Ask CI Debra Stuart what one of her earliest memories of gardening is, and she’ll tell you the story of when she was a little girl wearing a beautifully smocked dress with pristine white socks. She went out to the garden and, when she returned later on in a less-than clean outfit, her mother fussed at her. “I’m not dirty, Mommy,” she responded. “It’s the earth!”
While her parents were not avid gardeners, her grandmother and aunts were. They lived fairly close to their New Jersey town, and Deb spent many weekends getting “not dirty” with her extended family—and her love of gardening has only grown from there.
Deb has lived in her Rahway, NJ, community her entire life, and while she would love to have a larger property for gardening, she’s found ways around that limitation. “My own property is just 50 x 100 feet,” she explains, “but I’m involved in several community gardens that allow me to grow almost whatever I want.”
One of those is the JFK Community Garden, which she also manages. This garden has been an interesting experience for Deb—it’s a large garden with 40 raised beds, 6 of which are reserved for the Helping Hands Learning Academy for children’s gardening. While Deb’s raised beds in this garden use the Square Foot Gardening Method, most community members’ beds are traditional row gardening.
Raised beds to teach the children of the Helping Hands Learning Academy how to SFG.
“I try to lead by example,” she says. “When they see my beds doing really well with lots [to] harvest, many times they’ll come and ask me about it, so it’s an opportunity to teach them. For those who are committed to traditional row gardening, I just let the results speak for themselves!”
And those six children’s beds? Those are SFG beds as well! “It’s just another opportunity to not only teach those children about SFG,” Deb says, “but [it’s] a great way for the parents to see the growing method themselves!”
The other community garden that Deb helps facilitate is the Rahway YMCA garden—which is a good deal smaller than the JFK garden with just eight 3×3 beds, but it’s strictly an SFG bed-grid Mel’s Mix™ system (no row gardening allowed!). CI Bob Markey oversees this garden, and that’s how Deb became a CI herself in 2018. “I needed to become certified to work with this garden,” she explains, “and guess what’s happened now? I’m now a mentor for someone else going through the SFG Certified Instructor program!”
Deb talks about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the YMCA garden but remains hopeful and energetic about the program. While the curriculum was changed to accommodate social distancing during the summer programming, Deb—as well as the camp directors and counselors—feels grateful to be a part of a program that not only decreases stress but also supports the health and wellness of children and adults alike.
It’s easy to see how Deb’s enthusiasm for gardening in general and SFG in particular spills out to those around her. She’s an avid seedsower, loves to experiment, and tries to grow something different each year. That being said she’s definitely got her favorites and go-tos: “I grow lots of onions, garlic, and peppers,” she says, “with heirloom tomatoes being my #1 favorite veggie.”