David/Peese Garden

About

Our garden in Santa Fe began by working between three home remodeling projects about ten years ago. Over this period of time, the garden evolved from wildflower plantings to more perennials, shrubs, and trees. The climate at 7,000 feet was not like anything I'd experienced in my sixty years of gardening. It was a new world of plants and landscape design opportunities. All the plants that I often killed in Austin, I could grow, and I tried almost anything. I could grow lilac, peonies, cold-hardy roses, lilies, and New Mexico native plants. The garden wraps around the home at various levels, with the front garden leading you in with fastigiate Rocky Mountain junipers, Stanley plum, and sour cherry trees. The trees are interspersed with perennials and shrubs. As you move around the home, you enter a kitchen garden of herbs and vegetables, with two raised beds for tomatoes. Some of the seeds were collected in Italy, and are only grown on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius. As you continue to move around the house, you descend to the lower garden by a koi pond and a rectangular lawn. Wrapping around the lawn is a greenhouse, woodland garden, and a series of rock gardens containing plants from the steppe and alpine areas of the world. Bearded iris beds flank the walkway to the front driveway and parking area. The driveway rock garden, implemented and designed by Kenton Seth, climbs a small hill that is the main entrance to the house. Planted in the rock garden are conifers, perennials, and annuals on one side of the driveway, and a row of piñon pines on the opposite bank.

This garden’s estimated size is 1/2 acre.

2025 Open Day:  Saturday, May 31

Hours:10-12, 12-2, 2-4