Client Spotlight: Sherri Campbell Wood in West-U
Meet Sherri Campbell Wood and Her Front Yard Garden in West-U
What do you do if you don’t have enough sunlight for a garden in your backyard? If you ask Sherri Campbell Wood, she’d tell you to build your garden in the front yard!
Sherri, a native Houstonian, has a beautiful front yard garden in West-U. She and her husband, Dr. Pat Wood, are empty nesters. They have three kids and three grandchildren. Somehow Sherri not only has a gorgeous garden, but she also managed to convince all three of her grown children to live right here in Houston. When I met with her for an interview, you better believe I wanted to know the secret to keeping all her kiddos and grandkids nearby! I’m sure there are other reasons her children didn’t wander far, but it can’t hurt that Sherri’s home is incredibly inviting, and she’s a great cook.
When her children were still at home, Sherri attended culinary school at The Art Institute of Houston to hone her skills in the kitchen. Raised by a mother who grew up in California with high standards for food, Sherri was exposed at an early age to fresh produce and delicious, healthy meals. Her mother taught her to cook, but she was eager to take her skills to the next level with a formal cooking education. Sherri is always snipping herbs and fresh veggies from the garden for meals she’s cooking in the kitchen. You can’t find fresher ingredients than the ones you harvest a few minutes before eating.
Sherri makes a mean bone broth with herbs from her garden. She uses chicken bones, loads of thyme, parsley, carrots, onion, celery, and dill. She says the secret to the best tasting bone broth is a generous amount of dill. After cooking in the crock pot overnight, Sherri uses the bone broth in soups or freezes it in ice cubes to use whenever she needs it.
Sherri has gardened most of her life but took the plunge and decided to set up a raised-bed garden in her front yard in 2020. “Gardening has always been my hobby. The first thing I do every morning is go check on the garden. It gets me outside every day. It makes me happy, and it’s something that makes me feel good,” states Sherri.
Sherri has an impressive loofah vine growing on her arch this fall, and it’s covered with loofah gourds! All it took were three seeds to cover her entire arch with a lush vine and gourds. Speaking of seeds….
One of Sherri’s favorite reasons to garden: you get to grow varieties of produce you simply can’t buy at the grocery store or markets in town. Sherri’s favorite place to order seeds is from Monticello. There are several heirloom plants growing in her garden that she started from the seeds she purchased from Monticello including these blue peas:
Sherri’s favorite plant to grow in the garden? Okra. “It’s so easy to grow, and the bloom is really pretty. I chop it and saute it in olive oil with a little salt and pepper.”
Not everyone is brave enough to install a garden in their front yard, but Sherri says her neighbors love it. She gets asked about her garden frequently from people walking by her home. Isn’t that one of the best things about a garden? It brings people and communities together.