Saw a community garden in Tucson that banned all cacti, is that even possible?

I was visiting my cousin last month in Tucson and she took me to this community garden near the university. Beautiful spot, raised beds, drip lines everywhere, people growing tomatoes and peppers. But I noticed zero cacti. Zero. Not even a little prickly pear in a corner pot. I asked the garden manager about it and she said they have a rule against any cactus species because "they take up space without feeding anyone." I get that argument, saguaro and agave eat nothing and give little, but we're in the Sonoran Desert. Native plants, zero water needed, and they're banned while people are running drip lines for kale in 105 degree heat. Some members are all for it because they want food crops only, but it feels like we're fighting the whole point of growing in the desert. Is a garden still a garden if it ignores what grows naturally around it? Anyone else run into a garden that bans native species for practical reasons?

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harper_wright22d ago

Wait, isn't the whole point of a desert garden to work with what's already there? I grew up around prickly pear and even the scraggliest one gives you fruit and pads if you know what you're doing, plus it's basically free groceries that laugh at the heat. Banning them because they don't feed anyone feels short sighted when tons of native stuff like mesquite beans and even some cactus fruits are straight up edible. And honestly, a few cactus in the corners would shade the soil and give the birds somewhere to perch, which helps the kale anyway. Sounds like the manager has a narrow idea of what a garden should be, and that's a shame when you're literally standing in the middle of one of the most productive desert ecosystems on earth.