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Photograph by Chad Pilster
Flower Power: Sharon McCray volunteers about 1,000 hours each year, teaching gardening to kids and adults.
Public Citizen
Stop and Smell the Roses
Master gardener Sharon McCray looks forward to getting her hands dirty
By Sarah Gaffney
Master gardener Sharon McCray has always had a thing for dirt.
"I've always had a passion for dirt diversions ... that's where I go to get my serenity and my peace," says the Campbell resident, who teaches the basics of home gardening at the Campbell Community Center. "I raised three children. I could always tell that the better my garden looked, the more my life was screwed up. Things are great right now but my garden is a disaster."
McCray, a true California native, began her beloved hobby in 1959, when her family moved from Oakland to the South Bay. Their property was bordered by an orchard that was part of an original Spanish land-grant. The orchard owner "adopted" the 11-year-old McCray, teaching her the basics of gardening and helping her plant her first garden of sunflowers, corn and tomatoes. In 1991, she was named a master gardener by the UC Cooperative Extension program.
What did she have to do to earn that honor?
In lieu of a raise at the bookkeeping job she's held for the past 20 years, McCray took time off work to complete four hours of training a week for 15 weeks. She took a "killer" exam at the end of her training. And, before being certified, she had to work the South Bay's gardening hotline one day a week for three months.
Just what kind of calls do you get on a gardening hotline that answers thousands of questions each year from perplexed green thumbs?
"People call and say 'when should I prune my peach tree?' and we have to research that if we don't know it. So, it increases our knowledge a great deal," replies McCray. "But some people call with questions like 'if you cut a worm in half are you going to get two worms?' Or, 'my plant's dying and it says here to put so much fertilizer on it, if I double it will it get better twice as fast?' There have been some real doozies."
Although only 100 hours of volunteer time is required each year to maintain the master gardener title, McCray happily admits to volunteering about 1,000 hours.
"I really love it," she says.
Next spring McCray will teach "Spring Planting for Your Summer Garden" at the Community Center, a class which will focus on the basics of turf, fruit tree picking, summer vegetables and flower gardens.
Although she's an avid proponent of restoring native habitats, the flower-loving McCray has a special garden of roses in her backyard, which has been declared a national wildlife backyard habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.
"When we first moved here we were, of course, on a budget," recalls McCray. "So, I started what I call my "friendship garden" and I would take cuttings from roses of people I knew. I had roses from my mother's house, and from my best friend's mother's house, and from an uncle's house. They were all roses propagated from other people's gardens ... they gave me pleasure for 20 years."
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Campbell, California
