A new healing garden will be added to Spaces of Opportunity, the 19-acre farm in south Phoenix.
Spaces of Opportunity — a partnership between Desert Botanical Garden, Tiger Mountain Foundation, Unlimited Potential, Orchard Community Learning Center and Roosevelt Elementary School District — consists of a thriving community green space, small family gardens and a 10-acre incubator farm, as well as a farmers market. Its mission is to increase access to healthy and affordable food to Valley residents who live in a food desert.
In 2018, the Garden received funding from the Gila River Indian Community and U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) to build a Healing Garden at Spaces of Opportunity. The purpose of the area is to provide educational opportunities about plants and pollinators, while creating an inviting and healing space.
The Garden’s Great Milkweed Grow Out (GMGO) monarch and pollinator initiative worked with Unlimited Potential, a nonprofit organization that provides educational and other services in south Phoenix. The two organizations planned the Healing Garden to provide more information to guests there about plants with cultural and medicinal significance alongside plants that provide food for pollinators in decline.
The community has really come together to build the space. Working with Gila River Indian Community has been a highlight. Unlimited Potential filled every work day with community members to build, plant and maintain the garden. The nonprofit also provided workshops in the space throughout the grant period. A representative for the USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife came out to help the Garden plant the new pollinator habitat. Volunteers at the Garden helped propagate plants that would eventually go into the space. The Garden is thankful to have these partners.
The finishing touches are being placed into the new year. There will be educational signs and signs to highlight the plants. There will be seating areas for visitors to relax and recharge in the shade of one of the donated trees. Come visit to be a part of this community and enjoy the space. For more information, visit spacesofopportunity.org.
