With many Las Cruces residents originally from other places, it’s sometimes a challenge to learn what plants thrive in our region and would sparkle in your garden. But Las Cruces Utilities (LCU) can help fast track that learning experience by inviting you to a free Lush and Lean Workshop featuring Rachel Gioannini on Thursday, March 14th.
Gioannini, a Master Gardener and award-winning landscape designer, presents “Landscape Design for Southwestern Homes: A beginner's guide to landscape design in arid regions.” She explains how to find variations of classic plants found in different corners of the country, and introduces you to local, hardy varieties that emulate the feel of those plants.
“If you like a forsythia shrub in Iowa, then maybe you’ll like a winter jasmine here,” said Gioannini. “Substitutions make the transition to this environment easier and make it feel more like home.”
For 12 years, Gioannini owned her own landscape design company in Tucson, Arizona, and then moved to Las Cruces in 2013. In Arizona she was an active member of the Tucson Chapter of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD); when she moved here, she founded the New Mexico Chapter.
She obtained her APLD certification in 2008 and in 2011 received the Monrovia “Distinctively Better” Plant Design Award. In 2017 she graduated from NMSU with a Master of Science in Horticulture. Her graduate research was in native plant communities for green roofs in arid regions.
Attend Gioannini’s Lush and Lean presentation and learn not only basic landscape concepts, but also how to keep your landscape looking good after it is installed. “You don’t have to spend a million dollars, if you work in concert with the native plants,” she said. For those at a loss as to which plants to bring home, native and adapted plants will be discussed, including 20 "bomb proof" plants.
All Lush and Lean workshops are free and open to the public. They are held Thursday evenings at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library, 200 E. Picacho Ave., upstairs in the Roadrunner Room from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. See the complete list of speakers and Lush and Lean dates at www.las-cruces.org/WaterConservation
or visit www.facebook.com/cityoflascruces.
Submitted by Las Cruces Utilities at 528-3500 from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Las Cruces Utilities provides GAS – WATER – WASTEWATER – SOLID WASTE services to approximately 100,000 Las Cruces residents and businesses.