about us
We’re a highly collaborative and supportive team of expert Garden Educators. We are passionate about the connections, growth and learning that takes place in nature.
Our Mission
We will create a space for school staff and students to make connections with themselves, the earth and each other while learning and growing. We will establish thriving school gardens and continue to be the number one school garden expert in the North-West Houston area.
Our Values
We strive to build unique, long-lasting and organic school learning gardens that produce abounding harvests. We aim to deliver the very best Garden Day experience each and every time with highly-qualified Garden Educators, hands-on student experiences and dedicated gardening support.
“The Ready to Grow Gardens staff is always prepared, knowledgeable and flexible.”
Elizabeth Franklin
Teacher, CFISD
Meet the Ready to Grow Gardens Team
Stephanie Baker (Founder and Owner)
Stephanie earned her Texas Master Gardener Certification from the Texas Cooperative Extensive and Harris County Master Gardener Association in June of 2003.
She was named Outstanding Volunteer for the fall class of 2002 in recognition of her outstanding service of over 220 volunteer hours. Her volunteer work was primarily spent with students at Sheridan Elementary where two days a week she taught two hundred third graders how to grow a variety of vegetables out of 70 individual container gardens.
Since that time, she has worked to design and build over 40 other elementary school gardens.
Kara Wolf (Garden Educator and Assistant Garden Day Coordinator)
My first love was flowers. As a child I remember collecting fists full of flowers on neighborhood walks, drawing them in my sketch book as a tween and eventually learning to grow and arrange them as an adult in Conroe, TX where I reside with my husband. The garden quickly became the first and last place that I found myself each day.
Becoming a Garden Educator with RTGG was a natural progression as I have taught in the traditional school setting as a certified Spanish teacher for 4 years and I love students. I have taught Spanish to PreK through Seniors in high school and I love every age. 2022-23 is my third year working as a Garden Educator.
I am incredibly excited to get into your school learning gardens and help your students discover the joys of a garden. Planting seeds, discovering critters and harvesting carrots with children, truly, never gets old.
I grew up in New Orleans with my parents and 3 sisters. Our Dad always had a garden in the backyard where we harvested food for our meals. I can still remember my first taste of fresh broccoli. It was so much better than the frozen broccoli we were used to out of a box. I loved spending time outside with my dad and watching him in the garden. He loved gardening so much that as he grew older he installed grab bars on the fence so that he could continue gardening.
I joined the Ready To Grow Gardens team after retiring from my 34 year teaching career. I have taught the majority of my career in the elementary grades. I spent a few years teaching deaf and hearing impaired students and then moved to regular education. Most of my career was spent in CFISD in 2nd, 4th and 5th grades. I spent 11 years teaching in central Pennsylvania where I was the Gifted Support coordinator K-12 in the Bald Eagle Area School District.
This job allows me to continue to teach, but in an outside garden classroom. I love teaching the students about growing their own food and watching nature in action in our butterfly/veggie gardens. I like to watch the students be able to see the progression from seed to table. This will be my fourth year to have the awesome opportunity to bring the Science classroom outside!!
Most recently, I grew a human! While stepping away from the classroom full time was the right choice for this season of my life, teaching at Ready to Grow Gardens fulfills the gap that being out of the classroom has created. The best part of teaching is seeing the wonder children can be filled with when they’re engaged in meaningful learning. There’s nothing more awe-inspiring than gardening! Planting a single seed and watching it become a 10′ tomato plant or zinnia bush with a dozen blooms reminds grown ups how amazing the world is; kids never seem to need reminding! They inherently stop and analyze the smallest details, never seem to mind getting dirty, and make the best gardeners. I am thrilled to be growing with you this school year!
Rebecca Hudman (Garden Educator)
I grew up in Kansas and spent a lot of time in my Dad’s garden. He planted 200 tomato plants one year and my siblings and I would go door to door with a wagon full of tomatoes to all the neighbors. Over the years I have been an avid container gardener and in 2019 I was able to take courses and earn the Master Gardener certification.
I joined the Learn to Grow Garden team after being a stay at home mom. Before that, I lived abroad for six years, which included time in the Peace Corps and teaching in Japan as an English Teacher and also many years as a professional stateside. I am married to a lovely man and we have a sweet son and mini aussiedoodle. One of the biggest joys as a parent for me is seeing my child discover things that delight his interest. I have gotten to experience that with my own child in our garden and I cannot wait to experience that even more with the children on their Garden Day.
Joining the Learn to Grow Garden team has been such a blessing and I am excited to be part of this team. I truly enjoy the wonderment that comes from children when they see the possibilities that gardening gives to them. To plant, nurture, and harvest from a little seed to something tasty like a carrot is very exciting. Let’s not forget all the interesting critters that are around every corner, too!
Alysse LeGrand (Garden Educator)
I grew up in Kentucky absolutely loving all things nature. From a young age, I always had to plant my own garden and loved every minute of it! I recently graduated from the University of Alabama with a dual Bachelor degree and a minor in Spanish. I found a passion for outdoor education while working with students in Costa Rica. I am very enthusiastic about environmental conservation and want to inspire students to learn more about the importance of organic gardening and the nature around us.
I love sharing my passion and hope to inspire young minds to love gardening as well! Watching students discover new things is truly magical and I am so excited to grow with students this year!