Garden Workshop Series Offered at Local College

By Misty Cryer

Green Thumb 101 is a three-part series of workshops aimed at providing the community with knowledge about gardening. The workshops will be held in the Hidden Garden at Southeast New Mexico College from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and will include: Starting Your Garden (May 20), Watering and Caring for Your Plants (July 9), and Container Gardening (July 16).

“It’s an initiative. It is a collaboration between the Eddy County Health Council and HSI Grant Services, which is a department here at Southeast New Mexico College,” said Raymond Dominguez, Title V Activity Manager for SENMC. “I’m a board member of Eddy County Health Council. This is something we’ve been wanting to do for several months,” he said.

“The goal of this is to show people how they can grow their own vegetables. We understand that living here in Carlsbad, New Mexico, sometimes it’s hard to get fresh vegetables and fruits. That’s something we want to show people—they can do it themselves,” said Dominguez. He said it will also help with the financial aspect for community members and college students due to prices and inflation, and with promoting mental health.

“The workshops are open and free to everyone in the community,” said Dominguez. He said the workshops started with the idea of having a community garden, which lacks a specific space and will take time. “This is the first start to providing these free services to all of the community.”

Supplies for the workshops will be provided, said Dominguez. “The only thing that we are encouraging participants to bring is their own gloves,” he said.

“CARC Inc. helped us with our first donations,” said Dominguez. Bonnie Plants, a big national company that supplies Lowe’s and Walmart, has also provided a lot of plants to support the initiative, he said.

An Adjunct Instructor, Autumn Reid, from SENMC, will teach the workshops, according to Dominguez. “She teaches biology here at the college,” he said.

“There are three different sessions. Each one will be stand-alone, so if somebody can only make one that’s great, but if they can make more than one, there will be a little bit of an overlap with some of the topics,” said Reid. For example, she said, “We’re going to talk about fertilizers in starting your garden a little bit. We’re going to talk about it in more depth when we get to the second one.”

In addition to the instructor giving information, Reid said, “I like to take questions.” This helps people who have a particular dilemma that they are trying to figure out. “I definitely want to answer those questions,” she said.

The first session is an introduction to gardening, said Reid. “It’ll be at a level where beginners to advanced will find something useful. I’d say it’s kind of tailored to the beginner, but again, since I’ll be taking questions, it’ll be tailored to the group,” she said.

Topics mentioned by Reid for the first session include plant choices, annual vs. perennial, full sun and what that means in the desert, different plants, and comparison of container gardening, raised beds, and planting in the ground. “Some plants are better in one,” she said.

“We’ll talk about soil and different needs depending on what kind of garden area you have, and what you are growing. We’re going to talk a little bit about tools,” said Reid.

“The second session is about watering and caring for your plants,” she said. Participants will start to learn how to read the clues that the plant gives to determine why it is stressed, she said. The topics mentioned include overwatering vs. underwatering, pruning, fertilizers, and pest control. “Along with that, we’re going to talk about companion planting—planting things to attract pollinators or discourage pests without having to spray,” she said.

The third session is dedicated to container gardening—growing anything in a pot indoors or outdoors, explained Reid. The session will include vegetables, house plants, succulents, flowers, and how to mix compatible plants in a container, she said.

“We’ll talk about selecting containers that are appropriate to the things you want to grow, selecting varieties that are appropriate to your container,” said Reid. Using tomatoes as an example, she said that some can grow in a five-gallon pot, and some absolutely have to be in the ground. Participants will learn to pick the right things to be successful. She added that seed starting will also be discussed.

“This is a great initiative, and we’re all about helping our community,” said Dominguez. He said he feels in this time, it is essential to know these skills. “It’s open to everyone. They don’t have to be experts, but if they are willing to learn, they will definitely enjoy this,” he said.