Wanna get growing?: Open Space Division offers gardening programs for families and novices alike

For aspiring gardeners who have never worked on cultivating their green thumbs, now is the ideal time to get initiated.

With spring on the horizon, the city of Albuquerque’s Open Space Division is offering a number of educational programs that encourage New Mexicans to get outdoors and involved with nature. This includes an event scheduled for Saturday, March 16, at Los Poblanos Fields Open Space that features a component specifically focused on teaching families to garden together. It will be held in conjunction with Rio Grande Community Farm, a land-based nonprofit that has been operating on Los Poblanos since 1997 and offers numerous educational opportunities for the community.

“Not only is it a really beautiful space — and there’s a lot of growing going on there — but the organization is really grounded in community and they do a lot of education work,” said Stefany Olivas, local agriculture community coordinator with the Open Space. “We partner with (Rio Grande Community Farm) on a couple of things specifically on-site.”

Families who attend will be guided by an Open Space educator and learn how to prepare a spring garden at the Rio Grande Community Garden. This will include hands-on tasks such as planting seeds and analyzing the soil.

“In the past they’ve done activities with the kids and the families on doing some basic chemical tests or examining the physical texture of your soil (and) how that impacts your decisions about what seeds or plants you’re gonna plant,” Olivas said.

Not only is the experience instructive, but gardening can be a therapeutic bonding experience for families.

“I think no matter what age you are, getting outside exposed to the sun and the soil, it’s just good for anyone,” Olivas said. “Kids particularly, I think are always excited for the opportunity to go outside and get their hands dirty. Also, adults and kids alike, when they’re given the opportunity to plant something and grow something, it helps folks realize that they have a natural intuition to do these sort of things. We all have the ability to go out and garden, no matter how old we are.”

Open Space also offers a “Learn to Garden” program as part of its “Intro to the Outdoors” series, which features introductory courses on a number of outdoor activities. These are held at various local libraries throughout Albuquerque and are geared primarily toward adults who have never attempted to grow their own garden. The first of these takes place on Tuesday, April 2, at the Central and Unser Library, while another offering will be held on April 4 at the International District Library. Future sessions can be found on the city of Albuquerque website (cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/open-space/events).

“The intention of that is to give people a really basic understanding of the different components (of) gardening from the climate that they’re in — which can vary from the Valley to the Heights — (to) what are the basic ingredients for gardening: soil, air, sunlight, seeds, water,” Olivas said. “Since they’re at the libraries, they will be indoors and outdoors. The educators will bring their kit with them with the seeds and plants and hands-on activities.”

While novices are the target audience, the hope is that attendees can eventually move on to more advanced workshops and groups in the future. However, gardening is an experience that continues to be instructive no matter how long one has been at it.

“I think most gardeners can agree that it’s a life-long learning experience. As long as any one of us has been gardening, there’s always more to learn,” Olivas said. “The target is for beginners and for people who want to experience gardening for the first time. But as gardeners will agree, any opportunity to garden is a fun time, so everyone is welcome.”