As a small child Justin followed his mother around their giant vegetable gardens in Ohio and rural New York, eating away at raw corn and tomatoes.  He worked for many years on the staff of a large estate in the Boston area tending extensive gardens, including a large organic vegetable garden.  Focusing on growing food that is both interesting and healthful, Justin designed for 2009 both an edible flower garden and an heirloom kitchen garden for Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens that drew heavily on seeds saved by the Medomak Valley High School students and Seed Saver’s Exchange. The gardens include plants handed-down by generations of Maine families, preserved by Native American tribes, and salvaged from shipwrecks. Uncommon plants in the garden include wonderberry, honeyberry, oca, orach, and asparagus pea. 

 

This year, as part of The Gardens’ Growing Greens program, Justin worked with local youth gardeners growing and harvesting an organic vegetable and flower garden. With the invaluable help of Chef and Kitchen Garden Café manager Barbara Cary, the youth gardeners created and sold both a blueberry bar and a seasoning mix.   Justin lives north of Portland with his wife, Becca, and their two young children, whom he is pleased to watch tromp and munch through the gardens.