Events & Volunteer Opportunities

Updated by Marisa at 5:40 am on Tuesday, Nov 18, 2025


November 4 was our last official tomato morning of the season!  

For saffron harvesting in the coming weeks: if we have a burst of blooms, I may decide to host a saffron harvest party, but not if they continue to bloom a few at a time. Stay tuned!

- Volunteer Appreciation Party TBD in December with more ristra-making if there are still red chiles available to harvest. I will also share tomato study data from our 2024-2025 agrivoltaics project.

- Full list of upcoming events is included below. 

                        


Page contents:

  • Upcoming Events & Other Activities
  • Photos from this summer
  • Flyers for upcoming events 

Upcoming Events & Other Activities

  • Wednesday, November 19, 9 am - 4 pm - Southeast NM Urban Horticulture Symposium in Roswell. See flyer below.
  • Wednesday, November 19, 3 pm - Ready, Set, GROW! Webinar - "Vermicomposting" - Yini Wang, Bernalillo County Extension Master Composters Apprenticeship Program. Yini will walk us through the simple steps for vermicomposting in any garden. Register at https://desertblooms.nmsu.edu/grow.html
  • Wednesday, November 19, 5:30 pm in Las Cruces at Branigan Library - Marisa will present “Climate-Ready Trees” for CAMBIOS, an NMSU Speaker Series and we’ll have some small trees to give away! https://cambios.nmsu.edu/_configurations/current-speaker-series.html
  • Wednesday, December 3, 10-11:30 am - "CHILE CHATS" - attend in person in Las Cruces or remotely via Zoom. See flyer below. 
  • Wednesday, December 19, 3 pm - Ready, Set, GROW! Webinar - "The Skinny Garden" - Anne Fenkner, Western Region Project Developer with Davey Resource Group. Anne will waltz us through a decade-long tale of converting a rusty chain link fence into a stunning community asset! For more information, visit the Skinny Delight website. Register at https://desertblooms.nmsu.edu/grow.html
  • DECEMBER Date TBD -- Volunteer END-OF-YEAR Celebration with Ristra-Making, SNACKS, and review of our 2025 from the tomato and saffron studies. 
  • February 10-11, THINK TREES 40th Annual Urban Tree Care Conference in Albuquerque. Registration is already open, and there are scholarship opportunities 🤩... 

Pics from this summer:


Ready to be picked! In need of good home. Photo: Marisa 10-15-25 

Volunteers and interns — replanting failed tomatoes and moving solarization plastic on 7-17-25




Summer Fruit Tree Pruning workshop with TreeNM & volunteers on 7/10/25. 


Carol and I found these five hornworms on her tomatoes, and one was pooping when I took the pic.  📸 7-14-25. M. Thompson. 


VIEW MORE 2025 PHOTOS HERE: https://share.icloud.com/photos/06b8eMbt8CMSeeOW423RhIPqg 




Flyers:


















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