Not everyone is blessed with a green thumb, but junior Elliot Loo, who has been planting for upwards of seven years with his stepmom, certainly is. 

“We live on an acre, so we built six raised garden beds,” Loo said. “We had small gardens at our old house but then [at the new one have] an acre fenced off for the garden.” 

Having a much larger space to garden provided ample opportunity to grow new plants in larger quantities, even if the first round came with beginner’s luck. 

“We really got into it the first year we started; we started with cucumbers — we had over 600,” Loo said. “Our first year was the best luck that we have had with cucumbers, but we still produce a good amount of produce every year. We do [have] a lot of tomatoes usually — we’ve had best luck with tomatoes overall.”

Like many other planters, cross pollination is something deeply important to Loo and his stepmom. 

“She’s going to plant certain places because [of] cross pollination,” Loo said. “Some plants like basil and peppers, we plant together. We [also] have our garden outside. It’s a wildflower or butterfly garden.” 

Planting things native to the region and being able to provide is something meaningful to Loo and his family. 

“It’s environmental respect — instead of having to go buy that produce, you just easily have it at home and everyone should do that because it’s not that hard,” he said. “It’s not hard to have a garden, and it reduces waste.”