High Desert Organic Gardeners

HiDOG of Silver City & Grant County New Mexico

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Gaia's Garden Wisdom

March 20, 2008

Today is Spring Equinox or Ostara, the pagan/wiccan name for this day. And it is the official beginning of Spring. As you may have noticed Spring arrives a bit earlier here in Silver City. The daffodils and crocus have been blooming now for several weeks and the plum and apricot trees are in full bloom. My peas, planted February 22, are up about three inches. The same day I planted a few peas in perilite inside under lights and they sprouted in three days and grew rapidly. Put them outside March 11 and they are three times as big as the seeds I planted in the ground. Next year I'll start all the peas inside. On March 16th we have a hard frost, 26 degrees at our house, and the peas were frozen stiff. I was sure they were done for but by 10:00 AM they were fine. The next two nights I covered them with towels just to be safe and they are all doing well. The seedlings of broccoli, kale and other greens that were on my covered deck also froze stiff but fully recovered. Plants are truly amazing.

March 11 I started the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and basil inside. They are mostly all sprouted. This is later than I usually start these plants but I hope to avoid the curly top tomato virus by planting later. This virus is spread by a bug that breeds in the wild mustard plants. Unfortunately these mustards are everywhere. They are blooming now and should be done by mid to late May. We have a very long growing season here in Silver City. In our neighborhood it is frost free for 7 to 8 months so planting warm weather crops even in June or July is just fine.

Last weekend Grip offered gardening workshops as part of their sustainability program. Anaia Song and I conducted two of them and will be offering more in the future. If you have particular topic you'd like a workshop on let Anaia or I know. Given the state of the economy and the environment we all need to be thinking about sustainability. And growing more of your own food and buying more food from local growers is two of the best and easiest ways to do this.

There will be a HIDOG meeting April 2 at 6:30 PM at 2106 N Juniper SC Hope to see you all there. I am available for questions, comments and consultations at 575-538-5034 or basiranickle@gmail.com

Look forward to hearing from you.

Blessings and a very happy Spring, Basira Nickle

For more information about planting times click on the Planting Times link on the left.

HiDOG addresses the unique challenges of sustainable organic gardening/farming in the high desert mountains (6,000+ ft.) of Southwest New Mexico.

We are a loose group of area gardeners, beginners to masters, sharing knowledge, tips and tricks related to organically growing summer and winter food crops and the storage and distribution of home grown produce.

Possible topics for public workshops are "Building a Solar Drier", "Building a Cold Frame", "shareing tools, produce, seeds" and "Composting". To suggest other workshop topics post to the HiDog section of the community forum: HiDOG Forum.

Occasionally the Gardening Group will send eMail announcing meetings and workshops etc. Sign up at left.

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