My second garden design project in the 'badland' foothills of Abiquiu, NM is my own place. The landscape around me is dry, fragile, and ruggedly picturesque, and I have a great of the Chama River corridor just a 1/2 mile away. I often take note of the dramatic shift in vegetation from rio grande cottonwood and willows along the riverbank to the sparse pinon juniper scrubland beginning just 200' beyond.

I don't know that it is actually any hotter, or colder, living in the foothill slopes, but it is definitely more exposed. Beginning in June, leaving the house can feel like stepping onto a hot tarmac. The soil is essentially bare, the light very intense, and it is indeed hot. Also, I do not have a well. Instead, I have an above ground cistern to which precious water is delivered four times a year. All of this is to say that a tender, leafy, oasis is out of the question for me, but to have no garden, in my case 'yarden', is also out of the question. The value of diverse plant life becomes much clearer living in the desert.

After three years of considering the many opportunity/constraint variables, I'm moving forward with several big edible THORNLESS 'nopal' type prickly pear cactus (henceforth referred to as nopal) as a primary structural element for the space. It is one of few plants that will hopefully allow me to create fullness, shade, food, beauty, and conserve soil with an extremely limited water supply. 

I do not make a habit of experimenting with plants outside of their established climate & soil range, and I would never have thought about trying nopal if I hadn't spotted a large specimen growing nearby. My first propagative cuttings came about a year ago from a mother plant growing in someone's front yard in La Mesilla, just 30 minutes south of Abiquiu. The owner said it had gotten so big (about 5x8 feet) that she was happy to give several pads away. The proximity of this gorgeous plant was encouraging, but not a guarantee that it would survive even colder temperatures in Abiquiu. But it did survive, and last spring each pad pushed out 3-5 new leaf buds, and nearly tripled in size in one growing season. 

The cactus I brought home is probably a variety of Opuntia ellisiana - one that is generally not expected to survive below 10F. We have even colder temperature dips and wind chills, so it could be a unique hybrid with a slight advantage. After quite a bit of research, I'd say I've learned that nothing is certain in the world of cactus - opuntia in particular. The entire genus is referred to simply as "prickly pear cactus". They are known to be 'promiscuous' plants that hybridize freely. Their history of cultivation and hybridization is so complex and free form that it seems they're a bit like pound puppies: you can't know what you have genetically based on appearance, and that's okay.