The only garden on the East Mesa is located at the Ayres private resident. This garden in 6 miles from the Organ mountains and the soil is composed of Alluvial runoff from the mountains.
Scarlett Ayres is scientist who retired from the Army Research Laboratory located just over the Organ Mountains on the White Sands Missile Range. This largest missile range in the world is where the first atomic bomb (code name Trinity) was detonated on July 16, 1945 and is considered the Birthplace of America’s Missile and Space Activity.
The soil on the East Mesa is poor in organic matter so Scarlett adds organic matter using the method of trench composting. Basically, this means digging a hole and dumping in organic matter and covering it back up with soil. She finds it is hard to create compost on top of the ground in the dry desert conditions unless it is watered daily in the dry summer. Bio-solids, which is free from the Las Cruces Waste Management Department, is added every few years to provide micro-nutrients and iron.
Most of the irises grow in the backyard with Spurias located front and back. She has a large collection of SDBs and Arilbreds which may still be in bloom by the convention since her garden is one week behind the Mesilla valley gardens. She also grows BBs, IBs, TBs, MTBs as well as grows Louisiana Irises in buckets. Some of these buckets will be taken to the Hotel Encanto to be placed around the pool. Other plants in her garden include Daylilies, Roses, Dahlias and many potted succulents. The succulents thrive the winter in a greenhouse she built herself and are moved outdoors once the danger of frost is past.
She has hybridized and want to create rebloomers for Las Cruces and says she has “created some remarkably ugly but highly reliable rebloomers”. Unfortunately, the 2018 ArilTrek took over her space for seedlings but she has added new gardens for the convention plantings. Except for the convention plantings, she doesn’t have too many formal paths in the garden because that takes away space that can be used to grow more irises! However, she wants you to feel free to wander into the flower beds to take a closer look and take pictures. Go ahead and trample on the violas.
