The information below is about last year's tour:

2005 LOS JARDINEROS GARDEN & HOME TOUR
Saturday, August 6, 2005
9:00AM to 4:00PM

CONTEMPORARY CASA

Constructed in 2001, this Hondo home uses metal, concrete and glass in an expression of comfort and serenity among the pinons. Architect Tom Lechtner designed for views and "look throughs" to create openness, while he sited the house for shelter to create comfortable outdoor areas.

The entry's painted concrete floors with designs by the artist-owner segue into the living room's smooth pine floors. Pale wood shelves and drawers give a counterpoint to the corrugated steel wall that wraps from living room to kitchen. A "Mother and Child" print from Andy Warhol's "Cowboys and Indians" series commands the eye. Here and throughout the house are pieces by the owner, who is a well known glass artist, as well as work by other glass workers of the area.

Next to the living room is the galley kitchen, an efficient and aesthetic mix of lighting, steel and wood with the addition of glass "japonisme" tiles by the owner.

Another delight in this contemporary home is the guest bath where a suspended metal vanity holds a sink of cobalt glass. Its drawers pull out at an angle, making unique use of the space. An open steel shower has its counterpart in a second, outdoor shower just beyond the door to the private garden. Use of this outside shower irrigates the surrounding flowers and eventually reaches the plants on the downslope.

Don't miss the antique family embroidery and knit lace framed in the guetroom, which accesses the herb garden through French doors.

The stairwell is the site of a collection of Japanese prints from a kimono catalogue of the 1800's. Hanging above the stairwell is an antler chandelier by retired Air Force General Dusty Davis.

The master bedroom's beautiful floor is of bamboo, a renewable resource. A large window to the east frames part of the Sangre de Cristos, and a smaller one to the west looks out onto the gorge area and beyond. A balcony off of this room extends the openness of the large window. Balinese folk creatures hang from the ceiling, and in the bathroom are 17th cen. Japanese Ukiyoe prints of courtesans.

The garden is a sinuous surround of the house from the entrance beds around to the rear portal, then along to the herb garden. Perennials, many of them edible, flourish and sometimes integrate with the surrounding pinons. The edible blooms provide "free range" flower fare for Joseph's Table in Taos. Vines and succulents add to the bloom of heuchera, dianthus, salvia, monarda and veronica, to name but a few of the many rock garden species. Five French drains are placed around the exterior of the house. Water directed by hanging chains is captured in tin troughs connect to drip hoses for irrigation. Conservation of water, passive solar secondary heating, and use of renewable materials reflect the ecological commitment in the creation of this home.

The Terra Nova Center for Integrated & Educational Medicine, sited amid the rolling landscape of the Blueberry Hill area, is a complex dedicated to natural healing. In only three years founder Angelika Koch has created a sustainable center for the healing arts which includes therapies and education. A special emphasis is given to mothers, babies and children. A separate part of the complex is the Terra Nova Children's Foundation, Northern New Mexico's only center for non-profit treatment of neglected and abused children.

The entrance to Terra Nova is through antique gates into the healing environment of a walled garden. Indigenous trees and plants blend together with other species to create an environment for meditation and renewal. Fruit trees, aspen and white oak intersperse with Apache Plume, Russian sage, barberry, salvia and yucca. A passage through a wisteria-covered arbor leads to areas of rock garden plantings. Farther south, grapevines flourish.

The brick courtyard, centered by a rock-on-rock fountain, is the connecting point for the treatment house and for the guesthouse, Casa Terra Nova. Kilim rugs, carved columns and interior screens and furniture all combine to flavor the rooms with the crafts of India, Asia and the Middle East. Multi-paned windows filter the beautiful New Mexican light. The dining area has table and chairs of rattan against a wall of earthy red, and the living area invites one to relax surrounded by white walls in contrast with handsome textiles. The bathroom features a stone basin and a tub overlooked by one of the many mosaics incorporated into the buildings of Terra Nova.

Across the patio, the treatment house for integrated medicine has in its main room a round window looking out toward Taos Mountain. It is a striking focal point of the architecture.

Farther to the east is the founder's home. A circular mosaic near the entrance and a twig, twine and stone configuration on the western wall compliment the exterior. The original structure is hexagonal, designed and used for channeling by Margaret Moore, known for her channeled contact with Bartholomew. This became the main room of the house when Ms. Koch enlarged it.

