SAND'n'SEEDS
January 2022
Serving Our Community Since 1980
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Message from the President
By Marilee Crumley
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Happy New Year! May this be a healthy, sunny, and great gardening year for us all!
January was always the month that all the seed catalogues would arrive at my house. I’d spend hours pouring over my favorite ones deciding which new seeds to order for the upcoming year. The prospect of a new growing year was what helped sustain my gardening self during the cold snowy winters back in the Midwest. Now I look forward to giving my growing plants what they need in the way of fertilizer or mulch to get a good start to the new year. Other plants I work to keep them growing despite frosts and shorter days. I keep hardier vegetables growing – broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, and beets looking forward to a yummy harvest.
Green Valley Gardeners’ seminars continue in January, so please take advantage of the opportunities to learn more about being a successful southwest gardener. Work also continues on our project gardens, so if you’ve been thinking about volunteering at one of the gardens – Arid, Desert Meadows Park, Historic Canoa Ranch, Ogden or helping with the medians, the new year is a great time to get involved. Volunteers are always welcome and you might make a new friend with similar interests while helping out.
Happy gardening!
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We Accept
Charitable Donations
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You will be asked for an amount, your contact information and credit card information.
Donations go toward operating expenses. If you want your donation to go to a specific project or in honor of an individual, please indicate your intention in the comment area.
You also can mail in a donation to:
Green Valley Gardeners
PO Box 86
Green Valley, AZ 85622-0086
Donations to a 501(c)(3) are tax deductible. Please check with your tax accountant for more information on this deduction.
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Would you like to help, have fun and meet new people?
Arid Garden:
Fridays at 7:30 a.m.
Contact: Mary Kidnocker
520-648-7959 or
Canoa Ranch:
Tuesdays at 7:30 a.m.
Contact: Raydine Taber
Desert Meadows Park:
Wednesdays at 7:30 a.m.
Contact: Chuck Parsons
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Green Valley Gardeners is now listed on AmazonSmile. When you shop Amazon, log into AmazonSmile, use your existing personal account login information, select Green Valley Gardeners as your non-profit of choice. The club will receive a small donation for each qualifying purchase you make. Thank you!
To shop AmazonSmile go to
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GVG Seminars ... By Rhonda Rinn
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January 6- Garden Journaling - Dru Ann Duncan & Gary Vender
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January 13- Care of Citrus - Glen Wright
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January 24- Care of Cactus - Mark Sitter (location Quail Creek)
Reminders will be sent via Sand'n'Seeds, Green Valley Gardeners Website and in eblasts.
We hope to see you there!
Happy Holidays
Rhonda Rinn
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In Your Plot ... By Lorna Mitchell
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Green Valley is a great place to be in January and our gardens are thriving in this mild weather. Our warm sunny days and cool nights provide the perfect growing weather for our root crops and Brassicas. Cold nights make the plants produce solutes as a natural defense against freezing and it creates sweeter carrots, turnips, and beets for us!
It is still possible that temperatures could dip below freezing so it is a good idea to insulate exposed plumbing. Pipe insulation or an old towel or blanket will do the trick, be sure to cover the timer and hold it all in place with a waterproof cover or bucket. Remember that wet towels do not insulate! Tubes with holes that deliver water will not be damaged during a freeze because the water drains from them.
January is the time to plan your summer harvests; dream of juicy tomatoes, colorful tasty peppers, all kinds of squash, eggplant, okra, cantaloupe, cucumbers, and green beans. Most of these are grown from seeds planted directly into the ground in late spring but tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant need a 10 week head start. The trend is to head to the big box stores in April, hope there’s some transplants on the shelf, pay the asking price, and plunk them in the ground. What if there was a better way to stock your plot?
Consider growing your own transplants beginning this month. Order seeds now and select the exact variety you would like to produce. Plant seeds for the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant in some soil in small pots by the end of this month and keep them warm and moist indoors. When they germinate give them as much sunshine as possible and keep them warm at all times!
Pull those little weeds before they become big weeds!
Those are my plot thoughts for now.
Happy Gardening and Happy New Year!
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Arid Garden …
By Mary Kidnocker
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A warm WELCOME BACK to regular winter volunteers Carol Conry, Maria Duane and Hans Hohle, both from the frigid northland !
After a recent rained-out Friday morning, garden volunteers spent a recent morning adding cold protection (styrofoam cups, frost-cloth, and old bed-sheets) to sensitive plants. As a result, the garden now closely resembles a “spooky” movie set. Trichocerus cactus actually are pretty tough in the winter cold; however, we cover many to demonstrate to visitors how to handle the protection of tall columnar cactus. Interestingly, when the Trichs are uncovered in early spring, it has been found that the area beneath the cups has actually grown fatter and greener while covered.
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To show how multi-talented Arid volunteers are, our Linda Gregory who has a lovely singing voice, has become part of Green Valley’s new “Covid Quartet”. The ladies are currently available for pandemic-approved, outdoor carport concerts. |
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Despite this being “quiet time” in the garden, there is still much to enjoy, stop by anytime and absorb the peaceful freshness of this side street sanctuary!
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Desert Meadows Park …
By Chuck Parsons
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Both the Saturday holiday events at the park were well attended! |
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An ensemble of the Green Valley Concert Band played Christmas music on Saturday, December 18th.
Participants were provided sheets so they could sing along!
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The volunteers in the community garden donated just over 4200 pounds of produce to the Sahuarita Food Bank this year. That’s a nice increase over their 7-year average of 3470/year.
When you visit the park, please check out the most recent landscaping improvements. You’ll find these along the North pathway. The strip between the park and the house to our North is being planted with native plants by the volunteers. The Anza Trail entrances, both at the North and the South, are being landscaped by our volunteers as well.
