Take a stroll through the garden

Summer seems to have arrived, and I think it is a good time to take you for a walk in the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden.

I know you probably think it is too hot to walk in the garden. Not to worry - I’m planning to take you on this walk for the next few weeks through a series of articles right here in the Desert Gardener column. They will give you some history and a stroll through each of the gardens within the demonstration garden.

You might want to clip and save the articles for a real walk through the garden later when it is cooler.

First, we need to go back to the beginning. Plans for this garden go back to 1993. That is when they were talking about a new building for the Yuma County University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. At that time, director Don Howell suggested that an area be set aside for a demonstration garden.

In 1996, plans were started for the new building including an area (1.7 acres) at the west end of the lot designated to be a demonstration garden. On May 6, 1998, there was a huge groundbreaking ceremony for the new building and in July, Dr. Barry Bequette started as Yuma County director.

In 1998, while the building was under construction, a meandering sidewalk was put in where the demonstration garden was to be located. Finally on June 12, 1999, the Yuma County Cooperative Extension office moved into the new building.

By 2000, Dr. Bequette had been successful in getting seed money from Yuma County, city of Yuma and the University of Arizona - there were finally funds available to begin planning the demonstration garden. The next obvious step was to organize a committee of interested citizens, and this committee was called the Cooperative Extension Garden Advisory Board.

In the spring of 2001, I was one of the 11 people signed up for the Master Gardener Class. At some point in one of the classes, it was mentioned that the empty lot to the west of the building was going to be a demonstration garden. I was fascinated to learn this garden was in the planning stages and the plants were going to be labeled. Dr. Bequette invited me to attend the advisory board meeting and from then on I was "bitten by the bug."

The leaders for various gardens were already established: Shirley Waldrip, Xeriscape; Donna Johnson, tropical plants; Mary Lou Milstead, sensory and healing; Elizabeth Moody, native plants; Marlena Parrot, children’s garden; and Pam Honaker, cultivated plants. Each garden leader then put together their own committee, and they were in the process of selecting plants and deciding on their placement.

At the Extension Garden advisory board meeting on Oct. 24, 2001, Dr. Bequette announced that the official name for the garden had been decided. It would be known as the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden.

Bob Moody (Nov. 28, 1914 - Dec. 27, 1999) was a former extension agent and a longtime resident of Yuma County who was very active in civic affairs. Bob Moody devoted his life to serving the youth, the community and the agriculture of Yuma County.

At the time of the announcement, there wasn’t much going on in the area. The Catholic high school came in on 28th Street east of the County Health Services. Next came the Gary Knox School across from the high school. Now there is a lot of building going on directly south of the garden, and soon the new Yuma Library will be south of the high school. The Yuma area is certainly growing and I think Bob Moody would be very pleased.

Thanks to Don Howell, we now have a demonstration garden to provide local citizens, including area students and other youths, with a plant resource and educational area. It is made up of eight gardens: Emblem, cultivated, children’s, healing, xeriscape, native plants, tropical and vegetable.

It can’t get bigger but it can get better. Keep in mind this garden is here due to the generosity of this community and the work of the volunteers. We always need more of both.

Next week we will start our walk through the garden by entering the south entry gazebo, which takes us first to the Emblem Garden.

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Ellen Gardner, a Master Gardener who writes this column for the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma, can be reached at 343-4020 or at gardner3028@netzero.com.