Santa Fe Community Gardens promotes local gardening and food growing by offering Santa Fe County residents garden space, resources, and education and by facilitating community partnerships.
Please explore our site and get involved!
Note: I have known Lynda Prim for over a decade- she is fabulous!!
GROWING YOUR OWN GRAIN
April 12, 1-3:00 pm
Workshop at the Railyard Park Waffle Garden
meet at at new Corrugated Metal Building in RAILYARD PARK.
with Lynda Prim, organic grain farmer
Join us for a hands-on workshop highlighting the historical roots and current practice of grain production in NM.
· What grains grow well here? Can I grow this in my yard?
· Identifying different grains and understanding the importance of heirloom & landrace varieties
· History and revival of small-scale, local grain production.
· Hands-on planting of grain in the Railyard Park community Waffle Garden.
· Follow-up workshops this fall will focus on harvest, milling on the homestead and community scale, and use, with cooking demonstrations.
Lynda Prim is a regionally recognized sustainable agriculture teacher, consultant and advocate with 30 years of service in organic farming, research and education, and building networks of support for small-scale farmers. Co-founder of The High Desert Research Farm, The Farm Connection and the New Mexico Organic Farming & Gardening Expo—all efforts to promote and advance traditional, sustainable, organic, family farming in the Southwest region. Lynda was an organic certification inspector throughout the Southwest for 12 years; advocating for traditional farmers and stewardship in the organic certification process. She has a small farm, Bread & Roses Farm, in Dixon, NM.
Meet at the Railyard Park Community Building behind Site SF. Come dressed to work in the garden!
GARDENING IN THE RAILYARD
The Railyard Park care crew will start the gardening season in April. Come learn high-desert gardening tips while caring for the perennial gardens in the park.
· Tuesday mornings, 9-11:00
· Thursday afternoons, 1-4:00, Not-so-Early Birds will care for the gardens in partnership with the YouthWorks crews.
High Desert Gardening
Sunday May 29
Instructor: Amanda Bramble
Sliding scale $40-$60
10am to 4pm
Want to learn how to grow food successfully in our harsh climate? This class covers methods to help your seedlings survive the spring winds, summer pests, and blazing sun.
Rainwater harvesting and greywater use should be the foundation of desert gardens whenever possible, so we will observe these techniques in practice at Ampersand and discuss how to get the most out of small growing areas through staged plantings and inter-cropping, and perennial plants. We will observe appropriate Permaculture strategies and discuss details from how to prepare your soil to extending your growing season to harvesting rainwater to water harvesting earthworks.
A portion of this class will be hands-on in the soil. Get prepared for the growing
season in time to put your new ideas to use this summer!
To Register for a class, please send us a check:
Ampersand
PO Box 773 Cerrillos, NM 87010
You can email us at
ampersandproject@yahoo.com
or call us at 505 780-0535
6th Annual Seed Ceremony and Exchange
by Paula Garcia
The name in three languages, beginning with Tewa, recognizes the appreciation for the special place of indigenous peoples and seed savers and guardians of countless generations of seeds. It also recognizes that land-based people have borrowed from and added to these traditions with seeds and food traditions from around the world. The Indo-Hispano people, who are mestizo or of mixed ancestry, have evolved a land-based culture after centuries of growing food in their respective villages. Later, other migrants have established roots and have continued or revived seed saving traditions of their ancestors as well. The seed conference is an affirmation of the unity that is possible between cultures and the unity that is necessary to defend seeds so that future generations can continue their freedom to save seed and grow their own food.
Do you have seeds, bulbs, starts, bushes, cuttings, grafts or extra produce from your back yard garden that you would like to share? Do you have fruit or nut trees that need pruning and harvesting assistance? Join with us and share your bounty! Sign up at here, post things to share or resources you are looking for.
You all might be interested in the 2011 New Mexico Organic Farming Conference being held February 18-19th at the Marriott Pyramid Hotel in Albuquerque this Friday and Saturday- the Southwest’s premiere conference on organic/sustainable agriculture
It is fabulous to connect with hundreds of organic farmers, ranchers and gardeners to learn the latest. Go to http://www.farmtotablenm.org/fts/category/conference-workshops-trainings/ It would be great to see you there!
For more information contact Le Adams at 505-473-1004 x 10 or Joanie Quinn at 505.841-9067.
At the Quivira Coalition Conference held in Albuquerque months ago, Doug Weatherbee gave an amazing talk on soils, and he recommended a small-scale compost brewer that is based on the latest soil science and costs about $200- the Earthfort’s 5 Gallon Brewer- http://www.earthfort.com/products/brewing/dirt-simple-brewers/dirt-simple-5-gal.html
Building the soil is critical to healthy food and successful gardening. Santa Fe’s community gardens would benefit from sharing in this process that maximizes beneficial soil organisms and depletes bad soil organisms. If there is someone who would like to help us purchase this tool, it would be wonderful! It is too expensive for each small plot but would be perfect for sharing with our community garden parciantes.
For decades being able to learn bio-intensive methods of gardening/farming through Ecology Action has meant you had to travel, and pay for books, workshops, etc. Yet this method has worked wonders all over the world and increased food production with no chemical fertilizers, no nasty genetically-modified seeds, while using less water.
