Sheri Steckler, Executive Director
Sheri was born and raised in North Dakota; with deep family roots in agriculture and land stewardship, leading to her first greenhouse job while attending college. Growing up, her dad always had a huge garden. He would section off the corners of it, creating perfect squares in which he would teach Sheri and her sisters how to garden in their very own plots. Sheri’s career and education evolved from those experiences, in both private and public sectors. Her main areas of focus were greenhouse and nursery management, landscape design and installation foreperson, agriculture research, plant industry regulatory compliance and arboriculture. Sheri graduated from North Dakota State University with a degree in horticulture and landscape architecture. As a Certified Arborist and former City Forester, Sheri has planted and cared for thousands of trees throughout her career and has been known to hug many of them!
As an avid gardener, Sheri loves all facets of the practice, even weeding which, to Sheri, is meditative and grounding. Throughout her decades of gardening, Sheri often had a much larger plot than would be required for one person because in her opinion, the ability to share your harvest with others is one of the most exciting benefits of being a gardener. When Sheri is not in her garden, she enjoys food preservation, cooking and eating the fresh produce she grows.
As the only paid, part-time staff person for Helena Community Gardens, Sheri oversees volunteers, events, communication, education and administrative duties in our community gardens. She works closely with the HCG Board of Directors to keep our organization running effectively.