Learn from a failed New Mexican Gardener

I cannot claim to be much of a success as a New Mexico gardener. Intermittently I get the bug, and rarely are my crops bountiful. But it occurred to me that like Edison, I've learned a lot from my failures. Since every gardening instinct you learned on the East Coast is wrong for New Mexico, I thought I would share my lessons.

Don't buy seeds or plants from Walmart, Ace Hardware, or Home Depot

The buyers at national chains are happy to sell you flowers that have no business in New Mexico. That pansy or daisy that was so perky in the store, will give it's last gasp the moment you lay it's cultured roots in New Mexico soil. I recommend you only shop at Plants of the Southwest and High Country Gardens.

Don't read any garden books from Santa Fe or Taos

North, high New Mexico is not the desert. It's not reality. They have cooler weather, get more rain, have more flowing plants. I've never seen a garden in Socorro which looked anything like those Santa Fe books.

You can never go wrong with roses

As difficult as everything else is, roses do really well in New Mexico. Roses are in fact desert plants and do really well here (even roses I've bought at Walmart).

A buried soaker hose is the best possible way to water.

The water stays underground, where the roots are. There's little evaporation. It lacks the satisfaction of splashing around with the hose, but much more water gets to the plants.

Even desert plants need a lot of water to get established

You might think that with the harsh conditions in the desert you can toss the right seeds on the ground and walk away. However, that turned out badly for me. I've done much better when I regularly watered my newly established plants. Books on starting xeric (low-water) gardens warn you that during the first 1-2 years, xeric gardens need just as much water as a lawn and marigolds.

When you are ready to go beyond roses, look for things described as "invasive", "pernicious", "tough", and "grows in cracks in parking lots".

I recommend Hollyhock, Evening Primrose, and Arizona Poppy, and mint.

Invest in an expensive water timer

You have to think watering new plants in New Mexico as bottle feeding an orphan kitten, not putting out scraps for a stray. That plant is completely, 100% dependent on you for moisture. We once were forced to reseed a lawn in May, the worst possible month to plant. The gardener set up the automatic water system to water three times a day for 10 minutes. Wow! You should have seen that grass grow!

Never, never plant trees in the spring or summer

Wait for the first cool weather in the fall, then plant and water like mad. Spring winds are terrible for drying out baby trees, and summer heat is aweful for tiny root systems.

Sow plastic in the ground

I feel bad about this but polymer water crystals (Soil Moist, Watersorb, Watercrystals, Moist Soil) have made a huge difference in my gardening success. Adding these little grains to the dirt (in or out of pots) means that my plants don't suffer nearly as much from dry spells. I worry a bit about whether they break down as enviromentally as they claim, but I swear by them. Skip the expensive dirt+polymer and just get the crystals themselves.

Container garden in a beer cooler

It may seem to you that the best way to oppose the dryness of the desert is to container garden -- plastic holds the moisture in, and you are watering a much smaller volume. However, if you plant one plant in a container and another in the ground, you will find that the one in the ground does much better. In New Mexico, plants in pots get their roots cooked. There's two solutions for this: buy containers that are made of styrofoam -- like a beer cooler. They look like terracotta but are rather light. Or, you can make your own insulated pots by placing a small pot inside a large one, with a layer of soil between the two.

Skip the RoundUp

Beside the issues of adding chemicals to the soil (and whether New Mexico ever gets enough rain to flush them out) they just don't work. If you spray a weed with RoundUp, you get a dead, mummifed, weed. It will stand there for months, until you pull it up, just as you should have done in the first place.

Contractors in Socorro

One thing that is difficult to get used to is that many, many businesses in Socorro are not in the yellow pages. (We'll leave aside the listing in the yellow pages that aren't actually businesses for the moment.) This is enormously true of contractors -- general, electrical, plumbing, etc. If you have moved to town and need a contractor the deck is stacked against you -- you don't have a circle of family, friends, and neighbors who know and have used contractors. (Socorro, like most small towns also has a large number of talented but unlicensed workers, but for the moment, we'll assume the licence is necessary.) In fact there may even be a bias against someone listed in the yellow pages. A licenced contractor said to me "I do a good job, people like me. I have more work than I can handle. Why should I pay to advertise?" I pointed out that newcomers like me get totally screwed by thinking there were only two contractors to choose from in town -- but I don't think I got the yellow pages another customer.

