Marysville depot residents grow their future

Among the many coping tools Gordon Mashek, 31, has used to help him during five months of drug addiction recovery at the Depot Family Crisis Center are a shovel and a trowel.

Mashek is among the most active participants in the Salvation Army program's new gardening project at the Marysville Community Garden.

"Everybody out here is awesome to be around," he said of those who rent neighboring plots at Second and C streets.

The more experienced gardeners offer him tips about preparing the soil and planting, he said. They also have offered gifts of produce from their own garden plots.

On Thursday, while Mashek watered newly sprouted lettuce, radishes and carrots, his daughter, Maddison Mashek, not quite 9 months old, played nearby with depot staff.

"This is the first place her feet ever touched dirt," he said. "She comes out here quite a bit with me."

The presence of Mashek and his daughter is what Kathy Sedler, one of the garden's founders, says she had in mind when the community garden was first proposed seven months ago.

"We're trying to help families become more self-sufficient," she said. "It's a wonderful way for (the depot) to bring their clients in to get their feet wet and socialize with other members of the community in a safe environment."

The Depot is the only state-certified drug rehabilitation program in the region that allows families to live together during recovery.

Maddison lives at the facility with her dad. Two older brothers come for weekend visits.

After a probationary period at the depot, when clients are restricted from leaving the premises, Mashek began riding his bike home to Yuba City early each morning to accompany his school-aged sons to school. It's a healthy habit he continues. Learning to garden, he said, fit in with his love of outdoor activity.

"He loves to work hard," said Suzanne England, who runs the depot's rigidly structured program of classwork, Bible study and resident team building.

Mashek, she said, pitched in to help build the irrigation systems when Sedler and other gardener volunteers first began setting things up in early summer.

He was a recent arrival at the depot then.

Mashek had been looking at a long stint in prison for drug-related crimes when he landed a spot in the train-station-turned rehab-shelter in June.

Gardening proved to be a healthy outlet to accompany his work there.

"And he took on a real leadership role out here," England said.

Little Maddison's grandmother, Julie Williams, 53, is among several other garden regulars.

Williams, Mashek's mother-in-law, graduated from the depot program five years ago and now works as the shelter's kitchen manager.

She takes an active interest in the rows of potential food that Mashek helps tend.

"We were late getting them in," she said of recently planted seeds. "As long as it doesn't freeze, though, I think we'll get lettuce and carrots."

Next year, produce from the garden will surely be part of meal plans.

Mashek is set to graduate from the depot program Dec. 7, but he will take his new love for gardening with him.

"It's a really big community thing," he said, "and it's been a great experience."