Darrell was born in Berkeley, but spent his youth growing up in Martinez. In 1984 he first visited Copperopolis to help his father build a home in Poker Flats. Upon completion he went back to the Bay Area and attended college majoring in Biology with great interest in Botany. He jokingly said he learned "just enough facts to make me dangerous."
By 2006 Darrell found himself once again in Copperopolis, this time to tend to his father who had taken ill. By 2011, his father had since regained his health and retired to Texas, Darrell found himself unemployed and with a keen desire to do something with the earth. Using the knowledge he had gained in college as well as reading everything he could get his hands on about organic and small scale gardening Darrell jumped in with both feet into the Copperopolis Community Garden.
Seasonal vegetables are always the mainstay of the garden but Darrell holds back a small area of the garden for experimental vegetables, to see if they can handle our climate and soil. Some are success stories, others are discarded for new experiments. This year his wife, Carla, brought him some Kohlrabi seeds as she said the plant "looked interesting." Unfortunately Kohlrabi did not take in our soil. Not easily defeated Darrell has another plan for his next experiment... we will have to see...no hints were given.
Each year the crops become larger and larger as Darrell works with the chemistry of the soil utilizing fresh compost from the community garden compost pile filled with shredded paper, eggshells (good for our calcium poor soil) and other household compostables. He has also had to deal pests. Being as organic a garden as possible no pesticides are used, so ridding the plants of pests becomes almost a full time job in itself. "I have to kill the squash bugs one at a time...I don't get a lot of help with that job." By 2012 with his diligent squash bug killing talent and his rich composted soil the squash crop "was doubled." With almost 400 pounds of squash being donated to the local Copperopolis Food Pantry for distribution to locals in need. Currently there are 1000 onions planted for the food pantry and more items slated for planting.
Recently Copper resident Ron Pyle set up some handmade bird houses on the perimeter of the garden and soon birds were nesting in them. Darrell was thrilled to see that the birds would swoop into the garden and eat some bugs whenever they had a chance. He finally had winged allies in his fight against pests. Now he can focus his attention on rodents...such as gophers, as the gopher weed plants that are to repel them do not seem to be working.
If you see Darrell walking about the garden stop by and say hi. You will not only go home with fresh local grown produce you will go home with more knowledge of vegetables and gardening than you ever thought possible as he is a veritable walking encyclopedia of gardening. He will walk you down each aisle noting the plants, the season, the life cycle and more...if that is not enough he will have you taste almost each plant. I was full by the end of the interview. He would love to educate youth groups, or any groups wishing to know more about sustainable gardening.
It must be noted that Darrell stated more than once, "I don't want to take too much credit, there are a lot of people that help with the garden" making it successful in feeding the residents of Copperopolis healthy, pesticide free, seasonal vegetables.
This weekend, thanks to a grant from the Calaveras Community Foundation, the community garden will be growing even larger with raised beds and better irrigation being installed.
If you want to help with the Community Garden stop by and see the wish list for the garden on the shed door. And as always, being a non-profit, donations are always accepted. The Community Garden holds meetings the second Tuesday of the month at 5:30 at the Copperopolis Library.
By,
Charity Maness
