Forty years ago, from the outset, the Green Valley Gardeners’ chose not to be a “tea and cookies, let’s talk about it, garden club.” The key word for the founders was “projects,” and projects meant “work” and work meant “volunteers.” That characterization still applies today. Like so many services and programs the residents of Green Valley enjoy, the garden club is dependent upon wonderful, dedicated volunteers to achieve its mission and objectives which are aimed at community service.
The club was officially founded as the Men’s Garden Club of Green Valley in 1980. The name changed to Green Valley Gardeners in 2002. In the first year, with 42 members, the first edition of the newsletter “Sand’n’Seeds” was published; it continues as an electronic, monthly publication for over 500 club members.
In that first year, 1980, an outdoor seminar program was offered. It was held in collaboration with the UofA Cooperative Extension at the Continental Shopping Plaza. Seminars are now held at the GVR Desert Hills Social Center.
In 1981 the club’s activities expanded. A Garden and Patio Tour was offered to the public. Today it continues as the popular Spring Garden Tour. In 1981 the founding members also launched a La Cañada beautification project (at the time La Cañada was a graded, not a paved road), a Youth Gardening program at Continental School, and a plant sale. These founders displayed a passion for community service that exists and continues today ~ 40 years later.
Green Valley Gardeners educate, demonstrate and practice good land stewardship for gardening in the Sonoran Desert. That means members promote the use of native plant species to preserve the flora/fauna of the desert and reduce the dependence on potable water for landscape maintenance. The community garden plot holders explore vegetable varieties that thrive in the Sonoran environment for home gardener food production.
Today we publish the Green Valley Gardeners Newsletter that is distrubted to all Green Valley Gardener members and subsequently available on the this website. We have special projects that include specific gardens: Arid Garden, Desert Meadows Park, Historic Canoa Ranch and Ogden Garden, but we do much more. We host a yearly Garden Tour, Youth Gardening and ongoing Plant Sales at Desert Meadows Park. There is more; our Median Project is in the the constant process of enhancing medians throughout Green Valley, and we contribute in a signifcant way to the Sahuarita Community Food Bank as well as providing educational outreach at our gardens and local schools and community events.