FAQ

Agriculture has been in this area of the historic Santa Cruz River floodplain between 4,000 and 5,000 years. The original, walled Mission Garden was operating in the mid 18th and early 19th centuries, in association with the nearby Mission San Agustin. The mission, and the original garden walls, eroded away over time. The garden walls were rebuilt in 2008. The planting of today’s recreated Mission Garden started in February 2012 with the planting of the first Kino Heritage Fruit Trees. More about the history of the site can be found on our timeline.

- We give about half of it away to food pantries, food banks, refugee groups, and our volunteers.

- We sell some produce to local restaurants and bakeries. They often make note of the dishes that contain produce from Mission Garden.

- We sell a limited amount of the less perishable seasonal produce in our Garden Shop on days we’re open (e.g., fruit, onions, garlic, beets–when in season).

- We sell some of the more perishable produce at the Thursday afternoon/evening Santa Cruz Farmers Market at the Mercado San Agustín.

- We make products in our kitchen from some of it, such as the preserves we sell in the Garden Shop.

- Once a year we have a fundraising dinner incorporating produce from the garden.

- With some of the produce we demonstrate traditional techniques for food preservation such as drying squash; roasting, drying, and milling corn, making preserves, and other techniques. One example of this is our monthly Tasting History programs.

We use potable water from Tucson Water for both irrigation and potable uses. Due to the use of sustainability techniques, we use less water than a typical, similar-sized, commercial farm. Our water applied per area is 1.9 af/acre. Our water duty for our actual irrigated areas (not including paths, buildings, etc.) is probably 2.5-3 af/acre. Because we use drip irrigation, our water use is much less than it would be with flood irrigation.

Other sources of water are being investigated. Reclaimed water pipes are less than ½ mile away but it would be prohibitively expensive to extend them to the garden without help. We are considering other options as well.

All our pest control methods are organic. Insect pests are treated with soapy water, neem oil, BT, or natural pesticides that we make ourselves. Small mammals like cottontails and cotton rats sometimes need to be trapped. Rattlesnakes are trapped and removed but other reptiles are welcomed. The walls around Mission Garden normally keep deer and javelina out. We know bobcats, raccoons, and maybe coyotes can come over the walls. Since we fortified our chicken coop, those animals have not caused significant problems.

Wild-harvested foods are from plants native to our region (pods from leguminous trees, cholla buds, prickly pear fruit, etc.). Ultimately, our cultivated crops come from the Americas, Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Crops originating in the Americas include corn, beans, squash, chiles, etc.). The first European settlers brought many crops from outside the Americas that were growing in the 15th Century in southern Europe. Later immigrants brought yet more crops from a variety of other parts of the world.

Seeds or cuttings to grow crops in the recreated Mission Garden came from many sources. Elders in the community who have saved seed of traditional crops contributed some. A local seed bank of traditional Southwest and northern Mexican crops, Native Seeds-SEARCH, contributed many crops. The Kino Heritage Fruit Tree Project identified original varieties of fruit trees brought here from Europe, reproduced them, and made them available for the Spanish Colonial Orchard. Mission Garden staff and volunteers also researched and found other traditional crops.

More about the garden plots and crops at Mission Garden can be found on our virtual tour.

Yes. At our Garden Shop we sell clothing with the garden logo. preserves made in our kitchen, and other products made from garden produce. We also sell many other Arizona-made products, as well as books on many garden-related topics. The shop is open whenever the garden is open, Wednesday through Saturday, 8am-2pm (winter) and 8am-12pm (summer). Visit the Garden Shop.

Yes. There is usually a small selection of trees and plants available at the Garden Shop. There are usually more available in the fall, which is a good time to plant many trees and shrubs. Getting our email newsletters is a good way to stay informed about what is available.

Read our document on planting and caring for heritage fruit trees.

Yes. Tours are $10 per person. Please call 520-955-5200 x1 to set up a tour. More about booking tours and other events here.

Yes, a variety of events, festivals, classes and workshops are held at the garden and can be found on our events and classes page.

Do you want to teach a class about a particular field related to the garden in which you have expertise? Please fill out the request to teach a class!

Yes, we have a Bookworm Path consisting of 20 locations around the garden (large mailboxes) containing books and activities for children to enjoy in the garden. Learn more here.

School field trips can come to the garden. Please fill out the field trip request form to request a field trip.

Yes, on the north side of the garden you’ll find restrooms on the east side of the kitchen building.

