10th anniversary celebration
Sat. March 5 9am-2pm, FREE but donations to Mission Garden are appreciated.
The Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first plantings at the recreated Mission Garden. The day will include speeches and informal talks with experts as well as snacks and drinks as you explore the Garden. Come join the celebration that includes elected officials, founding supporters, volunteers, community members and more!
Schedule:
9:00 – 9:45am Morning Speakers at the Placita (located at north end of Mission Garden). There will be brief talks by a member of the board of Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace, City of Tucson, and Pima County.
9:45-11:00am Garden Experts: Experts will be located around the four-acre garden with detailed information on each garden plot and program. Chat with these experts about the Native Plant Garden, Early Agriculture Garden, Hohokam Garden, O’odham Garden, Spanish Colonial Garden, Mexican Garden, Chinese Garden, Moore Medicinal Garden, Youth Garden, Africa in the Americas Garden, Tomorrow’s Garden, and more. A multimedia display will be available in a garden ramada. Snacks and drinks will be available.
11:00am – 12:30pm Afternoon Speakers at the Placita. This session will include talks by officials, archaeologists, educators, and staff of the Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace.
12:20-2:00pm Garden Experts: Experts will be located around the four-acre garden.
History of the Garden:
In 2009, as the Great Recession set in, a group working on the restoration of Tucson’s heritage resources decided not to let the economic situation affect progress. In 2010 they incorporated as the Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace, a 501(c)3 non-profit. A couple years earlier, in 2008, construction of the voter-approved Tucson Origins Heritage Park had begun, with the rebuilding of an adobe wall around the original site of the garden for the Mission San Agustín. But then Rio Nuevo funding dried up, with no further work accomplished on neither the garden, the mission, nor the Native American village of S-cuk Son. The non-profit’s immediate goal was to begin replanting Mission Garden, and its longer-term goal is to advocate for the completion of the Tucson Origins Heritage Park.
By early 2012 Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace secured agreements with Rio Nuevo and the landowner, Pima County, to manage the garden site. They also raised enough money to start planting. The first trees planted in what would become the garden’s Spanish Colonial Orchard were sourced from the Kino Heritage Fruit Tree Program. That program is a revival of the heirloom fruit stock—still present in southern Arizona—brought by Father Kino and other early missionaries. Since then, with the ongoing support of Pima County and many donors, additional garden plots have been planted, interpreting over 4,000 years of local food production through the use of chronologically and culturally appropriate heirloom crops.
—> Take a look at the Mission Garden Timeline for more info and photos.
Background and significance: Mission Garden, located at the base of Sentinel Peak (“A” Mountain), is a reconstruction of the walled garden from Tucson’s Spanish Colonial Period. It is on the site of the original Mission Garden and on an archaeological site where crops have been grown for over 4,000 years. Inside we interpret all time periods and cultures during those 4,000 years, through garden plots with each culture’s heirloom food plants. This includes wild native foods, Early Agriculture (corn), Hohokam, O’odham, Spanish, Mexican period, and Chinese farmers. Additional gardens are planned to represent the early “Statehood” period, Yaquis, and an innovative “Tomorrow’s Garden.” The cultures and cuisines the gardens represent contributed to Tucson’s designation as a City of Gastronomy by UNESCO.
If you have traveled to COVID-19 hotspots, are experiencing fever, cough, or shortness of breath, or have been around anyone with these symptoms, please wait at least 14 days past the resolution of those symptoms before coming to the garden.