The kitchen here, as in Casa Terra Nova, is furnished with a Swedish undercounter refrigerator that is extremely energy-efficient. The underfloor radiant heat is both of the structures is augmented by woodstove and solar heat. Terra Nova was the first member of the Kit Carson Green Power Project, selling solar electricity accumulated during the day and buying back what is needed after sundown. A further move toward sustainability has been the installation of a Grander Waterfilter System that purifies both drinking and irrigation water at its molecular level. The Growing Dome, to the south of the complex, is a solar powered geodesic greenhouse for year-round gardening of a large passionflower vine, lettuces and echinaceas. Terra Nova as a whole embodies a simple and responsible relationship towards mind, body and spirit.

In the heart of Taos sits an early adobe home whose origins in the history of the area were prior to 1856. Originally the site of the town's first non-parochial school, it is now a home and guest house with garden in a very private setting. The first view within its walled entrance is of the rock fountain in the middle of the patio.

To one side of the patio is the guesthouse, formerly a carriage barn. Log-style bunk beds draped with Indian textiles and Western prints on the walls light up the room with color. The original vigas remain in the ceiling. An efficiency kitchen was added by the present owners, as well as the bathroom area which uses metal-pail basins set into concrete very effectively painted to blend with adobe. A studio workroom for on-going painting completes the guesthouse.

The main house on the other side of the patio is entered through French doors into the great room. Kiva fireplace, entertainment center, pool table, and plenty of comfortable seating welcome visitors. Especially interesting here is the work of many Western artists: Thom Wheeler, Julien Robles, Gene Kloss, Don Ward, Oscar Berninghaus, Andrew Dasburg, Leroy Neiman, and Frederick Remington, among others. On one wall is a Rio Grande blanket with red that came from early U.S. Army underwear. Zapotec rugs are used here and throughout the house. Wonderfully fanciful multi-colored clay constructions on the fireplace shelf were done by students from Episcopal High School in Houston.

A kitchen with flagstone floor and a stainless steel stove made for serious cooking leads into an informal eating area. The papers for the early school were found when the kitchen/dining room wall was taken down in the course of remodeling by Zeke Tafoya. Beyond this, in the older part of the house, are the formal dining room and living room areas. An impressive Rory Wagner painting dominates the living area. This room , overlooking the lawn area at the rear of the house, has a welcoming serenity of design.

Both bedrooms have special bed coverings; a "Cathedral Window" quilt made by the owner's mother in the guest room, and a Phase III chief blanket in the master bedroom.

The ambiance of comfortable living extends to the outdoor areas, with fire ring and banco, hot tub, swing and tables. The shaded lawn interwoven with flagstones creates a cool haven separated from the rest of the world by coyote fencing. Stephen Domigan landscaped the garden to be as free from care as possible, featuring Russian sage, Austrian copper roses, Avena grass, yarrow, centranthus, columbine and hemerocallis.

Nestled in the wide-open spaces in the vicinity of the Rio Grande gorge, there is a solar home that extends the earthship concept to an aesthetic high. The present owners have added spaces and details that are both functional and delightful. Custom doors carved of Honduran mahogany embellished with burnished copper lead one to the long living room with its southern window orientation. Japanese-style framing at the eaves folds out to protect the interior from too much strong summer sun, folding in again in cooler weather.

The basic construction is of adobe-filled tires, making ample insulation to retain the heat from the sun, a Vermont woodstove, and a small kiva fireplace. The foyer at the entrance blocks cold winter air from the rest of the house. Transoms above the bedroom doors allow for transfer of heat from the living room.

Choices of materials are a major part of the aesthetics of this home. Tongue-and-groove aspen ceilings above the living room lighten and refine the area, and micaceous walls by The Adobe Gourmet Co. provide beautiful texture and color. Paintings by the owner's former grandfather-in-law, Conrad Buff II, are hung in this room.

In the kitchen warm earth tones, burnished copper, mahogany table and chairs by Steve Ninneman, and carving work by James Wiley combine to create a space made for entertaining. Pottery by the owner, Janelle, brings her personal expression to sconces and other details. An antique sign from Antoine's in New Orleans hangs over the dining room table. Twig-backed bar chairs face the work area. The solar-powered refrigerator and the compost drawer complete this beautiful and practical room .

A recently added casita with garage and pottery workshop has its own patio-with-view for warm weather breakfasts or afternoon margaritas. Casita, house and garden are all enclosed within beautiful walls that have built-in garden lights. Generous double gates enhance the exterior. The extensive garden has a variety of focal points. A flagstoned gazebo functions as an outdoor room near a 3,000 gallon cistern holding irrigation water for the garden. Hot tub, firepit, vegetable garden, starter beds for seeded perennials, and herb area are all accessible by pea gravel paths. The array of plants, from delphiniums, crabapples, self-pollinating cherry trees, aspens, Buddleia alternifolia, Thompson grapes, to Korean hyssop make this an oasis overlooking the sagebrush sea.