The 2023 Season Has Begun!

Posted on 11/14/2022 by nannie plants

GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO THE NEW SUBSCRIBERS!

After a very difficult year weather-wise and personally, I’m looking forward to 2023. For as hard as things were, though, I’m looking back on a surprisingly productive growing season. My freezer is full, I harvested lettuce until mid-October, I planted a lot of trees and shrubs, and 14 holes were occupied in my bee hotel from Taos Air Bee and Bee.

But now it’s time to get on to the next season and all new challenges!

My freezer is full of stir fry, tomatoes, fruit, and elk meat for winter.

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Ordering for CSA Shares is open!

Hope for next year begins by lining up plants and seeds early. As always, there is a Spring Share and a Summer Share, with plants ready to go in the ground at the right time. I also offer a bundle of Renee’s Garden seed packets for spring and summer planting, and for the second year, Renee’s Scatter Cans.

One of my favorite builders, David Donaldson, is also taking orders for raised beds and furniture.

For gift giving any time of year, consider a Gift Certificate.

Spring Share

Summer Share

Renee’s Garden seed packets and Scatter Cans

Outdoor furniture & raised beds

Gift Certificates

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‘The Book’

Over the past year, I have been compiling 11 years’ worth of my newspaper and magazine articles, blog posts, and social media posts to create a book specific to gardening here at home and up and down the Rocky Mountains. ‘The Book’ now has an official title – A Monthly Guide to Growing a Sensational Garden in Northern New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains – and it should be out in the second half of December.

That’s important because the January section is about planning your garden. Planning is essential to success, so spend the winter making maps of your garden beds and lists of plants to start from seed and to buy. Learn the benefits of succession planting and crop rotation and how to fit them into your overall plan. If you want to save seed, you’ll find out how to make room for a seed garden. I’ll also tell you the importance of keeping records of your entire growing season in a garden journal. That and more are in the January section!

So A Monthly Guide to Growing a Sensational Garden in Northern New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains should be in your hands in time for the work you need to start after the new year!

My lovely and talented friend, Christie Bundy, has done the illustrations for ‘The Book’. Hopefully, this one gets you motivated to write things down!

01-January

Thanksgiving Weekend Rituals

When friends and family are around for Thanksgiving, it’s a ritual to get a Christmas tree and talk about the holidays. There are a lot of options from cutting your own on BLM land or in the Carson National Forest to buying off a lot and getting a live tree to plant in the spring. Find details here in this piece I wrote this for the Taos News a few years ago.

Cutting, digging or buying a Christmas Tree

Spring Plant Sales

It’s early for the average gardener, but farmers are planning NOW for next year. I have dates set aside for plant sales, pick-up parties, and other events where you can get my book, A Monthly Guide to Growing a Sensational Garden in Northern New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains. Stay tuned in this newsletter, my website, or the nannie plants Facebook page.

The Return of the Seed Swap!

After covid shut us down for a few years, Auntie Nannie’s Seed Exchange will finally be having a seed swap in the spring! Seed exchange stations will be placed around the county again. Watch for details in the new year.

Until next month!

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March 2022 Newsletter

Posted on 03/26/202203/26/2022 by nannie plants

GREETINGS AND WELCOME TO THE NEW SUBSCRIBERS!

What glorious moisture we’ve had in March! And there’s more to come next week. I don’t like winter, but I’ve been rejoicing with each snowstorm this year.

Spring CSA Shares

Starts are all seeded and ready to grow on until they come to your garden! They’ll be ready for pick-up during the last week of April. I’ll send out a notification.

If you didn’t place an order, nannie’s Annual Plant Sale will be held on Saturday, April 30 from 11-2 at Earthgoods. Save the date, but I’ll send out a reminder before that.

This is the 10th year of the Plant Sale. It started out as me setting up in front of Re-Threads on Saturdays with a carload of plants in 2013. Over the years I set up at Pieces, More Pieces, and Taos Fly Shop. Kristen Davenport and I have teamed up to do Vagrant Heart and Earthgoods since 2018. Come to think of it, the only year we haven’t set up was 2020. We did squeeze in a seed swap in mid-March as things were getting shut down, but a public gathering, even outside, was off-limits. Last year we were at Earthgoods again with a few other vendors. People were happy to be able to congregate and eager to get gardening! It was a beautiful day, and a lot of plants got into the hands of local gardeners. Let’s repeat that this year!

Summer CSA Shares

The deadline for ordering Summer Shares is April 15th! Tomatoes, peppers, summer and winter squash, cucumbers, eggplant, basil, chard, kale, lettuce, and flowers! Shop here:

Summer CSA Shares

Yellow cherry and Amish Paste tomatoes

Social Media

I’ve had an Instagram account for years, mostly to stalk my children (who rarely post, by the way), but I decided to start using it for ‘a little gardening, a little art, a gardening book forthcoming’. Don’t laugh. There are only 5 posts so far. My Insta

On Facebook, you can find nannie plants and Auntie Nannie’s Seed Exchange. FB is where it all began for the seed exchange. I was sure it would fail, so I quietly made a FB page as I waited for all 5 stations to go unnoticed. Boy, was I wrong! It’s been a wonderful trip, but as you know, I handed it over to Alianza Agri-Cultura de Taos last year. It needed new energy and it got it! Tyler Eshleman of Virsylvia Farm is the new ED there. He’s a young energetic farmer with vision, just what I was looking for!

Seed Exchange Stations

Speaking of the seed exchange, the stations are up all over Taos County! Trade your seed stash for something new and exciting! The motto is Leave a Little, Take a Little. Please don’t steal. Thanks.

Locations are:

Questa Public Library

Rael’s Store and Coffee Shop in Questa

Mid-Town Market in Arroyo Hondo

Red Willow Farm on Taos Pueblo (Tribal members only)

Rio Fernando Park in Taos

Re-Threads in Taos

Habitat for Humanity Re-Store Southside in Taos

Carson Cafe and Grocery in Carson

The SPOT in Peñasco

Talpa Community Center

Hopefully next year we will be able to have a big seed swap in addition to seed exchange stations, like the old days!

Until next time,

nannie

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Strong, reliable starts that come with precious advice and lots of stories. The visit to pick them up is as wonderful as the plants themselves!

Caroline Dechert

Never had a nannie plants start go wrong! Consistent, vigorous, high-yield production every year. The plants and nannie, too!

Rene Howard

All the plants from nannie plants are grown with lots of TLC.

Ann Dargis

Best tomatoes ever! And I actually harvested some zucchini. Exceedingly robust marigolds. I will be back for more. Thanks, Nannie!

Lucy Herrman

I have been gardening for years and typically start most of my plants from seed. This year I tried using starts I bought from nannie plants. Wow, what a great year! All her plants were stout and healthy and took off immediately. My garden never looked this good. Thank you, Nan!

Kevin Wittman

I get my starts from nannie plants every year & wouldn’t think of going elsewhere. I get enough delicious tomatoes to make sauce for the winter, and I eat kale from spring til late fall! Thank you, Nan!

Caroline Yezer