Explore Our Gardens

Early Agriculture

From ≈ 2100 BC to present. Irrigation ditches channelized river water to extensive networks of agricultural fields for small cob maize, beans, and squash. Wild progenitors of early domesticates include teosinte corn, cushaw squash, and cotton.  Explore the Early Agriculture Garden. 

Hohokam Garden

From ≈ 500 AD to present. Complex irrigation systems allowed for extensive cultivation of hard kernel popcorn, fleshy squash, tepary and lima beans, cotton, gourds, amaranth, and tobacco.  Explore the Hohokam Garden. 

O'odham Garden Before European Contact

From ≈ 1450 AD to present. Field crops include ha:l (squash), huñ (60-Day Corn), baba:wi (tepary beans). Monsoon season: i'hug (Devil's Claw) and wako (gourds), and wild greens such as chuhuggia i:wagi (amaranth) and onk'i:wagi (salty greens).  Explore the O'odham Gardens. 

O'odham Garden After European Contact

From 1692 AD to present. Winter crops were introduced by Spanish missionaries, including winter wheat, onions, garlic, leafy greens, and root crops.  Explore the O'odham Gardens. 

Spanish Colonial Orchard & Vegetable Garden

From 1692 AD to present. Fruit trees introduced to this region by the Spanish included quinces, pomegranates, figs, peaches, and grapevines. Other crops introduced by Europeans included winter wheat, barley, peas, fava beans, and culinary herbs.  Explore the Spanish Colonial Orchard & Vegetable Garden. 

Africa in the Americas

You can explore the cultural history of people of African descent and the plants that “took root” here by walking the garden, laid out chronologically north to south, spanning the time from the first African person here in 1539 through to the contemporary African American garden.  Explore the Africa in the Americas Garden. 

Mexican Garden

From ≈ 1821 AD to present. In fields surrounding the Mission Garden site, forage crops like wheat, barley, and corn, in addition to chiles, melons, garbanzos, onions, were grown. Backyard gardens were dense with edible and ornamental plants.  Explore the Mexican Garden. 

Chinese Garden

From ≈ 1870 AD to present. Chinese gardeners were Tucson's first commercial farmers, initially selling from wagons. Home garden varieties include fu qua (bitter melon), dou jiao (long beans), kai lan (Chinese broccoli), and don qua (winter melon).  Explore the Chinese Garden. 

Yoeme Garden

From ≈ 1700 AD to present. Some Yoeme first arrived in this region with Spanish colonists. In the late 19th century, others sought safety from warfare and persecution in northern Mexico. They brought edible and medicinal native Sonoran herbs and other crops.  Explore the Yoeme Garden. 

Territorial Garden (In Development)

During the Territorial Period (1863 to 1912)—when the state of Arizona was a Territory of the United States—home gardens in the small town of Tucson boasted exuberant rose bushes, trellised vines, and other ornamental plants, alongside small plots for vegetables and potted herbs. Meanwhile, Chinese, Mexican and Euro-American farmers cultivated the fields across the fertile floodplain on the banks the Santa Cruz River. 

Statehood Garden (In Development)

Arizona gained statehood in 1912. During the 20th century, agriculture in this region became increasingly industrialized, with extensive farms devoted to single crops, mainly cotton and citrus, two of the state’s “5 Cs,” along with cattle, copper and climate. 

Tomorrow's Garden (In Development)

"Honoring Tucson’s diverse community and unique history, Tomorrow’s Garden seeks to punctuate Mission Garden’s historic timeline with a demonstration of sustainable and innovative agricultural practices that have the capacity to adapt to changing climate as well as build community through design process and project implementation.” - Brad Kindler  Explore Tomorrow's Garden. 

Entry Garden

Any special place may be enhanced by the approach to it. That holds true at Mission Garden.  Explore the Entry Garden. 

Agave Trincheras

Along the slope east of the walkway to the Garden’s main entrance, there are a series of agave terraces or trincheras. The slope is the edge of Tucson’s former landfill. In addition to controlling erosion and beautifying the hill, they demonstrate how ancient Hohokam farmers employed rock mulch to harvest rainwater runoff to cultivate agaves for food and fiber.  Explore the Agave Trincheras. 

Welcome Ramada & Exhibit Casita

Under the Spanish Colonial-style ramada visitors can find freshly harvested produce to taste and purchase, and docents are on hand to provide guidance. Inside the replica historic gardener's hut there is a museum exhibit room and gift shop.  Explore the Welcome Ramada & Exhibit Casita. 

