Tribute Garden

The Santa Fe Botanical Garden is putting in a brand new garden, as a tribute to David Salman, the plantsman who died last year. Ground will be broken next spring and plants, many that David discovered and introduced to the nursery trade over the years, will be installed in fall 2024.

Lauren Springer donated her design services and I can't wait to see how this space will develop.

It will be sited on a slope just above the "hot box"  which is a small sunken paved square that showcases xeric plants  -- cactus and Mojave sages and agaves. I'm not a fan of desert succulents, but this hot, dry little garden square is well done. David Salman had a hand in creating it.

Above it, rising steeply up from the hot box garden walls, the new garden will display the beauty and interest of western gardening. 

Whenever I visited and wandered down the steps to the cactus garden, I often thought the sloped area above the square's garden walls looked vacant and untended. I even imagined how I'd plant it up if I had the chance. (My imagination outstrips my abilities)

Now I'll get to see how a talented designer of western gardens does it. Funds are being donated to spend on plants, there will be boulders, which are a feature of her designs, and I expect it will all come together the way her garden in Ft. Collins Colorado did. She named it The Undaunted Garden and wrote a well known book about it (in addition to several other books).

I want to see if the garden develops the way I imagined I would plant it if I had the funds and labor. With the donations that David Salman's reputation and respect inspire, the money and talent will allow a major new installation to be planted at the botanic garden.

But however it comes together, the tribute to David Salman will be lovely.