Hunter and gatherer bands foraged through this region at least 13,000 years ago and quite possibly earlier.

The first clear evidence of summer corn-growing settlements is 4,100 years ago, although there may be additional evidence pushing corn agriculture back farther. It appears that crops were grown continuously since then, by a variety of people from different cultural backgrounds. This is one of the longest records of continuous cultivation in the United States.

Native Americans started growing corn here at least 4,100 years ago. Archaeologists call this the Early Agricultural Period, from the advent of corn agriculture to about AD 50.

Starting about AD 50 people lived in permanent, year-round villages and started growing beans, squash, and cotton as well as corn. Archaeologists call this the Early Ceramic Period because, although there is earlier evidence of ceramics, they were now being made in larger quantities.

About AD 450 marks the beginning of the Hohokam period, showing more complex social structure, fancy painted pottery, ceremonial areas, ball courts, and pueblo-style architecture. People grew more corn, beans, squash, and cotton, and at some point started growing large plantations of agaves.

About AD 1450 the archaeological characteristics of the Hohokam disappeared, but people likely to be their descendents continued to live here and are thought to be the ancestors of the O’odham. They had a village near the garden site at the time Europeans arrived in 1692, and they continue to live here today.

Yes, from roughly the mid 1700s to the early 1800s, the missionaries at the Mission San Agustin used the walled garden. The walls eroded after that but are still partially visible in a photo taken from Sentinel Peak by Carlton Watkins in 1880. Today’s wall was built in 2008.

We want to show as many of the characteristics of the historic Santa Cruz River floodplain as possible. Historically there were three large canals going north through the mile-wide floodplain, with many smaller lateral canals taking water to crops in individual fields. We don’t irrigate with canal water, called flood irrigation, because drip irrigation uses much less water.

It is from the city’s potable water supply and is recirculated from the north end of the garden to the south end of the garden using a pump.

There are 10 species of native, aquatic plants in the canal. Two of them are on the endangered species list: Huachuca water umbel and Arizona eryngo.

The canal was stocked with 500 Gila topminnows in the summer of 2019. They multiplied to over 1,300 during the following year. Gila topminnows are a small (1-2 inch) fish native to the Gila, San Pedro, and Santa Cruz rivers. It is rare in the wild now due to damage to local streams and rivers, and is on the endangered species list.

Many other creatures have been seen using the canal for drinking water, foraging, or reproduction. These include many birds, mice, cotton rats, round-tailed ground squirrels, rock squirrels, cottontails, raccoons, bobcats, checkered gartersnakes, Sonoran desert toads, lowland leopard frogs, spadefoot toads, and many insects such as boatmen, water striders, wasps, dragonflies, and damselflies.

Yes. Private events that have been held at the garden include, but are not limited to, weddings, receptions, quinceaneras, memorials, parties, and meetings.

Consult our garden rental FAQ page and contact our Events Coordinator if you have further questions (Events Coordinator contact information is in the Rentals FAQ).

It is used mostly by our staff and volunteers for garden-related canning, other food production, and events.

The kitchen is not rented for commercial purposes but can be rented as part of a garden rental event for an additional fee. See the garden rental FAQ referenced above.

Donations to Mission Garden go to the non-profit organization Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace (FOTB). FOTB developed and manages Mission Garden, as well as advocating for open space and recognition of the area’s historic and cultural values. Your donations to FOTB are tax-deductible. You can make a donation here.

Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace is a 501(c)3 non-profit incorporated in 2010 that developed and manages Mission Garden, as well as advocating for open space and recognition of the area’s historic and cultural values. It has a volunteer board of directors.

Mission Garden has a volunteer board of directors that sets policy. We have a staff of four full-time employees and four part-time employees. More about our board, staff, and interns is found at the Our Team page.

The staff’s work is multiplied many-fold by the work of volunteers. We have positions for interns too–you can request an internship.

Check our open positions page.

Volunteers work under the direction of the Garden Supervisor and other staff members. There are many roles for volunteers. Most do gardening tasks such as mulching, composting, planting, weeding, and harvesting. There are other volunteers who are docents, seed-bank volunteers, kitchen volunteers, builders, tool maintenance volunteers, and administrative volunteers.

Volunteer days are Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

Go to our volunteer page and sign up for a volunteer orientation. Orientations take place on certain Wednesday and Saturday mornings. After you have done the orientation, we welcome you to come on Wednesday and/or Saturday mornings and enjoy volunteering in our beautiful garden.