Irrigation Canal

Buried under layers of time and tilling is a network of hidden irrigation canals much like this one that traverses the Garden, mirroring an ancient canal once used by Hohokam farmers.  Explore the Irrigation Canal. 

Nde (Apache) Plants Trail (In Development)

The Nde people were not primarily farmers, but like other indigenous peoples of the region, they depended on many of the native plants grown throughout this Garden for food, medicine, fiber and more. These include agave, saguaro, prickly pear, cholla, mesquite, canyon grapes, walnuts, devil’s claw, beargrass, yucca, deergrass, mulberry, hedgehog cactus, milkweed, hackberry, elderberry, wormwood, amaranth, and three-leaved sumac. 

Agave Garden & Roasting Pit

As a transition from the wild harvested food-bearing plants in the Garden of Native Plants and the early domesticated crops in the Early Agriculture Garden there is an Agave Garden and Roasting Pit that represent the cultivation and semi-domestication of native food-bearing plants, in this case the growing and roasting of agave.  Explore the Agave Garden & Roasting Pit. 

Fiber Trail (In Development)

Fibrous plants native to the Sonoran Desert that have long been used for basketry, rope-making, shoes and clothes include cotton, agave, beargrass, banana yucca, soaptree yucca, and devil’s claw. Flax, whose fiber is used to make linen, was introduced to the region by Spanish missionaries.

Takwi c Moho U'im / Desert Grassland

The name of our Desert Grassland Habitat is Takwi c Moho U'im, which means "place where we gather yucca and beargrass." A re-creation of the nearby, higher-elevation habitat known and utilized traditionally by O’odham and Nde peoples to harvest plant material for basketry and other fiber arts. The grasslands of southeastern Arizona fit the definition of “savanna”—a mixed-shrub grassland in a hot, seasonally-dry climate, often with an open canopy of trees.  Explore Takwi c Moho U'im.  

Field Crops

Grains, such as wheat, barley and corn; legumes including garbanzos, lentils, and fava beans; and fiber plants like flax and hemp, were grown in this area across extensive fields. Melons and chilies were also commonly grown in large field plots.  Explore the Field Crops. 

Threshing Ground

Threshing grounds, called eras in Spanish, were essential features in communities that predated or could not afford mechanical threshing and winnowing equipment. Harvesting, threshing and winnowing grains and legumes was a major collective seasonal endeavor that required many hands to share in the work.  Explore the Threshing Ground. 

Chicken Coop

This log chicken coop was once part of a Rarámuri (Tarahumara) ranchería in a village of Chihuahua, Mexico. It was rebuilt using the wood from the original structure acquired in 1978 for the Arizona State Museum.  Explore the Chicken Coop. 

Granary

This granary was acquired in 1978 for the ethnographic collection of the Arizona State Museum. It was displayed in the exhibit “Los de la Sierra: The Tarahumara Indians of Chihuahua, Mexico.” Every piece of wood was carefully labeled when the exhibit was dismantled in 1983, which made it possible to faithfully reconstruct it in Mission Garden 40 years later.  Explore the Granary. 

Millstone

The Millstone (Tahona) is a traditional homestead or ranch-scale mill for grinding grain, typically wheat into flour or corn into pinole. This technology, introduced by Spanish colonists, involved the use of donkeys or mules for turning the heavy stones. Our tahona, acquired from a neighbor here in Menlo Park, is not merely an exhibit of an old artefact. We use it to grind the wheat we grow at the Garden.  Explore the Millstone. 

Moore Medicinal Garden

The Moore Medicinal Garden, created in honor of legendary Southwest herbalist and educator Michael Moore, features native medicinal plants from the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.  Explore the Moore Medicinal Garden. 

Youth Garden

This is a place for youth of all ages to unwind and unplug: dig in the dirt, sow seeds, explore the pithouse and taste and smell vegetables and herbs they have never tried before.   Explore the Youth Garden. 

Pithouse

This replica dwelling, which archeologists call a pithouse, is based on one that was excavated on the Mission Garden site in 2008. Students replicated the ancient “Cienega Phase" structure with cottonwood for the support posts, and arrowweed boughs for thatching.  Explore the Pithouse. 

Bookworm Path

The Bookworm Path allows families to enjoy Arizona standards-based learning in subjects aligning with science, history, and English language arts. The book stops contain books and activities. At the front gate, you can pick up a Bookworm Path map, which identifies the theme and location of each book box (mailbox).  Explore the Bookworm Path. 

Wildlife and Ecology in Mission Garden

Thanks to the dense plantings of native and agricultural plants, and the replica irrigation canal, Mission Garden supports many species of wildlife that would have inhabited the site historically.  Explore Wildlife and Ecology.