Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control by Jessica Walliser serves as a valuable resource and will help gardeners like me achieve this goal. The author writes from the perspective of a gardener who learned to love the insects that visit her gardens.
Read MoreAt least one in four American adults had seasonal allergies in 2021, according to the most recent study by the Centers for Disease Control. When a person is allergic to one or several types of pollen encountered through inhalation or contact, the body’s immune system releases chemicals such as histamines to fight off the perceived threat. I
Read MoreBook review by SFEMG member Eugenia Perry
This magisterial book is a daunting compendium, burdened at times by polysyllabic mouthfuls, like dimethyltryptamine or DMT. It’s also absorptive reading because the author interweaves clear observational science with details from his own life’s story. He can’t help exploring his feelings. His subject requires it.
Read MoreOne of the most beautiful and treasured Santa Fe public spaces is the Harvey H. Cornell Sr. Memorial Rose Garden Park at the corner of Cordova Road and Galisteo Street. This gently sloping tract of land, given to the city in the 1930s, was all tumbleweeds and blowing dirt that annoyed inhabitants of the new houses being built around the site. It became a park in 1958 when private citizens invited Harvey Cornell, an eminent landscape architect and frequent Santa Fe visitor, to turn it into an oasis of lawns and trees for everyone to enjoy. At the south end, garden clubs planted irises. At the north end, Cornell designed a rose garden set among tiered stones.
Read More“There is not enough water to irrigate all the lands.” So said John Wesley Powell in 1893 after four
extensive scientific surveys of the West. His warning was dismissed but has proved to be prophetic.
In the 3 billion years since life first appeared on Earth plants have evolved driven by survival. They have been subjected to fire, floods, glaciers, drought, predators, competition and disease. Ninety-nine percent of all species that have ever lived on Earth have gone extinct. Nevertheless, today, plants make up 80 percent of the Earth’s biomass.
Read MoreIn 2012, the Santa Fe Master Gardener Association, a predecessor to the SFEMG, began work on a new demonstration project: the Cactus Garden. With the help of many volunteers, Project Leader Jill Foster designed and built a compact garden at the west end of the larger parking lot at 3229 Rodeo Road. At the time, there were few large cactus gardens in Santa Fe, and her objective was to show how these native plants could enhance a landscape.
Read MoreSanta Fe County Sustainability staff, county commissioners, SFEMG volunteers and local permaculturist Reese Baker all spoke to a chilly audience on this cold spring day. In his brief talk, Baker pointed out that a relatively small percentage of the 6 billion gallons of precipitation that fall in the city each year stays in our ecosystem. If we were to harvest this rainwater, we would decrease erosion, add beauty to our landscapes and recharge our precious groundwater. It isn’t as hard as it sounds.
Read MoreIn this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to construct and fill Johnson-Su Bioreactors.
Read MoreAs I approach a certain portion of my yard in the summer and early fall, I hear the unmistakable sound of white-lined sphinx moths (Hyles lineata) making their way to my main Desert Four O’clock patch.
Read More
