By Laura Bilson
For HDMedia
Wearing daisy-rimmed sunglasses and with her salt-and-pepper hair in an updo, the East End Resource Center’s Gardening Program Manager Carolyn Sue Young hacked at a root with a shovel in a square hole, three feet wide and two feet deep.
She and several volunteers planted the first fruit tree, a semi-dwarf nectarine sapling, in the East End Community Garden in Charleston on Thursday.
Young, 52, and the four volunteers fertilized and watered the garden while they chatted and occasionally stopped to munch on the yellow-flowered tops of the collard plants.
As they worked, Young shared her knowledge, giving gardening tips and explaining medicinal properties of the plants they worked with, including the native plants growing in the lawn
Young manages both the East End Community Garden and the Garden Club for seniors at the East End Resource Center.
She took on the role in August after Frank Gourley retired after 10 years of managing the community garden, which grows vegetables and herbs for public use.
Every Thursday, Young starts her day at the community garden’s Volunteer Day joined by volunteers working in the 30 wooden garden beds.
Young and the volunteers plant, water and fertilize a variety of species within each bed, referred to as a polyculture. This practice helps reduce pests and also provides food to choose from. The planted crops include strawberries, kale, collards, oregano, parsley and onions, with more seeds to be planted in the coming months
After the community garden, she leads a Garden Club class for seniors at the East End Resource Center from 1-2 p.m. The 15-20 seniors repot houseplants and help manage the handful of garden beds outside the center.
Young is also a Master Gardener
In addition to her role with the East End Resource Center, Young is a certified Master Gardener through the West Virginia University Extension Master Gardener Program.
WVU Extension’s Master Gardeners must complete 40 hours of volunteer work and a test before certification. Master Gardeners contribute to horticultural projects in their communities, with an emphasis on sharing research-based gardening knowledge with others.
Young teaches free gardening classes at Miss Ruby’s Corner Market, 739 Central Ave., and volunteers at five other garden plots throughout the city of Charleston.
Although Young was certified as a Master Gardener in September 2024, she has gardened her whole life.
She recalls watching her grandparents work with vegetables and fruit trees as a child in Queen Shoals, Clay County. She was drawn to tending to native plants that she later learned had medicinal properties.
“Knowing the science behind the things that I already felt were true is very validating,” Young said.
‘Flowers make people feel good’
Young moved to Charleston in 2014, escaping a toxic marriage. She credits working with plants to her path to healing. Young said she believes gardening can be a tool not only beautify the city but also bring people together.
Partnering with the Religious Coalition for Community Renewal, Young has planted 2,000 daffodil bulbs throughout Charleston, many of which have been planted in the yards of elderly residents on the East End.
“We have a lot of seniors who need that,” she said. “Flowers make people feel good. We’re healing our land and we’re healing our people.”
Young says that nature improves people’s mental health, and this is how she chooses to give back to her community.
“We need each other more than we know,” she said.
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