To get in touch with our staff please call 804-231-7767 or email learn@tricyclegardens.org. Happy growing!

Sally G. Schwitters
Executive Director
Email: sally@tricyclegardens.org

Sally comes from a long line of family gardeners, farmers and cooks. She loves the process of growing seed to harvest, and sharing the preparation and celebration of good food with friends and family. Sally ran program and events for non-profits in Northern California, that included programs with Martha Stewart, Dr. Wayne Dyer and Don Miguel Ruiz, and educational programming for the Real Goods Solar Living Institute (a 12- acre demonstration site providing education and experiences with renewable energy, natural building, and permaculture and bio-intensive gardening.) Since returning to her birthplace of Richmond, Va, she has been involved in non-profit advancement and has raised over $19 million for non-profits in the region. Sally loves bringing health and beauty to our community through urban agriculture.

Tell us one of your favorite quotes: “If not me- who?”

What has been one of your favorite Tricycle Gardens experiences?: Where to begin…sitting in the sunshine eating lunch made of produce we have grown, listening to a child’s laughter as they discover vermi-composting with a worm crawling across their hand, seeing families relax in the Healing Garden at Bon Secours Hospital, or introducing our community to the self-sufficiency that comes from growing and eating good, local food.

What do you do when you’re not working for Tricycle Gardens?: When am I not working at Tricycle Gardens? Just kidding- when I am not working, I am playing with my kids and hubby, eating and drinking with family and friends, and dreaming of what to do next at Tricycle Gardens.

Isabel Eljaiek
Program Coordinator 
Email: isabel@tricyclegardens.org

Isabel loves connecting people within her community to their local food system. Coming from a family that did NOT garden, farm or cook, she experienced a sharp learning curve when she embarked to learn these things as a young adult. Originally from the Washington DC area, Isabel received her Masters degree in Social Work Administration, Planning and Policy Practice with a concentration in Food Justice from VCU. She also completed a graduate certificate in nonprofit management. Her work is underwritten by her strong commitment to food sovereignty, and she especially enjoys writing programs and defining outcomes for food justice initiatives. Isabel believes that growing and sharing food is a powerful way to combat larger issues of poverty as well as a means to create sustainable communities.

Tell us one of your favorite quotes: “Going back to a simpler life based on living by sufficiency rather than excess is not a step backward. Rather, returning to a simpler way allows us to regain our dignity, puts us in touch with the lands and makes us value human contact again.” -Yvon Chouinard

What has been one of your favorite Tricycle Gardens experiences?:  I love the people I work with. I count myself blessed that I’m able to come to work everyday doing something I love and believe in while surrounded by our incredible group of staff, interns and volunteers. A big experience for me was when I came to the understanding that worms and compost as well as participatory community building are both a means to the same end.

What do you do when you’re not working for Tricycle Gardens?: Grad school is finished but I still love to learn. I recently completed the City of Richmond’s first Master Gardener program and am currently learning Spanish. I also love to camp, hike and go to the river with my two dogs, my 60lb pit mix Norma and my 6 lb chihuahua Chloe. (Come meet Norma, she’s really cool and here at the office most days!)

Danny Finney
Teacher, Builder and Compost Manager
Email: danny@tricyclegardens.org

Danny was born in Washington, DC. As a passionate artist and musician, Danny moved to Richmond in the early 70′s to involve himself in the lively artist community. He helped start an art co-op in 1976 called the Richmond Artist Workshop (RAW). He’s taught at the Teaching New Talent program at the Hand Workshop (now the Visual Arts Center) in the 90′s, and was a participant of the Partnership for the Arts. Danny has always been interested in gardening, and started his first garden on Laurel Street in Oregon Hill and worked with Maymont earlier in his career. Now a resident of the Fulton Hill community, Danny continues his life as a musician with the band Rattlemouth and has been teaching and building with Tricycle Gardens since 2007.

Tell us one of your favorite quotes: “Nothing happens the same way twice.” – Carol Wilson

What has been one of your favorite Tricycle Gardens experiences?: Being able to teach our community about worm composting and working with our interns and volunteers to build our first hoop houses and solar powered greenhouse!

What do you do when you’re not working for Tricycle Gardens?: I’m practicing my saxophone and learning material I should have learned 30 years ago.

Joshua Schweizer
Farm Manager
Email: josh@tricyclegardens.org

Josh was born on a naval base in Jacksonville, Florida. He grew up in New York and spent occasional summers with homesteading grandparents in the mountains of West Virginia. Here, he began learning early traditional methods of small scale farming. After graduating, he rode freight trains and worked on numerous organic, small-scale farms across the U.S. before taking root in Richmond, Va. He’s been growing the food at Tricycle Gardens for 6 years and is currently the Farm Manager, where he works with a team of people to bring healthy, local, organic produce to everyone.

Tell us on of your favorite quotes: “You cannot feel a thing if you never understand it’s meaning.” – Emma Goldman

What has been one of your favorite Tricycle Gardens experiences?: The feeling of solidarity working with a group of people covered in mud and dirt.

What do you do when you’re not working for Tricycle Gardens?: I’m traveling somewhere.

Scotty Guinn Dilworth
Project Gardener
Email: scotty@tricyclegardens.org

Scotty, a native Richmonder, recently moved back to her hometown after 18 years on the West Coast. In California , she was a natural history and wildlife filmmaker for 18 years before she began her second career in landscape design. She practiced sustainable techniques of landscape design with Los Angeles designers and bring that inspiration to her work here in Virginia. Scotty is a Virginia Certified Horticulturist, Certified Rain Garden Designer/Installer, Certified Greenroof Designer/Installer, a member of the James River Green Building Council, the VA Nursery and a member of Greenroofs for Healthy Cities. For Tricycle Gardens, she has been a garden teacher for Peter Paul Development Center and a project manager for the Science Museum Permaculture Garden and the Bon Secours Healing Garden. In her free time, she enjoys walking her chocolate lab Ford on the James River Park trails, nature photography and relaxing on the beach and swimming in the ocean.