Last time I mentioned there were three gardens in Otero County, but there are actually four, and they all need our help.
Did you know at least from 2022-23, we actually had community gardens in Alamogordo? I definitely didn’t. You could rent out a plot and “enjoy the process of growing (your) own food.” From the looks of it, there were quite a few people dedicated to working on it, and the bit of land for these gardens was huge.
The last post on their Facebook page is from August of last year. (I’m nosey so if I find out more I might update this post, just for context’s sake.)
Anyway, this giant chunk of land is being revamped and repurposed as the third (Puerto Rico) community garden in Alamogordo, address 1021 E 16th Street, as part of the Public Land for Food Campaign. All very exciting, but this also means that there’s a lot of work to be done still to get it up and running. As soon as I find out about work days, I will update the calendar here, that’s a promise. The hope is to have this location growing produce by spring 2025.
On top of this new, shiny addition, as I mentioned, there are three other gardens in Otero County.
I for one consider myself the unlucky owner of two black thumbs, but part of this project has been learning how to tend and harvest from the New York and Maryland gardens. A huge part of tending, especially in a desert region like New Mexico, is watering them so the plants don’t scald.
Currently, the campaign has a pool of volunteers in a Facebook Messenger side chat who sign up to take about two hours out of their days a few times a week to saturate the soil. Said pool is pretty dedicated to the cause of helping feed our community fresh, healthy produce, but people have lives outside of their causes, and I would be so happy if my blog posts this week inspired more community members to realize how much power they have in making a tangible difference in this town.
Another newer opportunity to help with the Public Land for Food Campaign just came to fruition not too long ago, and I’m about as excited about it as I am for the public gardens. With Many Hands now has compost piles to help support the gardens and their yields!
We all kind of know that things like food waste are a problem, right?
Unfortunately we can’t just put any old trash into a compost pile. Specific scraps, like say used pumpkins from Halloween or that eggplant that’s been staring at you from the back of your fridge so long there’s no possible way it’s still edible, are perfect! Any organic produce scraps are exactly the kind of donations With Many Hands is currently looking for, as well as paper shreddings (which apparently supply nitrogen) and bags of leaves (which are the heavy-hitters in a compost pile and supply nitrogen, carbon, phosphorous, calcium, potassium, AND magnesium).
You can also help support the community compost piles by signing up to turn them, which will happen every two weeks. Right now, November 9th is taken, but there are plenty of opportunities to do these small things to make a big difference in our community. I’ll be signing up much more, and you should too!
The compost bins are located at the Puerto Rico location. Also note, leaves are in a separate bin so it can be added in layers.
The absolute best way to keep updated with this campaign is to join the group on Facebook and by keeping an eye on your side chats in Messenger. For those who do not like social media, you can also contact Courtney McCary-Squyres directly at sojournerstyle@gmail.com.
Next week I will be focusing more directly on the public garden in Tularosa.
Until then,
Salud!
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