If you are looking for inspiration for your own landscape or just enjoy seeing what talented gardeners have done, you'll want to attend the GVG Spring Garden Tour on April 9, 2022.

The tour consists of a self-guided tour through six gardens in the Green Valley area. The gardens are selected to appeal to a broad range of tour visitors. Whatever your gardening interests, you'll find ideas in the gardens on the tour.

The plants in each garden will be labeled and there will be knowledgeable hosts at each garden to answer your questions. Enjoy the beauty of the gardens, the musicians playing in the gardens and the opportunity to learn more about gardening in our corner of the world.

There are also many opportunities to volunteer to help with the tour. It is a great way to meet other club members and to support the fund raising activities of the club. You can sign up to volunteer through Sign Up Genius to be a Greeter or to help Sell Tickets at the seminar and at Desert Meadows Park on April 9.

Tickets will be available at the weekly seminars beginning March 3, 2022.

They are also available ONLINE beginning March 1, 2022, at:

and at

Chamber of Commerce

Desert Bloom

Nancy Pantz

Native Gardens

Tickets will be available for purchase at the GVG plant sale March 16 through 19, 2022. Tickets are $15. You can get the members only price of $10 if you purchase your ticket at one of the GVG seminars or at the upcoming plant sale.

Garden Tour tickets can will be available for pickup

Saturday April, 9th from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

GVG Seminars ... By Rhonda Rinn

Reminders will be sent via Sand'n'Seeds, Green Valley Gardeners Website and in eblasts.

“In like a lion out like a lamb”? Don’t be fooled. Sunshine drives all of our activities as gardeners and the sun will begin its journey back to us this month. The freezing nights will soon be but a memory, but perhaps not as soon as we would like. The soil will someday warm enough to grow those delicious tomatoes we crave and as the sun inches closer we need to prepare for the arrival of heat.

As harvests of winter crops dwindle, clear away the debris and dig in mushroom compost, composted steer manure, and balanced granulated fertilizer. Yes, again! Before every planting we need to replace soil nutrients that our plants pull out and the organic matter that seems to evaporate in the desert soil.

Later this month examine irrigation systems and plan for water delivery to new plantings. Consider a splitter coming off the faucet so you can work two or three clocks with different settings; perhaps one to onions and another to rows of beans, zucchini, cantaloupe seeds, etc. Visually inspect batteries in clocks to make sure they are not corroded and clean out debris from the washer screens above the clocks. Flush the water delivery hoses, check fittings for leaks, and drip emitters for volume as they easily plug up with our hard water. Keep coverings on faucets and clocks as freezing nights can still come upon us.

Texas sweet and other short day onions will begin to “bulb” this month, meaning they will finally start to look like onions. This is a response to the day length and harvest will come in May/June. Garlic stays in until the tops shrivel, usually June.

Plant seeds of chard, radishes, and leafy greens first but wait a few weeks on beans, corn, summer squash, and melons. Hard squash, okra, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes like the warmer soil of May. Seeds will germinate faster if soaked in water overnight before planting. A covering of light weight cloth that allows light and water to penetrate may protect seedlings from predators and moderately cool nights.

If you have started your own tomato, eggplant, and peppers for transplanting give those babies as much full sun outside as temperatures above 60°F allow when they are small. Continue to move them inside at night and in cool weather or when winds could damage them. When the nights are above 45/50°F the tomatoes can be outside, getting ready to go to the garden. Eggplant and peppers are sissies and won’t grow until the soil warms in mid-April (and prefer the temperatures of August).

If buying plants look for vigorously growing ones that are not root bound. Inspect them carefully and remove any hitchhiking pests. For tomatoes decide if you want indeterminate (main stem continues to elongate bearing new fruit all season) or determinate (growth stops and all fruit ripens about the same time). Tomatoes can go into the garden after frost danger is past. As you put them in the ground bury the stem up to the first true leaves for better support and it will grow new roots.

During the past month the garden volunteers have been busy removing crispy, brown, cold-damaged parts from affected plants. Next will be a general spring shaping of the many Texas Rangers. A number of baby Rangers appeared over the past year, so even with the extra help of our winter volunteers, this task will take several Friday mornings. No shears are used, only hand pruners and a “good eye.”

Temperatures have dipped into the thirties a number of nights, and one recent Friday morning the garden area was down to 25-degrees. The first jobs finished that day were those in the sunshine!

I am excited about what I see in the park the past few days! I’m anticipating California poppies.

I reflect back to 2006 when relatively new to the area, I attended a seminar at Tohono Chul by Scott Calhoun. I had read several of his books and was looking forward to the session, even after walking across the park in the rain. Scott was introduced and his first words were, “I lost sleep last night listening to the rain on the roof. I spent much of the night anticipating where I’d be going to see the wildflowers this spring!” Having recently moved from the Pacific Northwest, I’d never seen anyone so excited about a little rain. I now join Scott in anticipating wildflowers when seeing rain in February.

In January we began to observe fringes of green shoots coming out of the gravel weeds or maybe something else ? It took a few days to realize we had a bumper crop of California poppies germinating. All we needed were a few rainy days in February to nourish the crop. I am excited, we haven’t had a nice showing of poppies in the park since 2019.

As many of the park visitors now know, Mojo, my faithful canine companion passed away mid-February. It was quick, so he didn’t suffer, but so many of the park volunteers and visitors have joined me in grief. I had no idea that he had become such a part of the park experience.

In the many cards, emails, etc. Mojo has been referred to as the park ambassador, the park greeter and the park mascot.

Mojo was just under a year old when the volunteers started work on the park. He was a companion to the volunteers on every step of the park’s creation and joined all visitors in our celebrations. He shared his love with all that visited the park. If not at the park, he could generally be found at home on the front porch or living room sofa keeping an eye on all the park visitors coming and going.

Historic Hacienda de la Canoa ...

We, volunteers, at the ranch, have had some challenges to overcome during February. We needed to move all the plants and all our tools and supplies to a new location. To make this challenge even more difficult several of our volunteers have had, due to medical issues, miss volunteer days. Sending wishes of speedy recoveries to: David Duffy and Carol Zychowski. With many a grateful thank yous to the volunteers who kept the project moving forward: Barbara Martin, Larry Bennett, Jim Campbell, Christine Hansen, Jeanette Juba, Mary Grigich, Craig Surprise, and Jerry Sampson. Can not thank you enough for your contributions.

All events and registration for events are listed on the following website.

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:30 a.m. Please join us! If you want more information call me at 520-625-0961 or email rs_taber@msn.com

Allen J Ogden Community Garden ...

We welcomed a new gardener in February — Vicky Bauer, who is taking over Plot 8. With her arrival, Ogden has nearly a full complement of gardeners in its current alignment, with only one large plot left to assign. Longterm, we are considering dividing the remaining plot, and possibly others, and to add more raised beds. The idea is to create more manageable options for gardeners who don’t wish to commit to a big in-ground plot.

Several projects were completed in the last half of January and finished in February. A 16-yard stockpile of decomposed granite has been greatly reduced. The material was used as a base for the new patio, and for covering the paths, and now is available for ongoing maintenance and other work.

On the onion front, seedlings planted in November got off to a slow start but now appear to be doing well. Most of the individual plots have also been healthy. This is a nice contrast to what happened this time last year, when cabbage aphids became noticeable in several gardens in early February and raised havoc with Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, and other crops. With any luck, these stubborn pests will continue their sabbatical.

Ogden Garden has two (1) 10 x 40 (in ground) plot available!!!

Please contact Harry Jepkema hjepkema@yahoo.com