So here is my list, in random order, of every single contractor and phone number that I could find-- in the Socorro area:

General Contractors



• Bruce Burnett, Accurate Construction, 835-0454
  
• Gabaldon ??
  
• Frank Gallegos, New Horizon Construction 575-835-2232
  
• Brent Fazio, Orion Construction 575-835-1233
  
• Johnny Marquez, 575-835-0451 c 418-9656
  
• Larry Vehill, Larkco Construction 505-550-3193
  
• Rocky Swidor, Son Rock Builders, 505-859-2946
  
• Joe Martinic 575-835-0834
  
• Francisco Garrasco 575-835-9756
  
• Dewey (John) Christenson 575-443-3544
  
  

  Electrical

  
  
• Ross Electric, 835-1320
  
• Beatle Baca, Grizzly Electric 575-835-9562, 505-480-5668
  
• Midstate Electric, 835-0921
  
  
  

  Plumbing

  
  
• Bar J, 835-2708
  
• Jaramillo's, 835-1679
  
• Pino
  
  

My new years resolutions

I often think, if I moved out of New Mexico, what would I kick myself for not having done?

In that spirit, here are the events I really don't want to miss this year:

May 9, 10 Mother's Day Powwow
June Juan de Bautista Fiesta and annual Kelly town reunion
September 25-27 San Miguel Fiesta
October 3 Blessing of the Animals, Historic Plaza
October 10 Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge open house
December 7 La Pastorela

I also have never made it to the London Frontier Theatere in Magdalena which perform original plays in a building by the Works Projects Administraton. Their next play is October 23/24/25
THE BALLAD OF BABE & BEAU

Buying and Selling in Socorro

Shopping in Socorro is a little odd...many businesses aren't in the phone book, some of them do two or three things, so I thought I'd sum up what I know about buying and selling in Socorro.

• You can get a fair amount of pet (dog and cat) supplies at Southwest http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifFeed at 408 N California St.
  
• Need running shoes or children's dress shoes? Brownbilts at 111 Manzanares Avenue has brand name running shoes, some hiking boots and kids shoes...and, cowboy hats, boots and jeans.
  
• Socorro has a Freecycle group -- it's a listserve where you can post items that you want to give away or items you are looking for (no buying!).
  
• While Socorro doesn't have a craigslist of it's own, if you go to the Albuquerque craigslist and search for Socorro you'll find lots of buying and selling -- more than 100 items last time I looked -- that's more than is in El Defensor Chiefton. There's also some rentals listed. I've been told that most of the selling is Socorro to Socorro.
  

Recycling in Socorro

Recycling in Socorro is a pain. The city briefly supported curbside recycling, but dropping prices for recycling and rising collection costs forced them to stop. Socorro is such a poor city that recycling is just not a priority for the majority of the residents.

Items that are still valuable, or downright dangerous, can be recycled piecemeal, as described in the list below. Or you can hire Morning Wood Cutters for $20 a month at your house. They recycle cardboard, paperboard, newspaper, computer paper, junk mail, magazines, glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic grocery bags, tin, aluminum, copper, and steel.

What	When	Where
aluminum cans and newspaper	1st Saturday 8:30-11:20AM	lot south of Ace Hardware
aluminum cans	anytime	various cardboard recycling bins
mixed paper and paperboard	3rd Saturday 8:30-11:20AM	Plaza
e-waste	business hours	Computers by LTJ 105 Plaza
plastic bags	business hours	bin at Walmart or Smiths. Smiths gives "points" for bringing your own plastic bags
cardboard boxes, motor oil	anytime	next to animal shelter/UPS
vehicle batteries	business hours	NAPA Auto Parts
tires	landfill hours	landfill, 1$ charge (closed for high winds)
toner cartridges	business hours	Cottonwood Charter School
cell phone, rechargeable batteries, all toner cartridges	business hours	Rotary Club boxes at  Coffee Shop, Library, Smith's photo, Corner Copy

What about compost? There are two facts that you need to know about composting in New Mexico -- you must water the compost -- or it will mumify rather than compost. The second thing you need is worms.

Bad sunscreen, no skin cancer!

I belong to that embarrassing group of people who love New Mexico but who don't have the melanin to take the sun. I'm such a mixed race mongrel I don't know where our pale skin and glaucoma-prone eyes even came from; but I'm a hat wearing, sunscreen wearing, lover of New Mexico.

Bummer to find out that much of the sunscreen you can buy either doesn't protect against skin cancer or contains chemicals that are bad for you!

