It feels morally wrong to move to the desert (Albuquerque: home, buying)
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It is a question of scale. People have lived in Southwestern deserts for many centuries.
New Mexico has room to grow. PNW with its trees no one will cut down, is overcrowded and getting worse. Interstate 5 is a mess. Try passing Tacoma in the last 17 years.
Great links, great hearing people's views and opinions. I'm going to all the links and really listening. And learning.
As for xeri-scaping, how 'bout this? I have a neighbor who's retiring and just bought a house in Arizona. We joked about how he won't have to mow any more, and he said he was all excited about his "plastic grass." He said it's great, looks real, and doesn't fade. He did say, however, that some maintenance is required. He said he'll have to blow off the dust, but he's not sure yet if it's going to be a weekly job like mowing is here.
Considering our visit in April where we experienced a haboob for the first time, we understand that using a blower to dust your grass could take some time...maybe like mowing AND might be needed rather more frequently than mowing, as well! The whole dusting/blowing off your plastic grass-thing seems pretty funny to me.
Xeriscaping and gravel (I hate houses with gravel) are not maintenance-free either.
Not mowing the lawn is nice, but weeds have a way of coming up through and around plastic sheeting, or between the expansion joints in concrete. I always have something to say to somebody when they rip up their lawn and they're beaming about how they're done maintaining their yard.
Ah, I see the rose-tinted residents, fact spinners, real estate developers and Chamber of Commerce pitchmen have found your thread and misinformed you.
Bernalillo County has grown 40 percent since 1990, from 483,000 to 677,000. Only 2% of that is in the years 2010-2017, but that's to be expected with the recent national economy and current NM economy. Cue the people who say "that's less than place XYZ", as if that somehow makes it not so.
Regarding the aquifer being fine and dandy, you may want to tell that to people in the East Mountains, where groundwater is dropping nearly 2 feet per year and wells are running dry.
Where some areas (understandably) showed a rebound in groundwater levels after the city began diverting water from the Rio Grande for its water supply.
So now an intelligent person can start asking questions like Gee, isn't the Rio Grande already pretty much a dead and dry river for a big chunk of the year further south? With warming climate and declining precipitation, what direction is this all heading?
Yup. And we've had a dry winter and spring, too. The water utilities haven't announced the need to ration water this summer, which surprises me, but we've certainly had that in the past. And while we're on this topic, whatever happened to the May monsoons? I remember years not too long ago, when there was good rain in May, sort of a sneak preview of the summer monsoon season.
I don't live in NM but have a friend who moved to Albuquerque and did the xeriscape garden. It is definitely way different than any garden I have ever planted but I found it pretty intriguing.
Here's some info on resource conservation & xeriscaping specific to NM:
he said he was all excited about his "plastic grass."
I've never seen plastic grass in the zero-scaped yards that I've seen, and in my opinion
this is not a valid option. As far as I'm concerned zero-scaping should be using only
natural things that are available in the natural environment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoidberg
It's spelled xeriscape, though it sounds about the same.
Interesting, but I've seen it written as zero-scaping too.
As far as the water thing, take a drive up to the Rio Grande in Colorado. Then drive back to
take a look at in in NM. You'll see a big difference in the water level, with what's in NM
a trickle compared to what's up in CO.
...showing it is possible to be a part of the solution and not merely "the problem." If you are worried about water, find ways to reduce your use. Treat it like the precious resource that it is.
I don't live in NM but have a friend who moved to Albuquerque and did the xeriscape garden. It is definitely way different than any garden I have ever planted but I found it pretty intriguing.
Here's some info on resource conservation & xeriscaping specific to NM:
Thank you! This is a great resource, great foundation to fully grasp xeriscaping and how to implement an attractive design (not just fill your your with rocks, although I have seen some pretty cool designs with rocks, mind you) that incorporates greenery along with color. I had no idea. I thought it would essentially be just variations on cactus, junipers, and pinon.
Thanks also to everyone who continues to contribute to this thread. Again, I'm reading them all and considering the various views. This thread has morphed into something pretty valuable with lots of links that help clarify.
It is a question of scale. People have lived in Southwestern deserts for many centuries.
New Mexico has room to grow. PNW with its trees no one will cut down, is overcrowded and getting worse. Interstate 5 is a mess. Try passing Tacoma in the last 17 years.
PNW had room to grow when I moved there 30 years ago and 10 years later (when I left) there was no room left but people kept coming.
BTW, we weren't talking about "room" we were talking about water.
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