This week on Take It Outside, visit a community garden in Abiquiú on our blog, and then check out the plants growing in your neighborhood.
Summer Nature Challenge:
Participate in our Summer Nature Challenge! Every week, participants who complete the challenge can earn a sticker. If you finish all nine weeks, you’ll earn a bonus sticker! Find our archive containing all of our past Take It Outside activities here.
Download the challenge sheet here to print out and complete at home. At the end of the challenge, you can either bring it to the nature center or mail it to us at 2600 Canyon Rd, Los Alamos, NM 87544.
If you don’t have a printer or prefer to work online, you can tell us about your experiences in the Google Form below or email your stories and pictures to takeitoutside@peecnature.org.
Blog Post:
In this week’s blog post, PEEC’s Education Programs Director Siobhan Niklasson recounts her recent visit to the Northern Youth Project Garden in Abiquiú. Read her blog post here.
Outdoor Challenges:
We’re posting three outdoor challenges today that you can enjoy throughout the week!
Tell us about your experiences with one, two, or all three of them! You can do this in the Google Form below, by writing or drawing about them on our summer challenge sheet, or by sending an email to takeitoutside@peecnature.org.
Challenge #1 – Sensory Exploration:
Visit a garden or wild area with plants. Use your senses to explore the plants. Can you find something:
- Fuzzy
- Waxy
- Cool
- Smooth
- Red
- Yellow
- Buzzing
- Sweet-smelling
- Herby-smelling
If you like, choose some of the colors and textures you noticed and use those inspirations to make art!
Challenge #2 – Eat Locally:
Pick up something in season from a farmers’ market, a CSA, or another source for local produce. Or, harvest something for your own garden or forage for berries, fruits, and herbs locally (make sure you know what you are picking before eating anything you find in the wild).
Here’s an idea for a cool, local treat: In this video from Tewa Women United, watch as Pilar and her nephews make popsicles from Yerba Buena, or spearmint, and lavender from their garden. The video is part of a series called Plant Adventures that explores New Mexico plants and their traditional culinary and medicinal uses.
Let us know what you tasted! Or share your favorite recipe from your garden or from locally-grown, seasonal produce.
Challenge #3 – Plants & the Food Web:
In a process called photosynthesis, plants use energy from the sun to combine carbon dioxide and water to make sugar. This process changes some of the sun’s energy into a form that animals and other organisms can use when they eat the plants. Go outside and look for evidence of animals and fungi getting energy from plants:
- Hummingbirds and insects gathering nectar from flowers
- Birds eating seeds and fruits
- Caterpillars, ants, and other invertebrates eating leaves
- Herbivores, such as deer and rabbits, munching on green plants
- Decomposers, like worms, roly polies, and fungi, breaking down decaying plants and trees
Want to Learn More?
- Learn what farmer’s markets are near you on the New Mexico Farmers’ Market Association’s website.
- Explore the wildflowers of Northern New Mexico by using PEEC’s online flower guide. You can also discover wildflowers throughout the state by downloading the New Mexico Wildflowers app! The app is available for Apple and Android devices.
- Check out this video about the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens and how local gardeners can prepare for a changing climate when planting.
- Re-read Aditya Viswanathan’s previous blog post about the sensory garden that his grandma created for him here!
Share Your Experience:
Tell us about your outdoor experiences! We’d love to see your photos, too. Please send them to takeitoutside@peecnature.org or share them on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #peectakeitoutside. If you’d like this to count for the Summer Nature Challenge, be sure to include your name and email address.