Meet our Team
Leti Porter
Garden Chair
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Biography
Leti Porter is an Organic Grower and jokes that she really is in the business of growing people, mostly kids. She has been growing her entire life thanks to her dad, who took the time to teach her when she was young that there was so much more to gardening than just pulling weeds. She finds joy in learning about life and how to grow in real time in her favorite place—Nature. She believes that the earth has the ability to heal us and that it is our responsibility to protect it by growing things, especially each other.
Leti planted her roots in Heber 20 years ago and still claims it is the perfect place to raise free-range kids and build community by creating opportunities/space for others to gather and grow. Her background is Human Nutrition• organic growing• planting flowers & trees• common sense• hard work• building relationships• constantly learning from others• serving• loving people• mothering & making her family and her faith in God a priority.
Katy Neild
Treasurer/Events & Education
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Biography
Katy grew up gardening, harvesting, and preserving at the feet of her grandmother in Northern New York. Most of her gardening experience has been in New York and Pennsylvania. She and her husband, Jerry, love working on and sharing their garden, and spending time with their three grown children and six grandchildren.
Michele McGuinness
Membership/Garden Use Responsibilities
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Biography
Michele McGuinness is a lifelong gardener. She has had rose gardens, moon gardens, shade gardens, but her true love is growing vegetables and fruits. She is currently researching a book on vegetable gardening in the high and low deserts of Arizona.
Michele’s areas of expertise include: Maricopa Master Gardener, multiple Landscape Design classes, Desert Botanical Landscape courses. Teach vegetable and landscape classes, IPM (Integrated Pest Management), Phoenix Home Shows, Desert Institute of Gardening, also a member of two community gardens and manage a school production
Doug Cook
Garden Manager/Grounds Crew Chair
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Biography
Started gardening at a young age (6th grade) in San Jose, CA. I have lived in AZ 30 years, I have been gardening for at least 20 years in Chandler and Tempe, AZ.
I attended University of Arizona college of Agriculture and Life Sciences Maricopa County Cooperative Extension and was certified as Master Gardener in 2011. I maintained that certification until moving to Overgaard in October of 2018. In 2010 I helped start the community garden “Friends In Gasca Gardens” known as FIGG in Tempe. I stayed with FIGG until 2018 maintaining common areas, working the compost station, as well as helping gardeners with plant, bug, and irrigation issues.
Alyssa Rose Huebner
Communications Co-Chair
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Biography
Alyssa Rose is a lover of gardening and all things Permaculture. In 2020, she co-founded Perennial Wisdom, a company for Permaculture Design, implementation, and education of regenerative + sustainable systems for suburban areas. Alyssa Rose has a passion for growing food, using herbs as medicine, essential oils for health, and Eastern medicine. She has a formal education as a Biomedical Researcher in Molecular Biology + Neuroscience. As the Founder + CEO of Freedom Launch Agency, Alyssa + her team build automated + professionally designed sales systems for her client’s online businesses.
Bonnie Leedy
Communications Co-Chair
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Biography
Bonnie is the CEO of School Webmasters, but in her “spare” time she loves gardening, preserving her harvest, baking bread, and livin’ life in the rural countryside.
David Kincaid
Construction Committee
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Biography
David Kincaid AKA “PermaDave” CEO of Northern Arizona Permaculture in Heber is a Permaculture Designer and educator with a passion for water harvesting and food sovereignty for all working with homesteaders in the area as well as projects worldwide to promote healing of our planet for future generations to enjoy clean water, sustainable housing, and healthy food.
