Neighbors

Shonnie Brown
Spring is here… or it just was… and will return, hopefully. And
many of us are finally out there putting our hands into the soil.
But Dawna works in the garden year round. She has a degree in
horticulture and owns a local nursery and landscaping business.
Dawna is also a sixth generation Healdsburger with a strong family
background in farming.
Dawna’s great-grandfather, Albert Esiah, was a local
landowner/farmer in the 1920s and 1930s. The family grew prunes,
apples and then grapes as the farming tradition was passed down
from Esiah to Dawna’s grandparents, her father and then to her. Her
grandmother, Lucille Hoskins, was a well known horticulturist who
owned Hoskins Nursery and Iris Gardens in the 1940s and 50s.
“I inherited the horticulture gene from my grandmother who
taught me everything,” Dawna tells me. “I just grew up learning to
identify wild and domestic flowers and wild birds. It’s in my blood
and I enjoy it tremendously.”
Her early training prepared her well for her success in the past
15 years as a professional landscaper and gardener. She works out
of Healdsburg, consulting and designing landscapes. She also
maintains a seasonal nursery over at her grandmother’s old house,
on West North Street, off Kinley Drive. And if all that and being a
single mom to three children, ages 5, 10 and 15, isn’t enough,
Dawna has taken on another interesting job.
“My mother, Diane Hoskins, and Lea Black at the Senior Center go
way back. Mom learned through Lea that Sonja Drown (Healdsburg
Community Center) was looking for a gardening coordinator for the
City. So, besides teaching a range of gardening classes to kids and
adults, I am now in charge of the City’s all-volunteer,
community-based gardening project. All the plants that we grow in
the Community Center garden are donated by local businesses,
planted and grown by volunteers, and then 90 percent of the harvest
is donated to the Healdsburg Food Pantry.
“In our first year we delivered 700 pounds of fresh organic
fruits and vegetables to the Food Pantry. This year we have a goal
of 1200 pounds! We also grow pumpkins and gourds in our pumpkin
patch, and last year I was able to personally deliver 70 pounds of
them to a battered women and children’s center.”
The volunteer gardening project developed after Jay Tripathi, a
Parks & Recreation Commissioner, and his company, Gardenworks,
donated their time to build and install several large garden boxes
out of reclaimed redwood from the Villa arbor which was replaced in
2008. Dawna’s idea was to get volunteers involved.
“I’ll just work until they come,” she thought. So she got to
work planting a winter garden of cauliflower, cabbages, garlic,
snow peas, chards, artichokes, beets, spinach, lettuces and so much
more. She then harvested a summer garden of tomatoes, peppers,
cucumbers, squashes, lettuces, pumpkins and gourds, apple and peach
trees and 40 different types of tomatoes. Her own kids have
volunteered and the children in the City’s Before and After School
Program get involved by doing some planting and enjoying the fresh
food for their snacks. Dawna sees it as an amazing place to learn
and to take home good organic food for free.
“We’re trying to get more volunteers involved,” Dawna tells me.
“Last year we had 20 people — many from a church group — and we are
passionate about involving kids. They love to check out all the
cool bugs and learn what flowers attract beneficial insects. I
really want to attract honey bees by providing the flowers that
they like. And we have edible flowers. They bring the good guys in,
which I need to take out the bad guys (aphids).”
Dawna’s philosophy is quite simple: “I work hard for people who
can afford to create beautiful gardens, but there are also those
who can’t afford the space or the money — so I’m providing the
space for you to come grow your garden with me. I am blessed in
that I can provide that, but this is what keeps me going. I need
the sense of well being that I get by giving. Last summer I had
zucchini coming out of my ears… So I was happy to hand out bags of
them over the fence to people walking down Healdsburg Avenue.”
Dawna is also trying to pass on the values of hard work, giving
and generosity, as well as the love of the natural world to her
children and any children she works with. She views her work as
one-on-one instruction in gardening. She provides the space, the
tools, plants and fertilizer.
“I enjoy teamwork between diverse ages. I’ve had kids and
seniors working together and men showing young children how to work
the soil. Last year my (then) four year-old planted the pumpkin
patch with an older woman. And I encourage everyone who volunteers
to take home whatever they want in fruits and vegetables.”
Currently Dawna offers children and adults classes on a range of
gardening subjects through the Community Center. She is teaching
adults to do for themselves the very same things that they hire her
to do. Her goal is to build the volunteer program so that there’s
something happening every Saturday. She wants to maximize the
garden space to increase food donations. Her vision is to create
enthusiasm for self-sustainability, to give to those in need and
help others in feeling that special reward that comes from giving.
She also wants to branch out with the donations—perhaps to the
Shared Ministries or the Senior Center—and find an additional
children’s shelter for her pumpkins and gourds.
Dawna is actively seeking community volunteers. Scheduled dates
for community workdays are Saturday, April 23, May 7 and 21, June 4
and 18, July 9 and 23, August 6 and 20 from 9-11 am. Children are
welcome and encouraged to volunteer with accompanying
parent/guardian. Please call 431-3301 to register.
Shonnie Brown is a local author and memoirist who is interested
in fostering connections between people and their community.
Shonnie writes personal and family histories through her business,
Sonoma LifeStories, and is also a licensed Marriage and Family
Therapist. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or on the web at
www.sonomalifestories.com.