The Latest Dirt - September 2024

A Garden’s Bright Future

Article and Photos By Liz Rottger

Along with nurturing my soul, gardening always helps me straighten out my thoughts. Weeding a particularly bad patch in the garden makes me feel I can restore order in the world. Caring for a small plant struggling to establish itself in a sometimes-harsh environment strengthens my resolve. Summer pruning the water sprouts on my Flavor Queen Pluot, whose phenomenal growth amazes me, not only wears me out but also makes me believe that I still might be in charge of something!

But for the past month, I’ve been involved with something that gives me hope for our future. We are so often siloed by age that assisting a remarkable young man on his journey to becoming an Eagle Scout has given me great joy. Last year, Matthew Dwinell offered to build a garden shed at the Water Conservation Garden in El Cerrito as his Eagle Scout Project. I think we all know that these are very demanding projects that Scouts take on to become Eagle Scouts.

At the time, Matthew was 15 and a sophomore at De La Salle High School. He worked diligently under Liv Imset’s guidance to develop the garden shed’s architectural plans. Then, working this time with Dawn Kooyumjian, Coordinator -UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County, he ordered all the materials for the project, and, finally, this past August, he started on its construction. Matt has been working long hours at the Water Conservation Garden to build the shed with the help of the other members and some of their dads (power tools!) from his Scout patrol in San Ramon.

It’s now about 70% finished, and it will be beautiful! It has taken Matt’s incredible effort, leadership, and hard work to make this project a reality. When he’s finished, we will have a tremendous asset in the garden—a safe place to store all our tools and garden paraphernalia. We are also adding a Blue Barrel rainwater catchment system so we can demonstrate how easy it is for homeowners to capture rainwater for the garden from a home roof. We know that this garden shed will spark many other such projects in the garden in the near future as we endeavor to make this barren hillside vacant lot into a flourishing habitat and vegetable garden that uses alternative energy sources and water-conserving techniques.

But for me, an old lady now, watching Matthew and his fellow Scouts work so hard to build this shed for us has filled me with renewed hope and the firm belief that the garden’s future will be good. Matthew will be a worthy Eagle Scout.