Inside Arizona’s Mission Garden, Where Tucson Cultivates the Same Heirloom Crops Planted 4,000 Years Ago

The irrigation ditches in one Arizona garden double as a home for endangered fish. That alone would make me curious. But the crops growing beside those ditches carry a story more than 4,000 years old. Archaeologists have traced farming on this exact patch of desert ground back to around 2100 B.C. Today, volunteers still grow heirloom crops, heritage fruit trees, and native plants in plots arranged like a living timeline. I like how the whole place feels less like a museum and more like a convers