Food & Resources
The garden provides an opportunity for our community to work together in addressing food insecurity and to consider how locally grown food can contribute to a stronger community.
UNM-Valencia
Community Garden
Growing food. Growing connections. Growing community.
The UNM-Valencia Community Garden brings together students, faculty, staff and members of our surrounding communities to grow more than plants. Together, we are creating a welcoming space where people can connect, learn, contribute and flourish.
Get involvedOur purpose
A Garden for Everyone
The goal of the UNM-Valencia Community Garden is to engage our campus and surrounding communities in addressing issues such as food insecurity while creating a safe and welcoming environment where people can interact, learn and work together.
A healthy garden depends on many elements working together. Soil, water, plants, pollinators and people each have a role. Our garden follows that same idea by cultivating sustainable and resilient connections among the people who participate.
We are not only growing plants together. We are growing a supportive community that is welcoming to all.
On campus
Growing Together
The garden is shaped by the people who care for it. These images highlight the current UNM-Valencia garden, the food it produces and the community that helps it grow.
Why it matters
What We're Growing
Connection & Belonging
Gardening creates opportunities for people who may not otherwise meet to work alongside one another, exchange knowledge and build relationships in a welcoming environment.
Sustainability & Resilience
By working with the land and with one another, the garden encourages sustainable practices while building connections capable of growing and adapting over time.
Participate
Dig In With Us
The UNM-Valencia Community Garden is a place for participation. Students, faculty, staff and members of the surrounding community are welcome to take part, whether they are experienced gardeners or simply interested in getting involved.
Join us for garden work parties, community activities and opportunities to help the garden grow.
Our roots
Tomé Garden: Their Legacy and Our Partnership
The UNM-Valencia Community Garden grows from a tradition established by gardeners in the Tomé community.
In 2009, Rosemary Kaul brought together local gardeners with the idea of creating a place where people could cultivate the earth together, share gardening knowledge and enjoy the food they produced. She called the idea a “Growing Community.”
A group of gardeners eventually established the Tomé Community Garden on land near the Tomé Gallery. Over the years, volunteers developed the property, added a well and shed, built a greenhouse with support from a PNM grant and developed relationships with the Whitfield Conservation Area, the county extension office and the Agricultural Science Center. Gardeners shared produce, gathered to make salsa and helped newcomers learn how to grow food in New Mexico's soil and climate.
As participation in the original garden changed, UNM-Valencia had an opportunity to help carry its spirit forward.
Today, the UNM-Valencia Community Garden honors that legacy by continuing the idea at the heart of the Tomé garden: people coming together to grow something that benefits everyone.
Help Our Community Grow
Whether you come to plant, learn, volunteer, share your experience or simply meet your neighbors, there is a place for you in the UNM-Valencia Community Garden.
Come grow with us.
Get involved