The famous John Jeavons who has taught people all over the world about his “biointensive” farming has now made simple, just-the-basics versions of his materials available for free on line- Biointensive Self-Teaching - a big step forward.
Check out: http://www.sharedearth.com/user/register/gardener
PUTTING A GARDEN TO BED
Soils provide the health of a plant, and therefore, building and protecting soil is an essential part of non-chemical gardening. Soils treated well will improve year after year if the principles of soil health are followed.
CONCEPTS:
1. Fertile soil contains millions of soil organisms, which in turn, provide the nutrients to plants. Worms work in concert with soil organisms.
2. Soil organisms are living, and thus need life’s basics- food, water, and protection from too much sun.
3. Plant roots help soil organisms to survive, and are known to feed the organisms through the winter.
4. Soils that dry out will suffer death of some of the beneficial organisms.
5. In New Mexico’s blistering high-UV sun, soils generally stay healthier when covered- either with plant material including green manures (plants that provide nutrients to the soil and protection from sun and wind) as well as organic matter such as straw. This is why we planted buckwheat as a green manure in one of the unclaimed beds.
6. Regrettable, today’s straw from toxic agriculture has likely been sprayed with multiple harmful chemicals. Many of these chemicals do NOT break down easily and remain on the straw, which can contaminate even “organic” gardening. Alas, even some composts have not broken down all the pesticides and herbicides, despite claims. For example, in Washington state, farmers lost their crops when they applied compost because the compost process had not broken down a long-lasting herbicide used on the poisoned crop residues that had been used to make the compost.
7. Once soils are well-prepared and carefully protected, heavy digging the following season is not necessary. Many organic guidelines deplore exposing soil to heavy sun and wind by digging and turning soil, while others don’t.
SUGGESTED STEPS for “PUTTING THE GARDEN TO BED”
1. Cutting roots, not pulling: The more roots are allowed to remain in the soil, the more they offer support for underground soil organisms.
2. Adding nutrients: Many people cover the soil before winter with healthy manure, or compost. Some lightly bury it, some just leave it on top, especially when they are going to cover it. In permaculture classes, the technique of placing layers of cardboard, newspapers and manure is used, but this MUST be kept moist for the organisms to break down the materials. Some like to make a “tea” where compost or alfalfa or other nutrient sources are placed into water to make a “tea,” then filtered and poured on soil and directly on plants. One of the best soil advisors is Elaine Ingham, and her book is Compost Tea Brewing Manual- http://www.earthfort.com/products/literature/books/compost-tea-brewing-manual.html
3. Making moist: Wetting down the soil and the manure or compost will keep the soil alive. Totally dry soil has suffered loss of soil organisms.
4. Covering: Once all is well-watered, covering the soil with straw- safe please- or other materials is advantageous in our climate. Soil organisms are used to the dark! Watering this top layer is useful, too. In dry winters, some people water more if the soil is not frozen and is dried out.
When you come back in the spring, your soil will be far healthier than if you had let it be exposed all winter long!
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PS I have been asking around for organic straw, but alas, many farmers have switched to large bales- ie 1,200 lbs! Even if we all went together and got a shipment, this type of large bale needs special equipment to get it off the truck. It would be so advantageous if we could buy our organic supplies in bulk and have work days to prepare all the beds with safe, non-toxic materials. I learned on a farm tour that alfalfa is very nutritious and while it is not straw, it still is very beneficial. Some alfalfa gets too wet to feed to horses, and these would be great for gardening- plus cheaper. What ideas do you all have???
Love Your Mother (Earth) Youth Permaculture Workshop, a two-part permaculture workshop for youth, ages 8-18, will introduce participants to basic skills in urban gardening, water conservation and sustainable construction. SF Farmer’s Market snacks will be provided.
Facilitated by Michael Meade of Santa Fe, NM. Michael studied sustainability in Australia for several months through a School for International Training program focused on permaculture, organic farming, renewable energy and sustainable community development. He graduated from Connecticut College in 2010 with a self-designed degree in Sustainability, integrating studies of ecological restoration, environmental politics, environmental anthropology, water conservation, and more.
When: Saturday, August 21 & Saturday, August 28, 10:00 am - 2:00pm.
Where: Santa Fe Railyard Park, performance area.
Requested Donation: $20
Reservations: Michael Meade (505) 470-9245, rootshealer@gmail.com <mailto:rootshealer@gmail.com>
The Santa Fe Art Institute, Tewa Women United, and New Energy Economy present:
Activist, Economist, and Environmentalist
Winona LaDuke
Wednesday August 18
7pm
Tipton Hall
CLIMATE CHANGE:
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Ojibwe prophecies speak of a time when we will have a choice between two paths. The first path is well-worn and scorched. The second path is new and green. It is our choice as communities and as individuals how we will proceed. We’ve already raised the average temperature of the globe one degree. The question is whether we can stop it from rising much more: this is at the core of our survival. It is essential for us to look at the world’s economic and environmental realities in order to make critical decisions about our future.
That means we must address issues such as climate change, peak oil and food insecurity.
