Mission Garden of Earthly Delights!
VIA SBINSIDER’S GLORIA WOLF | April 5th, 2024
Among the carefully curated vegetation you can experience Tucson’s past by spending the day in Mission Garden. Mission garden is located at 946 West Mission Lane in Tucson. This is the location of the O’odham people. This location was called S-cuk Son, the origin of the name Tucson. You will find 4,000 years of history at Tucson’s birthplace.
On March 13, Kendal Kroesen, Outreach Coordinator, spoke about the Mission Garden project in Tucson at Desert View Theater. Mission Garden was rebuilt at the original location from the Spanish Colonial period. Friends of Tucson’s birthplace revitalized the garden in 2012. They scrounged Tucson for the remaining existing plants that they could use to continue the heirloom species in the Mission garden.
The original Spanish Colonial Garden consisted of figs, pomegranates, quince, and apricots all brought from the old world. As many of these original plants as possible can be found in the Mission Garden and have been there for 12 years. Today, you can taste the Valencia oranges, Mexican sweet limes, quince trees, and grapes from the grape arbor.
From the brochure, “The heritage crops we grow are not only culturally meaningful in this place, they are also well-adapted to our climate and soils. Mission Garden offers an outdoor multicultural, hands-on educational setting for all ages.” The garden motto is Tasting History.
Two thousand years ago, called the early ceramic period, the local plants were the infamous three sisters, corn, beans, squash. The year 1450 started the protohistoric period. In 1692 the first Europeans arrived.
Enjoy these upcoming events brought to you by your extension master gardeners.
April 10 – Heat proofing your garden presentation at the Ranch at Sol Ballroom, 1:00 PM
April 20 – Spring Garden Fair at MountainView, 10:00 AM to Noon.
May 8 – Zoom presentation on Gardening for Butterflies, 1:00 PM.
For more details on these topics visit the University of Arizona Extension.
https://extension.arizona.edu/home-gardening
Southeast Pinal County Gardeners.
https://extension.arizona.edu/southeast-pinal-county-master-gardener
Visit the site for Mission Garden.
