Conversation with Joe Sidiski

Joe Sidiski’s love for ponds, wildlife and all things nature didn’t start in 2004, when he moved to the Greenbrook community. His passion goes back decades to his life in Long Island, N.Y.

Sidiski, treasurer of Community Development District 4 and a member of the Protect our Ponds taskforce, is an advocate for making Lakewood Ranch into a more environmentally conscious community. He is also helping plan for East County’s first community garden, to be housed near the paw park in Greenbrook Adventure Park. At 7 p.m. June 2, Lakewood Ranch Town Hall will offer an informative session about the proposed garden for residents. 

What’s so neat about the (community garden) idea is that people who aren’t master gardeners can come to the garden and learn about planting from individuals who are those experts.  Seeing plants grow from seeds is also a great experience for children. It gives them much more of an appreciation for where their food comes from.

The community garden will mean more to this community than just growing vegetables. This garden will create a feeling of community, where like-minded people can interact in the garden or at the planned picnic tables or benches. This garden will further make Lakewood Ranch more of a community. 

Community gardening is becoming a trend. There’s definitely a going-back-to-nature, or going-green thing going on. There’s more awareness today about how we interact with our environment. We didn’t stop to think about what was around us before.  

My thumb isn’t brown, but it’s only half green. Up north, I had a garden where I grew vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, string beans and sometimes corn. At one point, if you named a vegetable, we grew it...I had a functioning garden for about 20 years, but I don’t know all there is about gardening.

Growing vegetables in Florida is more difficult than planting up north. In New York, you don’t dare start planting until May. Here, by May, it’s starting to get really hot, and it seems gardeners are buttoning up until summer ends.

You can’t buy tomatoes that compare to the taste of homegrown ones. Even farmers’ stands don’t quite compare to getting tomatoes from your backyard. 

I started walking trails in Long Island, N.Y.  It was amazing to me that I could live in such a suburban, close-knit area, and within a few minutes, I could be walking on a winding trail and feel like I was somewhere else. When I was walking, I couldn’t see houses or other buildings, just woods, trails and hills. There was no sign of civilization, just wildlife. It was beautiful.