The Gardens of Los Poblanos

Book excerpt: In The Gardens of Los Poblanos, landscape designer and garden writer Judith Phillips recounts the history of these world-renowned gardens and demonstrates the ways in which the farm’s owners, designers, and gardeners have influenced the evolution of this unique landscape. Phillips showcases how the changes in landscape style and content are driven by cultural expectations and climatic realities, and she discusses how the gardens of Los Poblanos have helped preserve the deep agrarian roots of the village of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. Although plants are always a focus for Phillips, she demonstrates how gardens are more than plants and how plants are much more than mere fillers of garden space.