It’s been fun and educational.

This column marks the 12th year anniversary of writing about trees and flowers in Alamosa and it will be my last column.  When I joined the Alamosa Tree Board I learned that community outreach and education was an important aspect of tree boards and I decided to write columns for the Courier and then post them to my website.

As I’m an avid flower gardener I expanded the content to include flowers a few years later.  More recently, I renamed the column to Alamosa Landscapes.

I’m no longer on the tree board and am not as adventurous with new flowers.  It also has something to do with being in my 70’s!

I remember my mother-in-law asking when I first started writing columns whether I’d produce six or maybe even eight.  Turns out after submitting every other week when we were in town for the last 12 years, I’ve produced 175 columns total.  I appreciate all I’ve learned, the people I’ve met and corresponded with, and I had fun doing it. A hardy thank you to folks who have read my columns. But now it’s time to step down.

I hope to finish updating the AlamosaTrees.net and AlamosaFlowers.net websites soon.  I still haven’t totally recovered from a computer hard-drive crash late last year. The websites have databases and photos of trees and flowers that do well in the Alamosa area.

For information on gardening and local foods in the San Luis Valley I encourage you to visit the Alamosa Community Greenhouse Facebook page, the Local Foods Coalition website (slvlocalfoods.org), and the Rio Grande Farm Park website (riograndefarmpark.org).  For information on trees in the San Luis Valley take a look at the Colorado State Forest Alamosa Field Office website (csfs.colostate.edu/Alamosa). Sadly, due to the co-vid epidemic, these places are not experiencing normal operations.  To enquire about volunteer activities and other activities, please contact them.

The Community Greenhouse page says “We are an organic gardening educational facility with a passive solar greenhouse.” They will have their annual plant sale on Sunday, May 23.  As they did last year, the sale will be pre-order and curbside pick-up.

The FB page says they’ll post more info as it gets closer to the plant sale date.  I’ve enjoyed herbs such as basil and oregano and vegetables such as kabocha squash over the years.  They start them from seed and I’ve always had a good experience with them.

The Rio Grande Farm Park’s mission is “To foster an equitable local food system that restores the health of the people, community, economy, and ecosystem.” They tend to have monthly workdays and encourage volunteer participation. 41 volunteers helped with the last work session that included adding drip lines, widening ditches, and setting up a hoop house. The next workday will be Saturday, April 24.  They also sell produce in season.

Thank you and happy gardening!

“I grow plants for many reasons: to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty, or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.” David Hobson.

The editorial staff of the Valley Courier wishes to extend our deepest gratitude to Marilyn Loser for the years she spent as a contributing columnist. Her wit, wisdom and "earthly" advice always brought a splash of color to the newspaper, and we are thankful.