SAND'n'SEEDS
February 2021
Serving Our Community Since 1980
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Message from the President
Happy 2021! This is the time of year when gardeners love planning for their spring gardens, pouring over the seed and plant catalogues, and watching gardening shows on TV. Perhaps you have been able to pick the first tangerines, oranges, or lemons, all so much more enjoyable because you grew them yourself.
Our monthly GVG seminars are available through Zoom. You get a wealth of good information and hear from other gardeners, sharing ideas that you can incorporate into your gardens. On Zoom you also get to see other GVG members and hear their questions and comments about the topic being presented. Those Zoom seminars will continue through the spring. See more information in the seminar section of this newsletter.
I’ve noticed that despite the pandemic, Green Valley full-timers and winter visitors are enjoying the lovely walks at our gardens. The warm sunshine beckons us to stroll the walkways at tree-shadowed Desert Meadows Park, the vistas around the lake of Historic Canoa Ranch, and the intimate cacti and succulent gardens of The Arid Garden. These places allow opportunities to see and observe not just plants, but also an occasional glimpse of wildlife on our walks.
There are opportunities to volunteer at any of those gardens, as the plants don’t know there’s a pandemic so still need care. They continue to delight us with their late winter/early spring foliage and blooms. There is more information in this issue of 'Sand 'n' Seeds' and on our website about volunteering.
Happy gardening!
Marilee Crumley
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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 deductable. 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
520-648-7949 or jdkidn@aol.com
Canoa Ranch:
Tuesdays at 7:30 a.m.
Contact: Raydine Taber
rs.taber@msn.com
Desert Meadows Park: Wednesdays at 7:30 a.m.
Contact: Chuck Parsons 520-904-9020 or chuck.dana@gmail.com
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Shop AmazonSmile and Benefit the Garden Club
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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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Upcoming GVG Seminars
Zoom with Us
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February 18 2pm - Art in the Garden
Margaret Joplin
Design Collaborations LTD.
March 4 2pm - Packrats
Chris Brown (Mr. Packrat)
March 18 2pm - Gardening in Pots
Deborah North
April 1 2pm - Good Plants for the Garden
Toni Moore
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All Seminars will be conducted with Zoom. A link will be sent to all members by email.
If you would like more information, please contact:
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Rain has blessed our land as well as our little garden plots; finally! Harvests of cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower, turnips, carrots, beets, chard, fennel, greens, and broccoli should continue for many weeks; but spring will come and we want to be ready for it.
If you haven’t started your tomato, eggplant, and pepper seeds at home, do so very soon. There is a tremendous potential inside a tiny seed and it is great fun to watch it grow! Use a 2” pot on a tray to grow your own seeds of the varieties you want this summer. Choose a fine textured potting soil and fill the cups. Put one seed in each cup and label it. Keep the soil moist and warm in the house, on thick old towels to insulate the roots. Try a heated seed mat for better germination success. When green shoots appear give them as much sunshine as temperature allows keeping them above 60° F (they prefer over 70° when very young). Carrying them outside to your warm brick patio for a few hours then bringing them inside as it cools is ideal.
As they grow at home, prepare open sections of ground at the garden by digging in amendments. We have used mushroom compost and granulated fertilizer which gives a real boost to the plants. Pace your work load because major plantings will take place the end of March or early April.
Irish potatoes go in the garden this month. They are not a root at all, but a tuber – a specialized fleshy part of an underground stem that stores food and they produce a better harvest if more of the stem is under the ground! “Seed” potatoes may be ordered for more varieties or use one from your pantry if it is growing sprouts; they will grow and produce tender little new potatoes. Dig a trench a foot deep and mix in organic matter with a little fertilizer containing phosphate. Cut the growing “eyes” from a potato, but not too close, and set them in the bottom about 8 inches apart. Cover with 2 inches of soil and irrigate. As the green shoots grow up a couple inches, cover them with soil again. Repeat this until the trench is filled or even mounded up a little. The young shoots can freeze, so a light covering with a cloth might save them. DO NOT plant sweet potatoes until May.
Freezing nights can still be expected, so keep your faucets covered with dry towels or blankets; it’s easier than fixing a broken pipe or clock because it froze. And check irrigation for leaks.
Those are my plot thoughts for now, Happy Gardening
By Lorna Mitchell
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Arid Garden … By Mary Kidnocker
At this writing, with garden faucets snuggled into their insulated jackets and cold sensitive plants under Styrofoam cups or wrapped in cozy frost cloths, nighttime temperatures are forecast to drop into the low-20’s for the first time this season. Garden volunteers have been diligently working to keep plants hydrated during the past weeks of endless low humidity and lack of rainfall. Therefore, the plants should be ready to meet the challenges of a few hours of sub-freezing temperatures. After all, it is winter!
