Tesuque River was formerly an apple orchard. The garden blooms with strange and wonderful sculptures.

Sena Plaza's courtyard garden on East Palace Avenue is an organic oasis of native plants, flowers and herbs with a massive cottonwood tree and fountain as its heart. The compound, originally an 1880s house for the Jose Sena family, is now filled with bustling specialty shops, art galleries and La Casa Sena restaurant.

The courtyard's plantings offer plenty of old fashioned romance — roses, morning glories, hollyhocks and a wisteria-draped pergola. There are also poppies, sunflower, wine cup and fireweed. The herb garden grows angelica, echinacea, mint, garlic, lavender and chives while scarlet runner beans and grapes thrive nearby.

"Because of the high water table, we have a Douglas fir. The red bud trees are pretty magnificent and were probably planted in the 1950s," gardener Barbara Fix said.

Don't miss Sena Plaza's Sept. 27 garden celebration featuring a bilingual talk and walk and refreshments made with organic ingredients from the garden, and wine tasting of La Casa Sena's floral wines.

One hidden yet public garden on Canyon Road is at the historic Olive Rush House, now the Society of Friends Meetinghouse. The property was willed to the Society of Friends by Olive Rush, who was a Quaker.

"We have fruit trees — plum, apricot — a huge mulberry tree and butterfly bush. There's a really old crabapple tree in the center with seating. It's a very pedestrian garden, just lovely," Kathleen Burke, Resident Friend, said.

The garden abounds in wild roses, spirea, lilacs, hollyhock and iris as well as herbs. Santa Fe Master Gardeners recently created a new design for the site, which was implemented by volunteers from both organizations. The work included lots of pruning, creating a designated herb garden and two more sitting areas, adding plantings that created more color and shade, and moving lilacs and hollyhocks. The goal was to create a garden that was more "user friendly" for the congregation.

If sitting on a porch swing, garden breezes blowing, strikes your fancy, visit El Zaguán, the James L. Johnson House & Garden, also on Canyon Road. Built by the Johnson family in the 1850s, the property was restored in the 1970s and transferred to the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, which maintains the buildings and garden.

Several miles east of El Zaguán, on Upper Canyon Road, is the Randall Davey Audubon Center & Sanctuary. If a single place could be said to "have it all" nature wise, the Audubon Society could be it. "There are three distinct ecosystems — riparian, piñon and juniper canyons, and ponderosa pine," Rob Hampson, facilities and maintenance coordinator, said.

One hundred and thirty species of birds have been found throughout the varied terrain of this 135-acre sanctuary, which has the international designation of IBA (Important Bird Area). There's an ornamental lawn area, orchard, vegetable and herb garden, and a wildlife garden.

A grant received by the Audubon Center this spring was to create a children's garden on one of the terraces. "It's to bring it back to life," Hampson said. "Earth Care teenagers will do the gardening work, grow produce and use it to serve the community. Volunteers will be building a bridge, stairs and a gate."

All the plantings in the Wildlife Garden, designed by the Santa Fe Master Gardeners, are designed to attract bees, birds, hummingbirds, moths and butterflies. "The diversity of ecology brings a high density of different species. We have currants and hawthorns; fruit for birds and flowers for pollinators," Hampson said.

If roses make your heart sing, visit the Cornell Rose Garden off Cordova Road, dedicated to landscape architect Harvey Cornell (1882-1963). You can get a daily walk in at the site, ringed by walkways a third of a mile in length with plenty of benches on which to rest and admire the roses. The garden is maintained by the Santa Fe Rose Society.

If you're on your way to check out the activities on Museum Hill, stop at the nearby Amelia White Memorial Garden — maintained by the Santa Fe Garden Club — at the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and Camino Corrales.

For a contemplative experience, visit the Healing Garden at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. Originally created to nurture people with cancer, the garden is open to all. The petite space graced with aspens, Japanese maple, dogwood and roses was designed to be visible through the windows of the Cancer Treatment Center.

For those who like their nature on the wild side, experience the 40-acre Leonora Curtin Historical Wetlands Preserve in La Cienega, maintained by the Santa Fe Botanical Garden.

"It's full of little jewels, there's lots of birding to do and there are really spectacular dragonflies that skim the pond," Fran Cole, outreach director, said. "Big, fat bullfrogs are really vocal and hang around the pond. The pond is surrounded by reeds. There's a dock, you can walk out look at the pond, look at all the critters that live out there. Fall is a beautiful time to visit. The cottonwoods turn a majestic gold and the sumacs turn red."

There are tours of the preserve each weekend from May 1-Oct. 31 or by appointment. "It's along the interstate but once you enter the preserve, it's like being in a magic kingdom," Cole said.

"Once a Cooper's hawk nested in a tree very close to the kiosk," executive director Linda Milbourn said. "The eggs hatched, we watched and saw baby hawks in the nest. There are red-winged blackbirds and a muskrat that swims across the pond."

A resident coach whip snake that's approximately 8 inches in diameter and 6 feet long has been sighted over the past decade, once by Milbourn herself when she met it on the path. "We startled each other. He went vertical into the branches above. One of our longtime visitors said it was the most amazing thing they'd ever seen," Milbourn said.