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LAS CRUCES - Sometimes a bad economy can lead people to find other ways of providing food for their families, such as growing their own vegetables. Of course, not everyone has a backyard or the resources to manage their own garden, which is why Fairlight Community Gardens, a branch of the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, provides a means to do just that.
"In May of 2008, the Mesilla Valley Community of Hope and several community volunteers, including a couple gardeners and some university agriculture people got together, and we decided we wanted to start a community garden here," executive director Pamela Angell said.
The garden was built behind the Community of Hope building, and volunteers, along with a farmer who donated her time and her tractor, helped make the garden possible.
The garden was named in memory of a city employee named Fairlight Lucia, who died of cancer shortly after the garden was created.
The first year, Angell said they grew basic starter plants, such as eggplant, and all the food was given to El Caldito Soup Kitchen. The second year, they replanted and doubled the size of the garden.
"It was about an eighth of an acre when we started, and we expanded it to about a quarter-acre," Angell said. "That year, we got close to a thousand pounds of vegetables."
The third year, Angell said they branched out into growing several different varieties of vegetables, such as squash and tomatoes.
"This year we want to go back to the basics," she said.
Angell said they are also planning an herb garden that will last through the winter.
How your garden grows
Over the years, Fairlight Gardens has become more than just one garden, but several gardens, in connection with MVCH's housing developments, such as Abode Hope Housing First, which houses homeless people or people with mental disabilities. Vegetables are grown in the back yards of these homes for the people who live there and can't afford to buy vegetables at the store.
"We also have a veterans' transitional complex that has two raised-bed gardens," she said.
Angell said she hopes the gardens at these facilities teach people how to manage their own gardens in the future.
Border Servant Corps intern Travis Hanson-Pollock, who works with volunteers in the garden, said Fairlight Gardens also offers plots for $6 a month, along with free seeds, water and guidance from experienced gardeners.
Hanson-Pollock said plots are mainly for low-income families, and an application must be filled out to obtain one, but that anyone in the community is welcome to work in the garden.
"If (people) want to come in and work for an hour a week, they can take home a bag full of fresh veggies," Hanson-Pollock said.
Can you help?
New Mexico State University intern S. Paige Costigan, who is working toward a bachelor's degree in community health, said she has already had a few volunteers inquire about working in the gardens, and she would like to attract more volunteers with gardening classes and an aesthetically pleasing garden to work in.
"It's so beneficial in so many areas," Costigan said. "It's therapeutic. You grow food that's fresh and you know where it's coming from, so it's healthy, mentally and physically."
Costigan said she would also like to implement a cooking class for people in housing as well as a campground cooking class for people at MVCH within the next three months.
Fairlight Gardens will have a work day from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday to get the garden prepared for a fresh crop. Brown bag lunches will be provided afterward.
"Once the garden gets back into full swing, we'll start having work days probably every other weekend," Hanson-Pollock said.
"If people want to come here and see what it's about, they can just come and check it out," Costigan said.
People interested in volunteering at the community garden can call Hanson-Pollock at (575) 523-2219.
Sun-News editorial assistant Alexia Severson can be reached at (575) 541-5453.
Fairlight Community Gardens
•Mesilla Valley Community of Hope/Abode Inc., 999 W. Amador Ave.
•Pamela Angell, executive director
•(575) 523-2219; fax (575) 523-8684
•E-mail hope@zianet.com
You can help
•What: Community Garden Work Day, brown bag lunch provided.
•When: 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
•Where: Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, 999 W. Amador Ave.
•To volunteer: Call Travis Hanson-Pollock, (575) 523-2219.
