Otero County Master Gardener Association

05/14/2026

We will see a few degrees of cooling on Thursday, but high temperatures will still continue to run 5 to 8 degrees above average. Our winds will be breezy from the west and our skies will be mostly clear.

05/14/2026

05/14/2026

🎶Those chicks in the corner blastin' out my favorite song
The nights are gettin' warmer, it won't be long
Won't be long till summer comes
Now that the birds are here again... The birds are back in town! 🎶

Well, that's not exactly how the Thin Lizzy song goes, but the phoebes are back from their wintering grounds. The nights really are getting warmer, which is great for their first clutch of hatchlings. This is at least the fifth year in a row that a pair of Say’s phoebes has given our back porch at the visitor center their stamp of approval and awarded us with a trophy made of bird poo splatter.

Phoebes have tended two nests here in recent years, reusing and refurbishing them as needed. This species of bird has an average lifespan of about four years, so could it be the same breeding pair coming here year after year? Possibly. Another possibility is that one of the young raised in this nest has come back to take over the family home, so to speak. If it were a pair of birds who had never known of the nest before now, we might expect to be witnessing some squabbling between them and those who feel like they have some familial claim.

Whoever they are, they came to our little corner, and we’re as grateful to be hosting them as we are impressed by their navigational skills. While humans celebrate this with a map and compass, scientists still scratch their heads pondering how in the ever-living world birds find their way back to the same darn spot, year after year after year. How neat is that?!

05/13/2026

05/13/2026

You're bending over the parsley bed when something orange flashes. Your hand freezes mid-reach. A plump caterpillar, striped like a tiny circus tent, has suddenly sprouted what looks like a bright orange forked tongue from behind her head. The smell hits you next—sharp, almost cheese-like, unmistakably defensive.

That's the osmeterium. Most caterpillars curl up or drop when threatened. Black swallowtail larvae do something far more dramatic. They evert a specialized gland that lives tucked away just behind their head, turning themselves inside-out for a moment to reveal this startling organ. It's drenched in butyric acid and other volatile compounds that make birds gag and wasps reconsider.

The whole display lasts maybe twenty seconds. Then the forked structure retracts, the smell dissipates, and she goes back to methodically chewing your parsley like nothing happened. But something profound just occurred. You witnessed a defense mechanism so specialized, so energetically expensive, that evolution only gives it to species worth saving.

Here's what most gardeners don't realize when they see these caterpillars decimating their herbs. That parsley plant is a perennial at heart. Even if she strips it down to stems, it'll push new growth from the crown within days. The plant's root system stays robust. The foliage returns. But that caterpillar? She gets one chance. One metamorphosis. One brief window as an adult swallowtail when her only job is to drink nectar and find a mate.

Those two weeks she spends as a butterfly aren't just beautiful. They're ecologically essential. Swallowtails have long proboscises that reach nectar other pollinators can't access. They work flowers with deep throats—bee balm, cardinal flower, trumpet vine. They pollinate while butterflies with shorter tongues pass by. Remove swallowtails from a garden, and certain flowers lose their most effective partner.

The parsley recovers because that's what parsley does. It's built for persistence, for coming back after browsing deer or hungry larvae or your own overzealous harvest. The chemistry that makes it aromatic to us makes it resilient in ways we don't see. But the caterpillar cannot come back. Once you remove her, that particular pollinator is gone. The genetic lineage she carries, the timing of her emergence, the specific flowers she would have visited in your microclimate—all of it vanishes.

I keep extra parsley now. A pot by the back steps specifically for swallowtails. When I see those striped bodies appear, I feel something close to relief. It means the adults found my garden worthy. It means I'm part of a cycle that predates my fence line by millions of years.

The osmeterium is a reminder that even small creatures carry profound adaptations. That flash of orange, that pungent warning, cost evolutionary time to develop. It's a superpower reserved for larvae that matter, that fill a role nothing else can fill quite the same way.

Next time you see that forked orange tongue, step back. Let her finish her work on the parsley. In two weeks, she'll return the favor in ways you can't cultivate any other way. [XTBH1]

05/13/2026

Water, biochar, soil health and more will be discussed during the first field day of the year, hosted by the NMSU Agricultural Experiment Station.

The Leyendecker Science Center will host its field day from 7:30 a.m. to noon June 3 at the center, located at 7200 Plant Science Circle in Las Cruces. Lunch will be provided to attendees.

Read more: https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-leyendecker-science-center-to-host-first-field-day-of-the-season/s/9168f038-a2b2-4031-9c2b-03b194277394

05/13/2026

Harvesting Fava Beans

Did you grow fava beans? How do you know when to pick them?

You can pick your fava beans when the inner beans reach the size you like. Some people like them small and some people like to wait until the beans are bigger and more meaty. It’s a personal preference.

But don’t wait for the pods to get longer. If the flowers weren’t fully pollinated, they will produce a short pod with only a few beans, even just a single bean like the top one pictured.