When you drive down West Camino Encanto and notice the collection of newly planted Agave along the garden wall, give a big thanks to Jackie Jensen and her crew. She perused the garden for “orphan pups” that could be safely transplanted to the roadside and moved a couple dozen. With a little care, hopefully the area will pop with more greenery and style. Check it out.
When in the Desert Hills area, stop by and visit our serene little garden as it is in its “resting” winter mode. You will still find some colorful blossoms, though perhaps sparse which makes them less expected and therefore more valuable. Come on a Friday morning and we will be happy to take you on a private tour! (Editor's note: If you really want to learn something about arid plants, let Mary share her time with you, it is a joy!!)
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Gifted Cactus at the Arid Garden - Curtesy of Fran King |
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Desert Meadows Park ... By Chuck Parsons
In the Community Garden at the park, there has been some turnover in plot assignments. This is typical at season change (recently switched from warm to cool season crops) and when new annual fees are due in January. Eight plots were reassigned, or about 12% turnover. That has reduced our waiting list to 10.
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Speaking of cool season crops, planting this year was delayed due to unusually warm weather. However, plots are now lush with leafy produce. The volunteers had a nice harvest recently that was donated to the Sahuarita food bank.
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Nursery Expansion at the Park
A shade structure has been added to expand the area for displaying plants that are for sale at the nursery. In addition, a more dense shade cloth has been installed at the south end of the structure. We have created a work space under the dense shade cloth that can also be used for small workshops and/or demonstrations once gatherings can occur again.
Last year a large piece of granite was donated to the park by Tim and Kim Meza. Henry Garcia created another metal art piece to support the granite. This makes an excellent counter height work surface; or margarita bar if you wish. The park volunteers enlisted the help of Oasis Heating & Cooling to move the granite onto the base. The granite weighed 700 pounds which was a bit much for our aging volunteers to move without the help of Oasis’ crane.
Our new team of volunteers working in the nursery have done an excellent job of reorganizing the work space. They have also propagated many plants for future sales. Additional display tables will be added in February for even more improvements.
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Granite slab being lifted by Oasis crane. Photo credit Greg Hill |
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Work table. Designed and fabricated by Henry Garcia. Photo credit Chuck Parsons |
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We have had many donations of both plants and yard items, thanks to all who have contributed. More are needed as sales have been steady and brisk. The nursery sold over $1000 in January. This income is extremely beneficial for the club while other fundraisers have been cancelled due to the pandemic. Please help if you can.
Work along the Anza Trail
We had not installed water lines to the east side of the Anza Trail. We planted that area with native plants and used hoses to provide initial water to get them established. All was going well until this past summer. Brutal heat and no rain was too much, and we lost some of the native plants and most have suffered. Park volunteers, primarily Bill Kernan, Mike Jensen and Jim Campbell, extended our main 1-inch water line. We now have a 1-inch line that runs the entire length of the Anza Trail.
We will run dripline irrigation prior to the summer to improve the condition of existing plants. Having irrigation will also allow us to upgrade the landscaping along that area of the park. We just completed the first upgrade thanks to a generous donation of golden barrel cacti by Meg VanKirk.
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Addition of Golden Barrels along Anza Trail. A donation from Meg VanKirk. Photo credit Chuck Parsons |
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40th Anniversary Median Project ... By Phyllis Barboza,
Co-Chair Median Project
Work will be completed on the three plots in the Desert Meadows section by Thursday, January 28th, and they are awaiting planting in the spring.
The rain is giving our watering volunteers a break, which is well deserved. They are out every week watering the medians, picking up litter and when necessary removing plants that have died. If you think you have a couple of hours a week of free time and would like to volunteer to water a median, please contact me, Phyllis Barboza, at swiftdoe@comcast.net. We have three medians that will need volunteers, starting in the spring. This is a great opportunity for couples to get involved.
Things are moving slowly with the permits for the last four medians in the Fairway section. We hope to have them submitted in the next couple of weeks.
I hope to see you on the medians at one of our work parties. There is plenty of room to spread out because we do several at one time.
Stay Safe
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Membership ... Mark Thompson, GVG Member Services
January is always a busy month for membership. We had 14 new members join last month. So, please welcome them to our gardens:
Sally Hennessy
Judy Aguayo
Deborah Bosma
Nancy Gould
Sandy and John Hanover
Gary Ratts
Judy and John Prairie
Steve Scoggin
John Pilger
Alexis Carreon
Tracy Green
Karen Klein
January also begins the renewal period for your 2021 membership. If you have renewed your membership, please know that we really appreciate your continued support. With our fundraising efforts way down, your membership is critical to our continued success.
If you have not yet renewed, please take the time to do it now.
Renewal membership fees remain the same: $25 for a single membership, and $35 for a household membership.
To renew by credit card, go to our website, click on “Membership” and then click on “Credit Card Payment.” That will take you to our secure site for payment.
Alternatively, you can send a renewal check to us at:
PO Box 86, Green Valley AZ 85622-0086.
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Mailing Address:
PO Box 86,
Green Valley, AZ 85622-0086
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