Although the garden’s irrigation system is hundreds of years old, the garden itself is now dotted with fresh vegetation after a team of local youth and volunteers planted eight varieties of pollinator-friendly plants on Monday afternoon.

Monday’s activities – a joint effort between environmental groups such as the Xerces Society and Defenders of Wildlife, and youth organizations such as the Northern Youth Project, CASA First and the New Mexico Acequia Association’s Sembrando Semillas program – provided an opportunity for youth to build a connection to the land while creating new habitats for pollinators.

“This work is something anyone can do. You can volunteer for conservation by planting something in a pot in your yard. It doesn’t have to be a huge conservation and restoration project,” says Kaitlin Haase, the Xerces Society’s Southwest pollinator conservation specialist.

She added: “Anyone can get involved in this kind of work.”

The plants were provided by the Xerces Society, a national organization dedicated to protecting pollinators.

The organization’s riparian kit – designed to be planted along river banks – includes nearly 100 plants of various species. As the plants take root, they will increase pollinator diversity for New Mexico’s numerous bee, butterfly, moth, beetle and wasp species, Haase said.

More than a dozen children and adults participated in the planting on Monday, planting new seedlings in the garden’s acequia-irrigated landscape.

It’s part of the Defenders of Wildlife’s broader efforts to protect water and wildlife on public and private lands, said Peggy Darr, the organization’s New Mexico representative. The gardens help people and animals, Darr said: They create new habitats for pollinators, which in turn supports agriculture.

Viva Vida Gardens is particularly well suited as a pollinator garden because it borders the acequia.

“Riparian areas – the forests next to rivers – tend to be the best areas for pollinators in the arid Southwest. … They serve as corridors for pollinators and other wildlife to move around. Use these lusher areas as travel corridors,” Darr said.

The plants can also be used medicinally, Trujillo said. As the group transplanted verbena and Woods rose cones, she envisioned making teas and ointments from the plants’ leaves and petals – knowledge she will pass on to local youth through the Sembrando Semillas program.

Samantha Vasquez made her way through the garden’s marshy area, following a series of orange flags that marked the location of each pollinator plant. The 16-year-old from Medanales dug a hole in the soil with a digging stick, carefully removed each seedling from its cup and placed the plant in the hole.

Vasquez is no newbie to gardening.

She is an intern with the Northern Youth Project and has worked in the organization’s garden in Abiquiú, where she learned how to care for vegetation and soil, as well as advanced agricultural techniques such as flood irrigation and burying clay pots filled with water next to plants to ensure a constant water source.

Your harvest this year includes carrots, pumpkins, beans, carrots, eggplants, cucumbers, kale and more, as well as all kinds of herbs.

The newly planted pollinator plants at Viva Vida Gardens will serve all plants in the region, from crops to medicinal plants, according to Vasquez.

“I hope they create a very lush garden,” Vasquez said. “It will definitely be huge plants so the pollinators can go out and pollinate everything that grows here.”