Photo credit: Bethany Abrahamson

Photo Credit: Bethany Abrahamson

I was planting some squash for the upcoming Garden to Table to Pantry workshop at the Placitas Community Library (please join us!) and noticed something blue rush past—was it a bird, a plane?

No—it was a wasp, and it had prey!

I thought at first that this was a native blue-black spider wasp from the family Pompilidae, the same family that includes our state insect, the tarantula hawk wasp. Though it could be a steel blue cricket hunter, in the family Sphecidae. I was enjoying observing it do its thing when…

  …What’s this? A combatant has appeared from the upper left!

Photo Credit: Bethany Abrahamson

Photo Credit: Bethany Abrahamson

The battle didn’t last long. Soon after, the victor carried away the prize under a nearby paver. Here you can see its beautiful blue-black coloration in the sunlight

Wasps are wonderful for the garden, acting as pollinators and pest-control. So long as they do not pose a direct threat to pets or people, we recommend leaving them be to perform their important ecosystem functions!

Photo Credit: Bethany Abrahamson

Speaking of safety: I am currently looking for volunteers to assist with an upcoming safety manual for the master gardeners that may be shared with MGs in other counties! If you’re interested in helping out, email me at babraham@nmsu.edu.

Come learn more about interesting things you can observe in nature at our next Nature Journaling workshop, or learn more about pollinators at the upcoming presentation on pollinators of Sandoval County in Jemez Springs!

Sandoval County Extension has a new Facebook and Instagram! Follow us for updates on programs and more info of gardening interest!

Yes, my garden still considers me a student, and my guess is that my garden would grade me below-average…

Sometimes the lessons my garden wishes to impart in me have to be learned and relearned time and again.  Taught and retaught.  Told and retold.  It must be hard work to be a garden with such a block-headed student gardener!

Here are a couple of new(er?) lessons from this summer’s carrot patch:

Lesson 1: Gardens are forgiving. So often I think I must follow all the directions to be successful.  My garden teaches me that sometimes even if I do follow all the directions / suggestions, success is compromised or varied.  Then there are other times that my garden is sooooo forgiving.  Take these carrots for instance.  The back of the packet of carrot seeds DOES say to thin them to about three inches apart.  These carrots were (clearly!) not thinned, and they are delicious!  Sure, they take a bit more work to clean and prepare, but they also make quite incredible bite sized snacks with just a rinse in the sink!

Lesson 2:  Gardens give more than is obvious to the eye.  We all know carrots grow underground, but all those carrot tops are also edible and delicious!  Take these carrot tops, their leaves made an excellent Carrot Greens Chimichurri Recipe – Love and Lemons!  I’d never had chimichurri before, and I really like it!

Lesson 3:    Sometimes the garden just gives you gifts… I did not plant these carrots.  They are the result of some carrots that I missed pulling last year that flowered.  The flowers graced some of our dinner tables last year… they look a bit like Queen Anne’s Lace.  The flowers I missed cutting for the table dropped their seeds, and here they grew.

Lesson 4:  Gardens (and most growing things) are abundant givers.  All of these carrots sprang from one carrot plant – a quick search reveals that each carrot flower can contain thousands of seeds.  You all may know by now that one of my favorite quotes is ‘You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but can you count the number of apples in a seed?’ With carrots, the gift gives with great, exuberant abundance!

Yes, my garden is still teaching me… I hope I can take these lessons to heart – both for my garden and my life.

-Meg Buerkel Hunn