 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. Donyana County Agent John White tours Master Gardener Lisa Mantelkern's native plant zero-escape garden. Thank you Lisa, this is a beautiful garden. Tell us a little bit about how you got started on this project. What used to be here was, we named it the jungle. It's a lot of sumac that grows here, you've been mesquite and you saw a cedar and we took a lot of this out, cut it down and established this more orderly garden where I can practice my hobby of collecting succulents and cacti. You have a beautiful garden, a good mix of cacti, succulents, perennials and wildflowers. You can see some shrubs and trees in it too. Is this all watered through a drip system by hand? There are plants in this garden that will need additional water but these beds like the one in front of us is not on any drip system. I'll have to water it in June or July but other than that they are fine on their own. It's beautiful. Let's go take a look at the rest of the garden. Lisa, that's a beautiful sotol. It is isn't it? It was two flower stalks this year because it rained so much in June. Here's a beautiful flower. What's this one? This is a penstemon ambiguous or sand penstemon or moth penstemon. It really likes sandy soil and full sun. I can see the yellows grabbing her eye over here. What's that? That's paper flower. Also a really good plant for very dry and sunny situations. Of course we've got our mainstay of zero scapes, the red yucca. Good hummingbird plant. Beautiful hummingbird plant. Let's take a look at another part of the garden. Lisa, this is another colorful part of the garden. You can see we have one of our natives here, the yellow bells. This is a plant that looks almost lush yet it does not require a lot of additional water. You'll find it in the Dottie and the mountains. Beautiful yellow color. How about the purple flower here? This will be a rigida, a plant that will spread by rhizomes and fill a space in no time at all. I notice the Desert Willow here has beautiful color to it. Is this a variety or just a chance seedling? It is a variety. The name is Burgundy. Let's go take a look at the rest of the garden here. Lisa, this is a beautiful garden. You've got a good use of native plant material and a lot of color. Here's a gorgeous desert marigold. This really helps to bring the color out in the garden. Here we've got a desert honeysuckle. You can see the butterflies trying to get to it and just beautiful color. 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.