Garden Club (from left): Anna George, Kaley Peek, Andrew Strickland, Myra Shanks, Paige Anderson, Sarah Bellacicco, Jennifer Rembert, Shannon Cherry. Click on picture for larger image.

PC senior Kaley Peek loves to garden, and she wants to share her passion with the campus. Last year, Peek says, two other students started a garden, and she was very inspired by their efforts. She decided to keep the hobby going and to try to get other students involved.

Even though Peek is a music major, she loves nature, which might explain her double minor in biology and chemistry. She has always enjoyed gardening; as a child, she helped to tend her family’s garden. This year, she began an organization at PC called “The Blue Thumb Garden Club” to help others to enjoy what she loves so much.

Peek wanted to get others excited about the club, so she began to think of ways to do just that. She wrote a letter to Martha Stewart over the Christmas break through Stewart’s TV show’s website. Peek returned to campus in January and received a call from the studio, telling her that they wanted to do a phone interview with her on the show. Peek claims that it was “surreal” talking to Martha Stewart, but that she got a lot of interesting and helpful information from the homemaking guru.

Peek asked Stewart about heirloom plants, a subject Peek was interested in after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Heirloom vegetables essentially are grown with seeds that have been passed down from gardener to gardener. They produce truly organic vegetables as they have never been genetically modified for mass production. On the show, Stewart showed Peek photos of her own heirloom vegetables, and she sent Peek several packets of seeds for her to use in the organic garden she has started here at PC.

Currently, the Blue Thumb’s garden is behind Townhouses B and C, but the club is planning to start another one below the football practice fields, “the Pondo.” Peek is optimistic about the club’s future, and she has some excellent ideas for upcoming projects. She said she really wants to try to start a Farmer’s Market here in Clinton. If this idea is not feasible, then she wants to at least start one on a smaller scale at PC. She also wants to begin a program of garden therapy for Thornwell children. Peek truly believes in the relaxation power of gardening.

“The most rewarding thing about gardening,” Peek said, “is being able to see the fruits of your labor, so to speak, and to plant a tiny seed and watch it grow into a beautiful, flowering plant.”

Presently, there are about twenty-six students on the garden club’s roster, with about ten or fifteen students participating in each event. Peek encourages everyone to join the club, even if it is only possible to attend a few events, as she believes that gardening is truly therapeutic.

Posted by Stacy Dyer '96

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