1st Edition Bookstore starts garden club

By PAMELA GRANT

Cove Leader-Press

“When I created this bookstore, the vision was to unite the community,” said Mario Vasquez, co-owner of 1st Edition Book Store in Copperas Cove along with his wife, Wannapa Vasquez.

Vasquez said that they plan to host a variety of groups to support community involvement within their bookstore. To that end, they hosted a gardening group Saturday morning starting at 10 a.m. Vasquez gathered books on gardening, house plants, and agriculture that participants could purchase if they wanted.

“The economy is really bad. People are suffering because of the high prices. It’s time to start growing our own food, our own vegetables,” said Mario Vasquez. He said that his wife is a master gardener and was even selected by her government to represent her village in learning new, modern styles of gardening to help her village, so she has knowledge of traditional growing methods as well as modern methods.

Wannapa Vasquez grew up farming in Sisaket, Thailand. She wanted to share some of the methods that she used in her home country and continues to use to this day. She said that she mostly grew plants from seeds. One thing she encouraged was using rainwater and water from a local pond to water plants rather than water from the tap.

“Rainwater is very good for them,” said Vasquez. “In my country we use water from underground. We had a big pond…I think that’s good for plants…The water from the city has many chemicals.”

She said that when she moved to the city and used tap water to care for her plants, they grew slower and not as big, but when she started growing plants using rainwater, they grew much better.

Mario Vasquez says that he really hopes the garden club will be a success.

Amber Stevens led Saturday’s garden club meeting. Stevens said that she approached Vasquez about the idea after seeing the beautiful plants set up all around the store.

“He has a huge vision for [the store], and I love it,” said Stevens. “This is not mine. This is not his. This is ours.”

Stevens said that she loves getting to talk with like-minded individuals and wanted to allow the group’s goals to grow organically based on what the members are looking for in a gardening group.

Stevens said that she’s gardened “all over the world” in many different countries including Egypt and Germany. She said that, after the government shutdown for Covid, she had to learn how to garden to feed her family. She said that, as a first-time gardener, she planted every seed in her squash and zucchini packets and was overrun with the vegetables. This helped give her the idea of starting a seed library for those who might not use a full packet of seeds but don’t want to just throw them away.

To this end, Stevens started a seed library at 1st Edition Book Store Saturday and hopes to see it flourish. She encouraged people to bring any seeds they might like to donate, even if it is a partial bag of seeds or labeled seeds stored within a Ziplock bag.

Stevens invited each of the members to share their personal knowledge of gardening and any tips or tricks they might know. 

“There’s no right or wrong way to garden…What works for me may not work for you,” said Stevens.

Monique Armas attended the garden club’s first meeting. Armas has experience with growing tropical plants indoors. She said that she looked forward to being part of the community. She shared many of her own tips with attendees.

Discussed at Saturday’s meeting were topics like which types of manure are best for different plants, how to help your tomato plants to grow as big as possible, what variety of plants each member is currently growing and how to make those plants grow successfully, and more.

“I think it’s interesting,” said Sharyn Anderson-Campbell about the garden club. Anderson-Campbell attended Saturday’s event as a guest author advertising some of her faith-based books including “The Cry No One Heard” and “Back to School with Jesus”. She said that she really enjoys spending time at 1st Edition Book Store. 

“This is just a stepping stone for greater things,” said Anderson-Campbell about Vasquez’s bookstore hosting various clubs. She said that she loves seeing how willing he is to use his facility to foster community involvement.

As 1st Edition Book Store continues to grow and build a name for itself within the community, Vasquez said that he hopes to add even more groups for the community in addition to the gardening group. 

One of the next groups he’s hoping to see get started within the store is a homeschool group. 

He’s also looking into starting a crafting group if there is enough interest.