May 22, 2021 was clear and sunny, like most June days in Tucson. It was my first week as a Mission Garden volunteer and the day of the San Ysidro Festival. San Ysidro is the patron saint of farmers and laborers, and at Mission Garden, the day celebrates the wheat harvest. By 9 in the morning, it was already heating up. The field of wheat stood tall and golden. Board member, Jesus Garcia, was educating the assembled group of visitors and volunteers about the role of White Sonoran Wheat in the history of the Southwest.

This fall is your chance to volunteer for the first time, or to reconnect with our volunteer program. There are more ways than ever to help. Have you heard that quiet voice in your head saying “Hey, that would be a great place to volunteer—it’s peaceful and fun there.” This fall may be the time to act. Read more to find out how to start and all the ways volunteers help the garden.

This story begins largely with Sidney Engs, twin sister to Stephanie, who are both passionate volunteers at Mission Garden. For the last nine years, Sidney has been thinking and planning for how to bring an “Africa in the Americas” garden to life. After years of thinking on this idea, two years ago their research and plans really took off.

Did you know the Sonoran Desert is considered to have five seasons? Dry Summer, Wet Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. These distinctions are important for gardeners and today more than ever, we benefit from the ancient agricultural wisdom of the O’odham people passed down through generations, who developed the first desert planting calendars.

Mission Garden’s timeline gardens would be not be complete without telling the story of Chinese people who lived, raised families, worked, and farmed in this area. Since the late 1800s, Chinese farmers have been part of our region’s history. These gardeners brought Chinese plant varieties with them, and also adapted to grow what they could sell to make a living. The Carrillo house here in Tucson was used by early Chinese immigrants to farm, and would sell their fresh vegetables by wagon. You can see what such a wooden wagon would look like when you visit Mission Garden.

For thousands of years, the ancestors of the Tohono O’odham, Hi’aced O’odham, Akimel O’odham, and On’t Akimel O’odham have cultivated crops on the site of the Mission Garden, making it one of the oldest sites in the country to still produce heritage crops. Maegan loves working with the Mission Garden because she believes in promoting healthy, desert food grown using traditional methods.