Garden Project Wraps Up with Healthy Harvest

Around the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Home & Studio, you can often hear whispered questions from those trying to validate rumors. Visitors often ask “Did anyone famous ever visit Georgia?” or “Did she really spend all her time alone?” (Spoiler alert: yes and no).

But during the spring and summer, there are other wonderings floating around.

“Is the lettuce doing alright?” and “What in the world is going on with the corn?” are the two biggest mysteries from this year’s growing season. (Spoiler alert: the lettuce did very well and the corn stalked way too early).

The latter questions were the area of expertise for this year’s Abiquiú Garden Project interns. Now in its 10th year, the group of five interns tended to O’Keeffe’s beloved garden and produced enough fresh fruit and vegetables to take home to their families and donate a large amount to local food banks.

To date, the project has donated 1,952.4 pounds of fresh produce to local food banks including over 300 pounds of apricots and peaches from this year’s bumper crop. Five interns tended the garden with Project Leaders Randy Garcia and Josephine Dominguez.

“To have the next generation of Northern New Mexicans working on the garden, that’s fun,” said Garcia. “They learn a lot about the place they come from but they also play an important role for the Home & Studio. The interns harvest the crops that are ready and then pick up the fallen fruit from trees which helps prevent animals from wandering into the garden. They also fixed footpaths along the flower garden so visitors on tours don’t trip. We try to tell them, they are more than just gardeners and more than interns.”

The team of interns and project leaders also traveled to Santa Fe to visit the Museum and Research Center. The group quickly recognized the same landscapes that surround them every day in O’Keeffe’s paintings and photography on display in the Galleries. Registrar Judy Chiba Smith and Sherri Sorensen also took the time to discuss their work with the interns both in Santa Fe and in a presentation at the Welcome Center in Abiquiú.

The last stop of the Santa Fe trip was the Museum of International Folk Art where the group learned about Alexander Girard and his influence on O’Keeffe and items in the Home & Studio.

But most of the work centered on the growing season.

Dominguez, a former Garden Project Intern, said the weather could explain a lot of the odd growing behaviors among the crops. She led efforts to grow lettuce this year, which did well after the decision to move the leafy greens into the shade.

“We had colder mornings and very hot afternoons.” Dominguez said, which means the lettuce needed to be protected but also could explain the corn stalking in the early summer. “The humidity from a rainy summer was also a challenge and affected root veggies like the white radishes.” Dominguez also worked with the interns to document their summer experience including what was planted, when it was planted, and if it grew successfully.  

You can also watch the garden through every season with the live camera feed that can be seen on the Museum’s website.