 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. On the other side of this wrought-iron gate is landscape designer Andy Page, and his new landscape, which is a work in progress. Hi Andy, this is a new landscape but it doesn't look so new. It's really alive, it's pretty. Yes, we're coming to the very end of the progress of the garden. The plants, trees have been in for about a year. We're finishing up a lot of the interior of this courtyard for right now, and the only thing left to do is to put in the decomposed rock, and that'll be the finishing touch to everything. And what's your design concept for the courtyard area? Well, the courtyard is here to make a transition from the outside of the yard, the traffic on the street, and to give you kind of an oasis before you get to the front door. So cool things down as you approach? Exactly, and in the desert I think it's an important concept that the person feels cool as they get to the entrance of the house. So with a water feature, a concentration of plant material, you're able to create that feeling for people. And it's also a great place to have a morning breakfast in the shade and share a bagel and some coffee. Interesting, I know you've got children, so the backyard is probably designed for them. The Xeriscape principle says if you have a lawn, it should be appropriate to the purpose in type of grass and size, and it looks like you've got just the right thing for children to play. Yes, I wanted to devote enough space in here so that we could have a nice soccer game or play croquet on Christmas Day, but make it appropriate so that it doesn't overwhelm and we're not using more area than we need to for the grass. And it's sunken so it catches water? Yes, and that's another principle is I've recessed the lawn and then made this kind of amphitheater feeling with the hardscape, and the function of that is the ball stays in this area, it doesn't end up in the cactus. The other thing is we've done some amendments to the soil so that it drains a little bit extra, so if we get an extra bit of rain, that we don't have a big puddle in here, and so those are some of the things that we've done below ground. But overall the idea is to give the person in the landscape the concept, the feeling that they're enveloped. So the landscape really surrounds them and invites them in. Exactly, exactly, and then as this landscape matures, they'll get even more of that feeling with the trees and the cactus and the extra plants that we've put in here. The other idea is back here where the fireplace is, we've put in kind of a forest of Akatios, and then there's a plant called Little Leaf Cordia that is going to vine through that and then soften that area over there as well as make it a nice green kind of living background. In order to help these plants grow and fill in to envelop the landscape, you're using drip irrigation. I was wondering, especially in a new system like this as you're installing it, how do you keep it from clogging up? What do you do in new or old systems? Well, in either system, the material that's used is a three-eighths inch poly hose and then there's the spaghetti emitter that's attached to that and at the emitter as well as at the end of the hose there's a flush out cap. So after installation, we normally will turn that system on, flush out through any soil or debris that's gotten in as part of the installation and then after that, periodically, the homeowner would take that cap off, turn the system on at the valve or at the timer, and then let the water flush out any debris that's gotten in or any salts or anything that's gotten in the course of the water. Well, thanks for sharing your new Zero Escape with us. The preceding was a production of New Mexico State University. The views and opinions in this program are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents.