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SIERRA VISTA — While trying to get healthy after a sudden illness, Elly Stavarek and her husband, Bill, took to growing their own vegetables organically.
“I was just so sensitive to everything,” Stavarek said as she stood in her garden Sunday morning. “Just walking into the grocery store I would feel ill.
“As a result, I could see how important the food was and the quality of the food.”
About 13 years later, Stavarek and her husband are still growing their own vegetable crops, and it’s become a labor of love.
 On Sunday, Elly Stavarek, second from right, talks with visitors in her backyard garden in Sierra Vista during the third annual Summer Organic Garden Tour sponsored by Baja Arizona Sustainable Agriculture. Started 13 years ago, the Stavarek garden features raised beds, trellises, drip irrigation and mulched paths. (Vera Davis•Herald/Review) |
“I come out here in the mornings and spend an hour,” Stavarek said. “If we have to leave somewhere early in the morning and I can’t come out here, I don’t know, it kind of messes up my mojo for the day.”
“It’s relaxing,” Bill said. “Whatever I do in here is just relaxing.”
And on Sunday, the couple opened their organic garden up to anyone who wanted to see it as part of Baja Arizona Sustainable Agriculture’s Organic Garden Tour, which the couple has been participating in for about five years.
During the four-hour tour, people could freely wander through the Stavarek’s garden, admiring their white eggplant, cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers and other vegetables that were growing.
For the Stavarek’s, who spent their time talking with visitors about their personal growing techniques, it was just as beneficial an experience for them as it was for the visitors.
“It’s good sharing because we also learn from the people who are coming here,” Bill said.
Jim Woodruff’s house was the second of two organic gardens open for visitors during Sunday’s tour. His boasted two 2,500-gallon rainwater collection tanks, which he uses to water his fruit trees.
A retired fisherman, Woodruff started working on his garden three years ago, and said it’s become his new full-time job.
“It’s like heaven,” Woodruff said, as he walked past his tomatoes, eggplants and other vegetables. “I love it, I love the outdoors.
“It (gardening) keeps you young.”
Herald/Review reporter Katie Evans can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at katie.evans@svherald.com.