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Historic Hacienda de la Canoa ...
By Raydine Taber
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We hope everyone had an opportunity to see the Canoa Ranch, holiday lights. The staff really outdid themselves stringing lights and decorating the buildings, especially the windows. Now as we enter 2022, they are already thinking about how to improve the holiday display for next year.
The Environmental Educational (EE) division of Pima County’s Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation (NRPR) announced an exceptionally interesting lecture series to be held at the Ranch. First lecture will be Tuesday, January 11th; with Alan Dart from Old Pueblo Archeology Center discussing “Before there was a Canoa (and After): A Brief Cultural History of Southern Arizona’s Middle Santa Cruz Valley’. I personally have attending some of Alan’s lectures and he is extremely knowledgeable. A few of the other lecturers are: Dr. Deni Seymour, Scott Dyke, David Yetman, Homer Thiel, Tom Sheridan, Dan Judkins, Patricia Preciado-Martin and Amanda Castillo. Both Patricia and Amanda are Children of Canoa. Visit WWW.pima.gov/CanoaRanch to register for a lecture (seating is limited) and check out the other lectures in this series. There are a total of nine lectures beginning in January and continuing into April.
Received word that renovation on the Manning Senior House is one step closer to beginning. The project is being put out for bid. My information indicated start time to be late spring or early summer.
Starting January 4th, we will begin pruning. With over 40 pomegranate bushes/trees, other fruit trees, shrubs, the Retention Pond, and centerpiece Desert Willow, it’s going to take a few weeks. This will also include the cleanup pruning at the Caretaker's House. To help this go more smoothly, Barbara Martin took home several of our hand pruning shears and sharpened them. Thank you, Barbara, those shears were in need of some TLC. By the way, Barbara is one of the original Canoa Ranch, volunteers.
As all gardeners know, this is the time to start planning for spring and summer gardens. Here in Arizona, we get to start planting earlier than most other states. At HCR, we are already in the planning mode for renovating the old or creating a new garden.
The daughters of Howell Manning Jr., (the Manning family were Canoa Ranch’s most influential and longest owning family) requested us to assist them in putting together a holiday commemorative honoring their parents. A donation for the display and thanking us for our gardening efforts accompanied their request.
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In memory of Deezie and Howell Manning, Jr. |
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Come join us for some of our interesting adventures. The fun part about volunteering at Historic Canoa Ranch gardens is our variety of plant life and learning a small part of Southern Arizona’s history. We are not just native and drought tolerant plants but we also have herbs, vegetables, fruit trees, and indoor plants. Each garden we work enhances one of the Ranch’s historic buildings. Take a step back into Southern Arizona’s History. |
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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
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Allen J Ogden Community Garden ...
By Bob Laux-Bachand
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It would not be an original thought to say that the onset of the first frosts is often unexpected, especially given the vagaries of local forecasting. Such was the case on Dec. 17, when the morning temperature at Ogden dropped to 25 F (3 degrees colder than at Desert Meadows Park). Cabbages and their cousins in the garden plots were thoroughly coated and slumped down. Frost blankets covered only a handful of the raised beds. It looked grim: The end had finally arrived for the holdover eggplants, tomatoes and peppers of summer. As the day progressed, though, the cabbage family bounced back, as did the lettuce, beets, carrots, onions and other winter-hardy vegetables. Blossoms on the peas are further evidence of our Zone 9 chemistry as we keep a watchful eye on nighttime temperatures.
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A tall stand of blossoming peas on Dec. 17, hours after a heavy frost.
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It’s too early to say how the onion patch, planted in November, will turn out. Seen in a certain light, the plot looks healthy enough, but somewhat sparse compared with last year. Several volunteers had remarked that the seedlings, as shipped from Texas, seemed smaller … so we’ll see. A reminder, also, that two 10-by-40-foot plots are available. We can help install raised beds if you wish. |
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A small collection of pets — rabbits and a Sulcata tortoise — plus a chicken coop, were a garden legacy. The rabbits departed in 2020, and the tortoise was moved earlier this year to the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, having outgrown his enclosure. Having no taker for the rabbit hutch, we have dismantled it to make way for a patio project. That leaves just the chickens, plus a patrol of cats from neighboring homes, who wander in and out of the garden. Their presence on a day-to-day basis undoubtedly accounts for the garden’s lack of rodents, snakes and other wildlife, giving us a valuable layer of protection for our produce.
Ogden Garden has two (2) 10 x 40 plots available!!!
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Membership ... By Mark Thompson
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Membership Renewal for 2022 Begins Now! The renewal of your membership is necessary for us to continue all our various activities here in Green Valley. As in past years, you can renew your membership by clicking the link on the Renewal E-Blast or on our GVG website, by sending a check (still $25 for Single, $35 for a Household) to GVG, PO Box 86, 85622, or by seeing me at a seminar.
We have had another tremendous month in the membership department as we welcomed 11 new members to our Membership Roster which now stands at 599. Please welcome our new members:
Marylou Bembe
Jose and Danim Cordero
Barb Tonn
Heidy Bell
Cliff and Edith Mayfield
Hal Mansfield
Deb and Al Madden
Jan Holland
If you see any of these new members around town, encourage them to get involved. Like most new gardeners in Green Valley, they really want to learn how to garden here. I always tell new members to join in any of our projects, because they meet new friends who know what to plant, how to plant it, and how to fix it when it breaks. Let’s all help them to do just that.
Don’t forget to order your Green Valley Gardener’s branded clothing; get your fresh herb plants at DMP, and notify me if you have a change to your contact information at greenvalleygardeners.com.
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Mailing Address:
PO Box 86,
Green Valley, AZ 85622-0086
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