2023

Casa del Rio

Nestled just steps from the Bosque, our xeriscaped garden features native botanical plants attracting many varieties of pollinators, butterflies and birds. Beginning in 2018, we worked from a new landscape plan designed to replace the lawns that surrounded our home with plants and trees that thrive with water conserving techniques such as drip irrigation, rain barrels, swales and mulch. We invite you to visit our Casa del Rio gardens to discover herbs, fruit trees, lavenders, traditional vegetables as well as many Southwest flowering native plants. The newest addition, our “Secret Garden” was just completed this Spring. With a wonderful collection of Afghan pines, junipers, silverberries and a wildflower prairie, with walking paths this planned forest is designed for individual serenity while helping the environment.

The large, natural bottom pond, surrounded by giant cottonwoods, was created in the 1970s by preserving part of the historic orchard acequia on this property. Today the pond is home to koi, goldfish, painted turtles, and bullfrogs. Most days there are visits from dozens of bird species including hummingbirds, mallards, great blue herons and, recently, a snowy egret.

Blooms, Birds & Brushes

Welcome to our low-maintenance desert garden, designed for its aging caretakers. The garden boasts a luscious lawn, southwestern perennials, and expansive rose garden, along with an array of recycled and whimsical yard art. The wide paths, fire pit and gazebo seating areas create an inviting place for relaxing and entertaining.

We have designed and created most everything ourselves, including water features to attract wildlife and a variety of bird-friendly features such as handmade birdhouses and feeders. We have also incorporated our sense of humor and love of rusty objects into the garden just for fun.

Our goal was to have a garden that was respectful of the area but comfortable, useable, and sustainable – our chickens even help with the composting.

My artists group will be painting and selling small watercolors along with some bird houses that we have made from scrap wood and reclaimed objects.

Gracious Living

Welcome! This property was once a sandlot, just like the original desert landscape near the drive — beautiful, sandy, and wild. Now the blowing sand has become a landscape fit for exercise, relaxing, hobby gardening, and entertaining. The property is primarily xeriscaped and even the pickleball court was conceived as a fun way to manage the sand without water usage.

Thanks to Don’s soil amendments and watering systems, a former horse shelter became an orchard pavilion. A nearby terraced garden provides produce for delicious pies, fruit cobblers, pizza sauce, herbal teas, and fresh spices. Josephine particularly enjoys making floral arrangements from her cutting garden and gathering eggs from her pet hens. From swimming in a shaded pool surrounded by flowers and hummingbirds, to playing pickleball and sharing a drink in the cool shade of our orchard pavilion, we’ve designed this property for enjoyment.

The Farm Stand

The newly refurbished 90 year-old adobe building on Corrales Road houses Candlestick Coffee Roasters, Silverleaf’s organically grown veggies, gourmet food items such as cheeses, olives, and pastries, plus award-winning Milagro wines.

The meticulously restored building sits alongside a small vineyard that is farmed by Silverleaf Farms. At approximately a quarter acre, the vineyard can produce as much as 1000 pounds of Roussanne varietal white grapes, which originated in the Rhône region of France. In vintner terms, wine is all about the Terroir – the distinct growing conditions, farm practices, environment and plant characteristics comprising the growers’ ecosystem.

The vineyard, garden area, and perennials are irrigated by a drip system utilizing the property’s well water, and fertilized with chicken manure. Rose bushes sit at the end of each row of vines, and, besides enhancing the beauty of the area, they are the “canaries” in the grape orchard. Wood chip mulch is used throughout to conserve water.

Milagro Vineyard

The garden at Milagro Vineyards & Winery was planted for our customers to have a special place to taste wines made from Corrales grapes. The garden complements the wines that are handcrafted. It was designed by Alana Markle and is maintained by Claudette Evangel. All of the elements in the garden are crafted by local artisans. A carving of San Isidro greets guests at the entrance.

The garden is a colorful mixture of perennials and annuals with favorites being Julia Child roses, geraniums from La Paloma Greenhouse, numerous succulents, lantana, peonies, California poppies, iris, hollyhocks and heliotropes.

The plan has always been to have a new color palette each month when a wine is released. When guests visit to taste the release they also see new flowers in bloom.

This year a memorial is added to the garden to honor Judge Diane Albert, her Pugs (Skylie, Noche, Luna and Rosie) and Felix the cat. They all tragically passed in November of 2022 and Pug Ranch and Milagro Boston Terrier Rescue are honored to collaborate in this memorial.

Gardens of Grace

Life begins the day you start a garden. Our gardens provide habitats for birds, butterflies, honey- bees and other benficial insects. The peonies, lavender, phlox, lilies, red hot pokers, coneflowers, lilacs, trumpet vines and Lady Banks roses are colorful and often fragrant.

As you stroll by the sweet-smelling blooms of the rose garden they burst with colors ranging from pastel pink, peach and cream to vibrant yellow, orange and red.

Trees are an essential component of our life –– from the weeping willow and the special memorial trees to the native piñons and blue spruces to our bountiful fruit trees and pecan trees.

The love of vegetable gardening is a seed once sown that never dies. We love our vegetable garden that is filled with many types of peppers, carrots, onions, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, herbs, strawberries and a tunnel of blackberries. Farm to table is our goal.