More info: http://mgsantaclara.ucanr.edu/garden-help/vegetables/fava-beans/

Photo by Karen Schaffer
Photo description: 3 fava bean pods showing various amounts of ripe beans inside pods

05/13/2026

We put cucumbers through dozens of storage tests—washed, unwashed, bagged, wrapped, and chilled—to find the most effective ways to keep them fresh and crunchy.

05/13/2026

What can a drawer of pinned insects tell us about the world outside your garden?

This week on The Evergreen Thumb, we’re joined by Dr. Joel Gardner, a curator of the WSU Entomology Museum. His work focuses on some of the smallest native bees, Dialictus sweat bees, and even includes discovering species new to science.

We talk about how new bee species are identified, what makes certain specimens so important, and why insect collections are more than archives... they’re a record of environmental change and biodiversity in Washington.

Listen on your favorite podcast app or at https://buff.ly/jYQHAf3

05/13/2026

WSMR key collaborator in the successful conservation of “Turkey Ridge”
A parcel of land known as “Turkey Ridge” in southern New Mexico became part of a portfolio of land protected by the New Mexico Land Conservancy spanning over 800,000 acres across the state that includes White Sands Missile Range on March 25.
Protection of “Turkey Ridge” is a unique collaboration between NMLC, White Sands Missile Range, and the New Mexico State Land Office that puts 60,048 acres of land into a special conservation status that limits development for the next 75 years. This innovative conservation protection builds upon the “Chupadera Mesa” project which contained 60,082 acres the two organizations conserved in 2025—bringing the total acreage of connected land to over 120,000 acres.
"The protection of over 60,000 acres around Turkey Ridge marks a major milestone in our long-term vision to connect wildlife habitat and protect cultural resources across the greater White Sands ecoregion,” said Jonathan Hayden, Executive Director, New Mexico Land Conservancy. “Working with our partners at the state and Federal levels, we've now stitched together over 1.4 million acres of protected lands from the banks of the Rio Grande to White Sands National Park, and now up to Turkey Ridge and Chupadera Mesa."
“Conservation is a critical tool in the land management toolkit, and we have now protected the second largest area ever in New Mexico through an innovative conservation agreement,” said Commissioner Garcia Richard. “This agreement protects unique cultural resources and a landscape that provides habitat and connectivity for a wide variety of wildlife species. This also means our military will be able to continue its important training exercises at White Sands Missile Range without interference from development. Once again, here is proof that we can protect New Mexico’s special landscapes and still earn revenue for our public institutions. For me, conserving places like Chupadera Mesa is mission critical.”
The Environmental Division of the United States Army Garrison White Sands Missile Range was also a key collaborator in the successful conservation of “Turkey Ridge.”
"The ex*****on of this second-phase, 60,000-acre easement is a landmark achievement for both the White Sands Missile Range REPI program and the New Mexico State Land Office,” said Brian Knight, Environmental Division Chief, USAG White Sands Missile Range. “This partnership is a premier example of how we can integrate critical military missions with state-level stewardship—safeguarding vital testing airspace while providing permanent protection for the cultural heritage and natural beauty of the Land of Enchantment. We are proud to work alongside the NMSLO and the New Mexico Land Conservancy to ensure the continued readiness of our national defense and the preservation of New Mexico's rich cultural heritage."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish identify the “Turkey Ridge” parcel as containing crucial habitat, species of concern habitat, large natural areas, and terrestrial species of economic and recreational importance. Over 85 percent of the protected land consists of unfragmented habitat blocks, offering critical wildlife and migration corridors. “Turkey Ridge” also consists of productive rangeland with native grasslands and is an important part of the agricultural community in Torrance and Socorro Counties. The property’s soils sustain its function as productive ranchland while also contributing to the conservation of native grasslands and wildlife habitat.
Turkey Ridge lies within the traditional homelands of the Pueblo, Jumanos and Apache peoples. Despite histories of forced displacement, deep cultural, spiritual, and ecological connections to this land endure. This easement reflects a commitment to protecting not only the land itself, but also the histories and relationships it holds for Indigenous peoples. Turkey Ridge contains a wealth of archaeological resources, including a 30-room pueblo and numerous kivas, plazas, and lithic scatters. These sites are closely linked to the cultural history of the Salinas Pueblos, located just to the east and north at Gran Quivira, Abo, and Quarai. Puebloan communities in this region flourished through farming and trade, later disrupted by drought and Spanish colonization in the 1600s.

Cutline: Courtesy the New Mexico Land Conservancy
The Turkey Ridge area, a new 60,000-acre conservation easement in Central New Mexico, announced in March.

05/13/2026

Trouble with flies or other flying insects in your compost? The best way to fight them is to add your carbon rich material (browns) on top. Here I layered brown ripped up paper and some old stalks on top to cover all the exposed nitrogen rich (greens) material.

What issues do you have with your compost?