Tomorrow’s Garden – April 2024
Mission Garden is a living museum that tells the story of over 4,000 years of multicultural agriculture in the Tucson Basin. Mission Gardens is now planning a new garden that is to be called Tomorrow’s Garden. Its purpose is to explore how to grow food in the local area in the future, with higher average temperatures, more extreme weather events, and less water. A garden committee has gathered input from diverse stakeholders and is now in the process of making initial decisions about the garden design. This presentation will describe the status of this effort, some of the broader scale design parameters, and some of the possibilities we are exploring. Mission Gardens will also be welcoming input from Tucson Organic Gardeners’ about this new effort with an interactive portion as part of the discussion.
Dena Cowan is Curator of Collections at Mission Garden, Tucson’s Agricultural Heritage Museum, where she has also served as Garden Supervisor and Community Outreach Coordinator. For the past two years she has also created a farm plan and consulted for Arizona’s first certified organic regenerative farm, Oatman Flats Ranch.
Kendall grew up in Southern California and earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. After college he worked for four years on archaeological and conservation projects and became a bird watcher. Later Kendall received a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego after twenty months of field work in central Mexico. Kendall held post-doctoral research positions at UCLA and at the Tucson VA Medical Center. In February 2002, in a departure from social science, Kendall joined the staff of the Tucson Audubon Society. There he was involved in communications, rural habitat restoration and creation of an urban bird habitat program. Kendall has served on a variety of community advisory committees including the Tucson Parks and Recreation Commission. He now works as Community Outreach Coordinator at the Mission Garden. He enjoys gardening, birding and walking dogs with his wife Mary Beth Tyndall.
Tasting Your Community – January 2024
Jesus Garcia of Mission Gardens and the Desert Museum. Learn how Native Americans and modern residents of the Sonoran Desert Region have used their environment to find food, medicine, and tools to live in harmony with the surrounding desert. Your community is more than just its people – it’s the whole ecological tapestry of interwoven lives in their environment. What better way to ponder local ecology than to eat of its riches! Sample native and traditional foods and learn techniques to gather and process them. Experiment with natural fibers and pigments. And come away with a new view of the desert’s cornucopia and some great sense of place activities to share with others.
Biochar – December 2023
Janick Artiola, Ph.D. is a Retired Associate Professor, Researcher, and Extension Water Quality Specialist from the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Arizona. As a soil scientist/chemist Janick has expertise in water quality, waste management and soil fertility with 36 years of experience working with soils and water quality in semi-desert Southwest. The presentation will cover the following topics: Biochar composition and characterization, how to make biochar, and how to safely use biochar in gardens.
Fruit Trees For Tucson – October 2023
Emily Rockey – Mission Gardens. Drought tolerance is a highly desirable characteristic of desert dwelling fruit trees, especially in current climate conditions. Tucson’s agricultural heritage museum called ‘Mission Garden’ grows desert adapted and native crops. The presentation will offer details about varieties’ drought tolerance and general hardiness, as well as insight about their roles in the cultural traditions of the region. Finally, key cultivation and maintenance techniques will be discussed with regards to increasing water efficiency and mitigating the impact of extreme environmental conditions.
Healthy Soils – September 2023
Shota Austin, of Tank’s Green Stuff, will discuss the foundation for healthy soil and how to foster healthy soil in the garden. Topics include but aren’t limited to: soil microbiology, soil health, mulch, pests, agroecology, and composting. He will explore how quality organic materials can be applied to encourage healthy soil and, in turn, healthy and happy gardens.
Arid Adapted Seeds – May 2023
Joel Johnson and Monica Sanders from Native Seeds/SEARCH will be providing an overview of how their organization grows, saves, and shares arid-adapted crop seeds and works with farmers and gardeners throughout the Southwest to preserve agricultural biodiversity and to share knowledge and seeds. They will also speak about some of their composting methods with an emphasis on making high-fungal compost, which can provide unique benefits to desert soils, using a Johnson-Su composting bioreactor.