Let's meet in the garden!

Welcome once again! So many of you have had perfect attendance. This is the 10th meeting and completes the series of our summer "Walk in the Garden" tour of the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden. I certainly have enjoyed being with you and taking you on this imaginary tour. I hope this fall we can meet for a real stroll through the garden.

There are many of us here who would just love to show you (and your club or group of any kind) what is happening here. Pass the word about the wonderful garden we have here.

We are planning some exciting happenings in the garden in the next few months. I’ll keep you informed in this column every Thursday.

I can’t begin to tell you of all of the people, businesses and organizations that have been involved with this garden. This is a great community. A special thanks to Mount States in Phoenix for the hundreds of dollars of plants they have donated.

Also, we have a few people who continue to do so much for this garden but we never see them here! Don Post is a winter visitor from Massachusetts so, of course, he’d rather play golf on Tuesday than come to our meetings. However, he puts in many, many hours for the garden at other times - even in the summer when he is back east. Don takes care of the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden pages on the U of A website. If you’ve not looked at it, it is wonderful! It contains information about Bob Moody, pictures of the garden in its early stages and information about the plants in the garden.

Check it out at cals.arizona.edu/yuma/ horticulture/moody_garden /index.html. The other person who does attend our business meetings on the last Tuesday morning of each month but works quietly in the background is Val Colvin, our grant writer. She has just completed applications for two grants for projects we’d like to do. Now we are waiting - we should know by the end of October. I’ll keep you posted!

Oh, my goodness! I’ve not mentioned the measurements of the garden. You might want to get your map out and look at it as we go through this. The garden is 492 feet long from north to south, 129 feet wide from east to west. The cement walk is 695 feet.

You can walk from one end of the sidewalk to the other and turn around and walk back. That is a good way to do it as it is amazing how different the view is going each way.

Some people like to walk in a circle. You can do that, too. Start at the south entry and follow the sidewalk around to the north entry and then walk in the parking lot along the curb. Watch for the cars and YCAT buses. The two entry gazebos are 150 feet apart.

Here are a couple math problems for you:

1. Jane wants to walk a mile at the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden, and she wants to walk back and forth on the sidewalk. How many round trips does she need to make?

2. Joe wants to walk one mile in the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden but he wants to walk in a circle. How many times must he go around to make one mile?

We have many projects on our needs, wishes and dreams list that we will complete as quickly as donations and volunteers can make it happen. If you’d like to receive a copy of this list, call 343-4020. If you’d like to make a donation, send it to the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden, in care of the Cooperative Extension Office, 2200 W. 28 St., Yuma, Ariz. 85364.

I guess I should end with are there any questions? If so, we are usually available on Tuesday morning here in the garden or the first Saturday of the month.

Once again, I’ll just mention that these ten articles are the beginning of an official history of the garden. If anyone has anything to add, I’d appreciate hearing from you. I’m especially interested in adding names of people and when and how they were involved with the garden.

If you would like to read or re-read the series of ten Garden Walk articles, this address will provide you with the links. gardencentral.org/azgardenclub/mgmspecial project.

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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.