Community education classes

The following classes are being offered this spring:

Edible Weeds of Southern New Mexico - a class for those who want to know about the usefulness of local "weeds".

Landscaping with vegetables and herbs - a class to help incorporate edible plants into the landscaped environment.

Introduction to healing plants of the garden - an introduction to the healing power of herbs.

Classes are generally limited to 8-10 people.  Please contact for more details regarding the classes.  Also, classes can be offered to the meet the specific needs of your group or organization, at locations more suitable for participants, or classes can be personalized for individual interests.

The Southern NM Land Link project

            The Southern New Mexico LandLink was conceived as service which would assist local area growers and agriculturalists in locating local landowners with available agricultural lands.  The effort is designed to assist local young people in becoming area farmers and agriculturalists, and to aid local landowners in mitigating the loss of the areas traditional agricultural lands to development.

            The Southern New Mexico LandLink project has a local focus specifically addressing the needs of Southern New Mexican communities, especially those in the Mesilla Valley.  The Southern New Mexico LandLink  project emphasizes conserving urban agricultural and peri-urban agricultural lands, and the use of sustainable agricultural practices by local growers.

            Links to Executive Summary, Grower seeking land application, Landowner application

            For more information contact Randy at greeninggardens@gmail.com

The Seed Exchange project

            We are looking to share and exchange seeds with other agriculturalists, gardeners, and growers in the area. We are most interested in seeds from plants that are native or adapted to the local climate, are heirloom varieties, are rare or unusual, and preferably organic varieties. We have seeds from many of the plants in the garden, and are willing to share many of these. In the future we are planning on developing a seed database to maintain seed data, contact information for seed collectors, and to assist local agricultural growers in diversifying local crops. We are currently developing an organized and portable seed storage system to better make the Seed Exchange project available to the community at-large. We will be listing the seeds we have available in the near future on this webpage.

The Dehydration and Food Preservation project

        Crop and food preservation is an important component of the agricultural cycle.  One method of food preservation that has been practiced by local peoples for thousands of years in the southwestern region is drying or dehydration.  The development of an infrastructure which would allow quantities of fruits and vegetables to be preserved by dehydration could prove to be an environmentally sound and potentially profitable industry for the Mesilla Valley.

        We are looking into the development of dehydration facilities at several scales.  Our initial efforts are looking into developing systems utilizing solar radiant energy.  Although the planning for this type of industry in the region is in its infancy we anticipate being integrally involved in a more coordinated and directed effort to this end in the near future.

        Anyone interested in assisting the development of this project should contact Randy at Greening Gardens, greeninggardens@gmail.com

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