A Garden and a Legacy

Bobby’s Garden Honors Local Gardener, Teacher

By Tom Leyde

Bobby’s Garden is growing and flourishing. 

Vegetable and flower seeds were planted in March. Two boarded up bungalows, owned by the University of Arizona, have been converted into a kitchen and a classroom, and a greenhouse has been constructed. A hen house also was added to the mix.

Situated at Mansfeld Middle School, a K-8 magnet school at 1300 E. Sixth St., Bobby’s Garden honors Tucson resident Robert “Bobby” Gentry, a master gardener who died in January 2024 of pulmonary fibrosis. Gentry was a 49-year Tucson Electric Power employee. He also was an avid gardener, master chef, lover of the arts, an artist and a teacher.

Ground was broken Dec. 16 for the garden. The project is a partnership that brings together the Tucson Unified School District school and the University of Arizona’s School Garden Workshop.

The School Garden Workshop was founded in 2009 by Sallie Marston, a political geographer and social theorist and a regent’s professor emirita in the UA School of Geography, Development and Environment.

Partnering with a Project MORE class and the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, the effort has expanded into a network of 70 school gardens throughout TUSD.

Gentry’s widow, Norma Gentry, a publicist for restaurants and chefs, had been looking for a way to honor her husband’s legacy, as was her stepson, Matt Gentry. The Gentrys and a friend met with Moses Thompson, director of the School Garden Workshop.

It turned out the workshop was building the school garden at Mansfeld, and it was agreed to name it Bobby’s Garden.

Before the garden groundbreaking and dedication, fruit trees were planted along with Bobby’s ashes spread among them, Norma Gentry said.

“He would love it,” she said. “He’d be so over the moon about this. He’d be out there with the kids. It’s very inspirational. So many people have given so much money in the last two years. A lot of people at the dedication signed up to volunteer. They want to help in all these aspects: cooking and all that.”

“Bobby’s Garden is deeply personal to me because it transforms the pain of losing my dad into something alive,” Matt Gentry said. “He found so much peace in his garden. That’s where he slowed down, where he believed in growth, even when you couldn’t see it yet.

“Knowing that kids in our community will learn those same lessons in a space that carries his name reaches a place in me I can’t really explain. It’s not just soil and seeds. It’s patience. It’s hope. It’s legacy.”

Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. is the largest donor to the garden with $1 million donated to restore the bungalows, which are named the Sprouts House Culinary Bungalows. They are situated near Mountain Avenue just west of Mansfeld.

Part of the School Garden Workshop is an intern program. Thompson explained that each school involved in the gardening program gets two or three UA student interns. They work to support the gardens and do teacher development workshops.

“Every school garden figures how to get their vegetables out into the community,” Thompson said. “Some take them home or take them to farmer’s markets. And some push them into cafeterias as part of the lunch service.”

Thompson said the School Garden Workshop organizers are really excited about new developments at Mansfeld. “No. 1, we think it’s a perfect fit for Bobby Gentry. It’s a perfect legacy project.”

The Mansfeld project, he said, is important because the school is a feeder school, which welcomes students from nearby elementary schools.

“Chefs eventually want to work with them,” Thompson said. “They have their own culinary team. That will probably happen in the fall when we get some of the kinks worked out.”

Bobby’s Garden will be growing crops of chilis, tomatoes, beans and squash, Thompson said. Companion crops will include marigolds and zinnias, which are edible.

Bobby Gentry’s love for gardening was all encompassing, Norma said. Before he became ill, he was going to install a cistern in their backyard. His illness required him to be on oxygen, she said, and he always had a tube from the oxygen tank to his oxygen mask that would reach to the back porch and the garden.

Norma encourages people to donate to Bobby’s Garden to see it grow and expand. The garden, like Bobby Gentry, will continue to teach, nourish and inspire.

Pictured above – Robert “Bobby” Gentry. Phot courtesy Norma Gentry