The Environmental Working Group has published a study on sunscreens, rating sunscreens from 0 (very protective, no harmful ingredients) to 10 (no UVA protection, cancer-causing ingredients).

Two things in particular stand out in their research: if you get a sunscreen that protects against UVB but not UVA, then you can stay out all day, not get burned, and still be collecting rays for skin cancer. Secondly, many sunscreens use oxybenzone as a UVB blocker -- but oxybenzone has been shown to cause cancer, and disrupt the reproductive system -- and other, better UVB blockers are available.


Surely the sunscreens (or at least the expensive ones) in our medicine cabinet are OK? No, most of them contain oxybenzone, and they score an average of 6 on the EWG scale. Of the thousands of sunscreens they reviewed, they made a summary of "easy to find" safe sunscreens. However, that list includes things never seen this side of Santa Fe -- I have never run across the brands "Mission Skincare" or "California Baby".




The one item I do take issue with is the recommendation against any use of spray sunscreens. EWG worries about ingesting and inhaling all sun screen ingredients, but is especially worried about inhaling spray sunscreens. As you can see in the picture, my babies have just a tiny bit of hair -- not enough to protect their scalp. We have done battle with hats, but finally spray sunscreen has come to the rescue. We only apply it outdoors, we spray from the back, but it protects her head and cannot be easily replaced by a oil-based cream.

So I did some research, at Smiths, John Brooks Supermart, Walmart, then in Albuquerque at Walgreens and La Montinita. Walmart had decided it wasn't summer anymore and taken out ALL OF THE SUNSCREEN. John Brooks had several "natural" brands of sunscreen, but all contained oxybenzone. Since the safest sunscreen recommended by EWG were extremely expensive, I have sorted this list of "locally" available sunscreens by price per ounce.

Name	Size (oz)	Cost	$/oz	Score	Where to Buy
Coppertone Water BABIES - “Pure & Simple”	8	$12.00	1.50	3	Walgreens
Banana Boat Kids Tear-Free UltraMist Spray 30	6	$9.65	1.61	4	Walmart
J.A.S.O.N. Mineral	4	$7.99	2.00	2	La Montanita
Neutrogena “Sensitive Skin”	4	$9.99	2.50	3	Walgreens
Walgreens Sunblock with Zinc Oxide, SPF 45+	2	$5.00	2.50	3	Walgreens
Blue Lizard “Face”	5	$14.99	3.00	3	Walgreens
Blue Lizard "Baby"	5	$14.99	3.00	3	Walgreens
Blue Lizard "Sensitive"	5	$14.99	3.00	3	Walgreens
Neutrogena “Pure & Free”	3	$10.99	3.66	3	Smiths, Walgreens
Burt's Bees Chemical-Free Sunscreen, SPF 30	3.5	$15.00	4.29	4	La Montanita
Kiss My Face Face Factor	2	$12.49	6.25	4	La Montanita
Solar Sense - “Clear Zinc Sport Stick”	0.45	$4.49	9.98	3	Walgreens

I will mention that many of the "safe" sunscreens leave me with a white pasty face all day -- which is fine for my busy unselfconscious children, but not as acceptable for grown ups.

NMT Mineral Museum

I confess one reason I love the NMT Mineral Museum is that I grew up near a grocery/rock shop with a very similar museum in the back. Some deep part of me believes that childhood requires a rock museum you can return to, over and over again.

The NMT Mineral Museum has two large rooms of lovely rocks -- some sorted by the exact mine they came out of, and best of all, a glow-in-the-dark room (sorted by New Mexican and non-New Mexican specimens).

The Museum is free and is directly east of Macey Center park. It's open seven days a week. For my five year old it's good for about 15 minutes of serious browsing. I extend her interest by playing a game called "dibs" -- each of us picks out a favorite rock in each display case. Lynn's favorites are fool's gold and quartz.



I don't normally schedule outings entirely around shopping, but I have to say the BEST thing about The Mineral Museum is buying rocks. It's cool, educational, and the price is right. Graduate students are on call for questions or to sell rocks -- dial the number posted near the phone. Eschew the rotating display case (too awkward for kiddos) and ask them to pull out the trays of 25 cent rocks from the cupboard. Two dollars later you have a rock collection. I think it's cool that each rock comes nestled in packing material with a typed label identifying it -- naturally the kiddo strips this all off the minute we get home.

While the museum is upstairs, the elevator makes it wheelchair and stroller friendly. Bathrooms are around the corner.