“For most people, Desert Meadows Park is an organic discovery,” says Chuck Parsons, president of the Green Valley Gardeners club. And that’s an appropriate way to stumble upon this 4.2-acre garden — a bohemian oasis of Sonoran Desert cactuses, shrubs, succulents and trees tucked into a modest midcentury neighborhood right off Interstate 19 at Continental Road.
Established in 2014 and supported entirely by community donations, fundraisers and grants, the park is lovingly maintained by the club’s members, all volunteers. It’s an enchanting outdoor space with an inviting mix of mismatched tables, chairs, couches, pillows and swings throughout the grounds. Dog and family friendly, it features several habitats and is certified as an arboretum and a monarch butterfly way station.
There’s something to delight the senses everywhere you look. And the park’s offerings are diverse: a Little Free Library, poetry stations (with verses that change monthly), a labyrinth, colorful ceramic and metal sculptures, and ramadas that can be reserved for small gatherings. Plant signs with QR codes allow easy flora identification. Birders are lured by, at last count, 267 species, including numerous hummingbirds sipping from 35 feeders that are tended daily. The self-serve, honor-system nursery, where members propagate and sell potted succulents,
is a standout feature: Last year, it netted $45,000 — more than covering operating expenses, including water, and making the park self-sustaining.
Another feature is a fence festooned with plaques that memorialize people and pets. “It came about because we had run out of room to plant a tree or place a bench for two- or four-legged loved ones,” Parsons says, adding that the plaques are one of “many little opportunities to touch different parts of the community.”
And members of the community have touched the park, too. One of them is Charlene Westgate, a member of the Green Valley Gardeners and owner of Westgate Garden Design, an ecological landscape design firm that promotes residential water harvesting and the use of native plants. Parsons tapped her five years ago with a challenge to keep the narrow strip where the park’s Rainwater Garden abuts the Anza Trail, along the Santa Cruz River basin, from flooding during monsoon rains. Westgate says a long swale along the fence, along with a series of staggered basins, provided an immediate solution.
“Because the path into the Rainwater Garden begins from the Anza Trail and then loops back to it, I added large shrubs between the garden and trail to create a ‘secret garden’ where a visitor can take a brief detour and sit a spell,” she says. “Adding a meandering path and accents that draw the eye from one side to the other gives the illusion of a wider space.” Today, Westgate adds, the plants in the Rainwater Garden thrive with minimal irrigation and host numerous birds, butterflies and lizards.
The park doesn’t just look good; it does good, too. Green Valley Gardeners, which now has more than 600 members, has 65 raised plots on-site, cultivated year-round, and contributes 3,800 pounds of fresh produce — including chile peppers, cucumbers, melons, squash and tomatoes — to the Sahuarita Food Bank annually. The park also hosts free public events; the biggest, the annual Art-in-the-Park in October, draws more than 80 artists, a half-dozen food trucks, musicians and nearly 2,000 visitors.
The combination of serving community needs and using native plants to attract wildlife has made Desert Meadows Park a popular attraction, Parsons says. And while many of Green Valley’s residents are retirees and winter visitors, the park’s proximity to 15 housing developments and the Anza Trail has attracted younger folks. “The demographic has changed as the park has developed,” Parsons says. “We have cyclists and joggers, the after-church crowd and lots of socializing among dog walkers. Residents show their grandkids how bees build nests. We had no concept years ago that we’d be considered the community’s ‘living room.’ ”
Interest in the park continues to grow, even as stereotypes about the community endure. “When a new park volunteer heard that a young waiter at a local restaurant referred to Green Valley as ‘heaven’s waiting room,’ ” Parsons says, “our volunteer said, ‘Well, Desert Meadows Park is the preview to heaven, then.’ ”