High Desert Landworks
Demo Site

Taos · New Mexico · Est. 2012

Land, composed.

Xeriscape design and stonework for the high desert — landscapes conceived like architecture, built to outlast us all.

Descend

We believe a landscape should ask nothing of its owner — not water, not worry — and give back everything: shade in June, stillness in January, and a reason to stand outside with your coffee a little longer.

— The Landworks Philosophy

Disciplines

Three crafts, one hand

I.

Xeriscape Design

Native gardens drawn to the inch — piñon, sage, and stone arranged for four-season structure and half the water.

II.

Stonework & Patios

Flagstone laid by hand and by level. Seating walls, walkways, and courtyards that feel discovered, not installed.

III.

Water, Managed

Drip irrigation engineered to be invisible and intelligent — watering at dawn, resting in rain.

Signature work

One property, reconsidered

As foundAs composed

Draw the line across — on your site, this is your own work

Selected commissions

Every property has a name here

Casa Serena

A dirt lot in El Prado, remade as a sage courtyard garden.

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The Lantern Garden

An evening courtyard, lit for hundred-guest summers.

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Piedra Vista

Forty tons of flagstone, laid to follow the ridgeline.

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Winter House

A garden composed to be at its best in January.

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On your site, each commission opens a gallery of that project

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Commissions
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Years in Taos
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Avg. water saved
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Our water bill dropped by half, and the yard finally looks like it belongs to the land around it. People slow their cars down.

Kim · Taos · Commission Nº 297

R

The hand behind the work

Ray Herrera, Founder

Designer · Stonemason · Son of Taos

"I grew up watching my grandfather move water through these fields with nothing but a shovel and patience. Every landscape I compose starts the same way his did — by standing still on the land long enough to hear what it wants to be."

Commissions in collaboration with architects and builders across Northern New Mexico.

The way we work

Unhurried, in order

i.

The Walk

We walk your land together, at your pace. We listen more than we talk.

ii.

The Drawing

A hand-rendered plan with plant palette and one considered price. No line items to haggle.

iii.

The Build

Stone, then soil, then water. The site left immaculate every evening.

Correspondence

Questions, considered

How much does a xeriscape commission cost in Taos?
Full commissions typically begin around $15,000 and scale with property size and stonework. Every project receives one considered, all-inclusive price after the design walk — no line items to haggle.
Does xeriscaping truly lower a water bill?
Yes. Our Taos County clients average roughly half the irrigation water after conversion to native, drip-irrigated plantings. One client's bill dropped by half the first season.
How long does a commission take?
Most run four to eight weeks from the first walk to the finished build — design and drawing first, stone second, plants and water last.
Where do you take commissions?
Throughout Northern New Mexico — Taos, El Prado, Ranchos de Taos, Arroyo Seco, and the surrounding high desert.

Begin

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