Locals and visitors alike can attest to the way Mission Garden is able to enchant visitors who spend time on its paths. When you step onto the living agricultural museum grounds, you are taken back 4,000 years to a watershed sacred to the indigenous Tohono O’odham.
Mission Garden is a volunteer run 501(c)3 educational non-profit. Their focus is on Sonoran Desert-adapted heritage fruit trees, traditional local heirloom crops, and edible native plants. Their wide variety of garden plots include Native Plants, Early Agriculture, Hohokam, O’odham Before European Contact, O’odham After European Contact, Spanish, Mexican, Chinese, Yoeme, Africa in the Americas, Medicinal, and Youth. They are also always expanding their breadth with new areas in development such as the Grassland, Territorial, Statehood and Tomorrow’s gardens, as well as the Trail of Ndé (Apache) Plants.
Whether a self-guided walk about; or a docent led tour, these winding paths take you back centuries. Seeing how the Tohono O’odham lived and cultivated the land in the Native American village of Cuk Ṣon (pronounced Chuk Shon). On this Earth Day (and everyday!) this commitment to preserving and sharing the methods of ancestors is one of the many reasons we love Mission Garden. They offer several ways to be involved in learning to be a steward of the land; they have volunteer opportunities ranging from Gardening and Seed Saving to Construction, and Administrative opportunities.
So head over to their beautiful and historic grounds, slowly walk the paths, and learn a bit about the fertile land that provided life to many and continues to do so to this day.
For more information, visit their website: Mission Garden
For Volunteer information: Volunteer Opportunities
Read about the timeline of the site: History of the Land
For some insight from a Mission Garden spokesperson, listen to our podcast with their Community Outreach Coordinator Kendall Kroesen here
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