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Saturday Morning Garden Blog v. 21.37 - Santa Fe, NM [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-09-13

Good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning Garden Blog! We love talking gardens and growing things. Feel free to stop by this morning, where you will be greeted by numerous hosts, depending on our availability. I am working at the nursery today (pumpkins are here! Perennials are on sale!) Our other fearless leaders will pop in and out as they are able. I will try to catch up tonight, which will keep me occupied while my feet are up and the rain is coming down. Yes, finally, RAIN. We went from Extreme Drought to Flood Watch in one day, but that’s Colorado for you, and also a subject for a different day.

Today I will take you on a short tour of parts of Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens. Mr. Light and I decided to take a trip, and plans were made. Labor Day Saturday, we went to Denver to celebrate a retirement in the family. On Sunday, we headed down I-25 to Raton Pass, after which we wound through a beautiful canyon to almost Taos. We were short on time so we took a cutoff. I had made reservations at the Santa Fe Motel and Inn for two days. I was familiar with it because we had stayed there many years ago with a different dog (of course it’s dog friendly), and I wanted to see if it was as nice as I remembered. Oh yes, super cute. Our room was off a main courtyard where there were tables for the guests to sit, but we were very private in our own little patio.

A tall gate leads to a private patio. You can just see the entrance into our room past the gate.

My private patio. The climbing vine was a clematis.

We spent a little time on the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe looking at booths because they were having a fair for Labor Day. I should have bought the yard art I saw, because I never made it back. Instead, we went to a ridge outside of town for a little off leash stroll because Google directed us to a ‘dog park’ there. It was outside of town and went on into the pinon/juniper forest as far as you wanted to go. I like the terrain there. It might seem dry and barren to most people but I really love the dry heat and the smell of the pines. The views go forever.

Looking southwest off the ridge. To the left is the city and behind us is a newer, fairly wealthy development. Full of broken glass (probably an old target practice range) but it was obviously being cleaned up by volunteers.

Charlie enjoyed the ‘dog park’ but he was happy to find some shade.

On our last day there, we visited the Botanic Gardens. It’s still pretty dry in this part of the country even though we finally have rain. Most of the plants here are well suited for the extreme climate.

A salvia in a blue pot at the entrance

The plants were definitely in late summer mode. Many were blooming profusely and the bees loved it.

Mat Penstemon

Cactus garden. I LOVE this idea and I want to try it at home.

Native American garden. It included, (from what I could tell), Indian corn, sunflowers, amaranth.

I’m sure there had been other vegetables in the Native American garden but likely many things had already been harvested.

The amphitheater from the top. You can see the Native American garden to the left.

Agave Death Flower.

The sign behind this towering stalk explains that this type of agave flowers once, then dies. It reminds me of a monster hen and chicks. I wonder if they are related, since that’s how hen and chicks reproduce.

The next night we stayed in Durango on the river, and Mr. Light spotted a bear getting into the hotel trash. :-( We checked out the depot and museum at the Durango/Silverton train and went to a great brewpub downtown, called Carver Brewing Co. If you go, ask to sit on the back patio. It’s an amazing spot. Both beers and food were top notch.

Now we’re home, and autumn is nipping at our heels as the leaves are starting to change here.

Thanks for coming along on my trip. Next week I leave for California and I will have LOTS of material for another diary. Which is a good segue to shout out to any aspiring diarists! Your fellow garden folks would love to see your garden, somewhere you visited, heck, your neighbor’s garden will do! There are openings on future Saturdays for garden scribes. Let the admins know in the comments if you would be interested in publishing a diary of your own. I’m looking forward to visiting!

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