Lawrence residents Jessi Howell, front, and Kelley Rushing take great pride in their backyard garden. The roommates sought the help of SLUG — Support for Local Urban Gardeners — in preparing their garden.

Roommates Kelly Rushing and Jessi Howell are the proud parents of a cute, little vegetable garden.

The Lawrence residents are constantly showing off the pretty plot of land at their home, south of the Kansas University campus.

“Everyone who comes over, we’re like, ‘Hey, you want to see our garden? Come check it out,'” Rushing said.

Added Howell: “Look at our beans!”

Taking in the straight rows of beans, salad mix and tomatoes, you get the feeling they might start compiling a brag book as it grows. As they should. Neither one had ever attempted to grow their own food before, but now they figure that later this summer they’ll be shopping only their garden for produce.

“I’ve never owned more than a house plant, but I’ve always wanted to start gardening,” Rushing said.

Reaching out

Their transition from would-be gardeners to bona fide green thumbs was made possible by SLUG — Support for Local Urban Gardeners. The all-volunteer group began in the fall as an offshoot of the Lawrence Sustainability Network, said co-coordinator Jessi Asmussen. She said that Lawrence residents looking for gardening help began reaching out to the network, making the need for help clear.

“We saw a need for a group to form to start helping,” Asmussen said. “Mostly we were thinking we would do some advising on site selection, plants, other resources that they could access that would help them in planting their garden. And then it evolved into also being able to supply limited labor.”

The group currently assists 16 gardeners. Many are renters — like Rushing and Howell — who have received permission to plant in their yards. Others are home owners looking to add a permanent garden. SLUG also has helped community gardens and organizations.

With the group’s help, Dana Hangauer has the garden of her dreams sprouting up outside her East Lawrence home.

“The SLUG group has helped me to look at gardening as a process, with fundamental steps and predictable outcomes, similar to cooking. For a novice cook or gardener, it’s hard just knowing where to start. The more questions you ask, the more you learn, and can tweak the process to get the desired results,” Hangauer said. “I’m hoping to gain enough knowledge through my experience with SLUG to also be able to help someone else with their gardening needs.”

And that’s exactly what the group of 10 to 12 active SLUG volunteers is hoping to get in exchange for the help: One more person to teach a novice gardener about sustainable methods.

“Our goal is that the new gardeners that we help will pay it forward,” Asmussen said. “And that’s kind of our model that we were setting out there — that we’ll help if you promise to pay it forward and that way we can reach more gardeners than the 12 of us alone will be able to.”

Because of the size of the current pool of volunteers, the group has reached the maximum number of new gardeners that it can handle for this season, Asmussen said. However, SLUG has hopes to expand and help as many as possible as the interest in gardening grows. And all indications are that the practice is growing like a weed, said SLUG volunteer Kevin Prather.

“Without question, gardening is definitely becoming more popular,” Prather said. “The quality and safety of the food available in stores has been called into question and not everyone can afford to switch over to eating only organic food or shopping at the Farmers Market. People are also worried about their health. Gardening provides exercise and healthy food. That’s two for one, that’s a good deal.

“And maybe most importantly, people are worried about the economy. With all the ‘doom and gloom’ talk, people are looking for ways to feel safer in their lives. Growing your own food is a concrete way to provide for your family, whatever may come.”