Landscaping in New Mexico is wind, a short list of plants that survive cold nights, and grade that has to handle a monsoon burst. Gravel, chamisa, apache plume, and native grasses fit the high desert better than a thirsty lawn. Cottonwoods along the bosque and the ditches are beautiful and aggressive about sewer lines and foundations. Caliche and clay change how water moves. Canales dump roof water in hard spots that need stone or a swale, not a planter piled against adobe. Adobe plus trapped water is how plaster fails.
Say the job. Weeds after the rains, a tree on the roof, a ditch you do not want against the house, drip that drowned one shrub, or a new bed. Ask who maintains irrigation after the crew leaves. Ask who replaces a plant that freezes or cooks during establishment. The nights are the part newcomers forget. A plant that loves a low-desert afternoon can die at dawn here. Mountain lots add a shorter season and snow load on shrubs. Southern lots add harder heat. Do not use one plant list for the whole state.
Grade is the house protection. Spring wind will also sandblast a careless bed and tip shallow work. Ask about haul-away so tumbleweeds and cut limbs do not stay in the yard as fuel and as pest cover. Rural and forested lots should say what is growing against the wall. Keep limbs off flat roofs and out of canales, or the next storm will put that tree on the ceiling. If the lot uses ditch water, say so. It is not the same system as a hose bib.
Describe the elevation in plain language by naming the town, the soil if you know it, and whether water already runs at the foundation. Call the number on this page.