Photos: Corrales Garden Tour highlights the beauty of the village

The Corrales Garden Tour returned to the village over the weekend for its annual spotlight on the beauty of Corrales.

There were several garden stops and points of interest on the tour, including a family practice community garden started by Dr. Alyson Thal with patients and the greater good in mind.

Thal says the food grown in the community garden gets donated to St. Felix Pantry, and most of it is grown voluntarily by the Corrales community.

"The reason this garden has started was to approach health in a different way. It's clear that staying active, giving back to others less fortunate helps," Thal said.

The gardening has provided alternative healing "besides drugs and therapistsb" according to Thal. She added the idea came from a patient who "had every medical problem in the world" and never complained. This patient said to Thal that the secret is gardening and giving back to others.

"Growing things and giving back, it's pretty pretty powerful stuff," Thal said.

The garden, named Harper Garden after a previous patient of Thal's, has a patch for vegetables, an orchard and composting. Part of the tour allowed participants to attend a composting demonstration with Master Composter John Zarola.

The tour itself funds Corrales MainStreet which promotes business in Corrales, according to volunteer Denise Stramel. Stramel coordinated the New Life Garden stop and was part of the tour planning committee.

"We start meeting in December to start planning this. This is our 12th annual event, and it's nonprofit," Stramel said.

Stramel says it is usually busier in the morning when the tour first starts because it isn't as hot. Mid-day temperatures were close to 90 degrees Sunday. She added that the committee wanted to bring some nontraditional gardens this year.

The New Life Garden was built on a former alfalfa field and sits on a mostly xeriscaped landscape. The house it beautifies is a downsized retirement home. Passersbys would not know it has a functioning Cantera stone fountain in its enclosed courtyard as well as an adobe walkway surrounding a grassy area with flowers, raspberry plants and cacti. One of the owners plans to eventually add a second fountain.

A popular stop on the tour was the Succulent Serenity Gardenb which looks exactly how it sounds with dozens of succulent plants and flowers sitting around the property. As people meandered through the courtyards, they stopped to gaze at the peaceful fountains, a beautiful outdoor fireplace and a looming weeping tree that looked like something out of Dr. Seuss.

Ex Novo showed off its Garden of EN where Corrales Pet Mayor Wendell, a goat, was available for a meet and greet.

The tour will return next year. For more information about this year's tour, visit the website.