Gardens

The Neil Nelson Memorial Heritage Garden is an educational experience to showcase some of the crops that Native Americans may have planted at this site long ago. Farmers in the desert chose plants that were hardy and adaptable, as well as beneficial. Some of the crops growing in the garden are corn, tepary beans, squash, amaranth, chili peppers, onions, sunflowers and cotton.

Vast wisdom and resourcefulness were required to survive in the Sonoran Desert. With an intimate knowledge of the requirements for growing crops in the extreme desert climate, native farmers sought to provide nourishing food for their families year-round. They located fields, dug irrigation ditches, provided run-off basins to control the rains and monsoon storms and were careful to conserve their most valuable resource — water.

Skunk Creek, which runs through this site, once flowed 6 to 9 months of the year. The stream provided an area suitable for growing crops, making this site highly desirable for living and gardening.

Throughout human history, people and plants have had a mutually beneficial relationship. Farmers cultivated crops, which in turn, had various uses and helped to shape their cultures. Plants were grown not only to be eaten, but also for medicines, fibers, construction materials and dye.

Desert plants served as “calories, cures and characters” in stories and legends. Sonoran Desert dwellers saw plants not just in a utilitarian way, but maintained symbolic and ecological relationships with the plants, as well. These relationships have constantly changed through time, and our relationship with plants continues to change today.