Healing garden is where plants stimulate the senses

Glad to see you this morning for the fifth in the series of our garden walk. Let’s get started. We are doing the Healing Garden today. "Plants that stimulate the senses and have medicinal properties."

Did you bring your map? This garden is located at the south end of the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden. We’ll leave the large gazebo and turn right, down the sidewalk and past Elizabeth Lizard and the fruit trees. This on the left is where the Healing Garden begins. My, how the trees and plants in this area have grown. Oh, I see some have actually enveloped their signs! We must get those moved out where they can be seen again.

Mary Lou Milstead led the committee that originally planned the Healing Garden. It was planted on March 1, 2003, during a public planting. Judy Miller and Mary Lou Milstead are the current leaders for the area.

As we start around the curve of the sidewalk, on the left is the Adaptive Gardener Ramada. The raised circular planter was created to allow a person standing or one in a wheelchair the ability to plant with ease. The herbs are now also labeled in Braille. Visitors are encouraged to touch the herbs and even break off a sprig to release the scent and have a taste.

Geoff Cole, a visitor from Canada, started the circular raised cement block structure during the winter of 2002 and finished it the next winter.

Next, the wooden structure above was needed. I called my friend Honey, Sweetheart, Darling. His name is Vern Baldus but when I want him to do something for me, I use the alias. It usually works! He worked with Mary Lou Milstead on the design and then Vern and Jimmy Vance put their heads together and with many more willing hands, things started happening. It was finished in the spring of 2004.

Mary Running put the beautiful tile work on top of the cement blocks in place just before the dedication on April 18, 2004.

We have a number of memorials in this garden, too. This is a good time to tell you about our donation guidelines. The MGM Garden Club appreciates donations to help maintain the entire garden. People may wish to donate to assist with a special need, for general garden maintenance or to honor a person or occasion such as a birthday, wedding or anniversary; or to honor a friend or relative or in memory of a deceased person.

Special donations are to be chosen from the "needs, wants and dreams" list, which contains approved additions for the garden. A committee of MGM Garden Club members will be available to assist with donation details. For more information, contact the MGM Garden Club at the UA Cooperative Extension Office at 726-3904.

This garden is for all citizens of Yuma and it is done with donations and volunteers. Any and all contributions to the MGM Garden Club are greatly appreciated and are used for the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden. MGM stands for Moody Garden Makers.

The first year we grew luffa in the Adaptive Gardener ramada. What fun that was - those vines just crawled all over. We thought they would never bloom, but they did late in the summer and we soon had luffa growing all over.

Now we’ll move on around the curved sidewalk and on the left, set back just a little is Charlie’s bench located in this quiet area. This bench is of a unique design - the problem with it is when it is set in place you have to dig eight holes instead of four. Can you see why?

A question just came up and I’m sorry to say there are no public rest rooms in the garden. During regular working hours Monday through Friday rest rooms are available in the Cooperative Extension/County Health Building. The closest public rest room on the weekend would be at Wal-Mart.

We are finished with our walk for today. Next week, we will tour the Xeriscape Garden and we’ll meet right here at Charlie’s Bench. It will be a short walk, so I’ll have more time for stories. See you then.

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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. For more information about the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden, visit cals.arizona.edu/yuma/horticulture/moody_garden/index.html or for information about the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma, see them at gardencentral.org/azgardenclub/westerndistrict.