PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — David Sepe Jr. has loved gardening ever since he was a kid.
The Providence Police Department detective has been planting, canning and selling his own produce for several years.
“I look forward to it all winter,” Sepe Jr. said, referring to working in his garden.
Sepe Jr. told 12 News he learned everything he knows about gardening from his father David Sepe Sr.
“He showed me a lot of the stuff he learned from his dad,” Sepe Jr. said.
Sepe Jr. said his father wasn’t initially a fan of his of his elaborate setup, which consists of several raised garden beds and trellises.
“He is a big fan of getting back to your roots by just putting [the plants] right in the dirt,” Sepe Jr. said with a laugh.
But after seeing the raised garden beds for himself Sepe Sr. changed his tune,.
“I used to be old school like my dad. Everything used to be put in the ground,” Sepe Sr. said. “But as I got older, I realized this is the way to go. It’s a lot easier to plant above ground.”
Sepe Jr. said everything he’s done with his garden has been methodical.
“It’s easier to maintain,” Sepe Jr. said of the raised garden beds. “You don’t have to bend down as much.”
“I just like the way it looks and it has made it neater and easier to control,” he continued.
His garden is also analytical. Sepe Jr. told 12 News he maps out the plants using a digital planning tool.
“It makes it easier in the end to understand what I’m doing,” he explained. “The program shows me the names of the tomatoes and peppers — the specific types — and I’ll look at it and say, ‘alright, I’m going to pick some of these peppers today since these are ready.’ I can even take notes so I know for next year that those peppers grew quick.”
Sepe Jr.’s garden is a family affair — his father assists him with maintenance while his brother keeps track of the plants digitally.
“We have it mapped out in a way that it’s just a pattern,” Sepe Jr.’s younger brother Daniel Sepe said.
The trio plants a variety of vegetables and herbs every year, but specifically focuses on growing several different types of tomatoes and peppers.
“These are my go-to ones, they make good gravy,” Sepe Jr. said, pointing to his crop of San Marzano tomatoes.
Sepe Jr. said visitors are “usually pretty impressed” by his garden.
“I don’t like to brag, but I get a lot of compliments on it,” he said.
Sepe Jr. said his garden is favorite place to be, especially after a difficult day at work.
But he unfortunately didn’t have his garden to come home to in the wake of the deadly shooting at Brown University last December.
“It was the worst possible thing you can imagine,” Sepe Jr. said. “There are no words to describe how awful it was.”
“It took me until I got there to realize ‘this is real — this is actually happening,’ because you don’t think that’s it’s going to happen here and, unfortunately, it can happen anywhere,” he continued.
Sepe Jr. told 12 News his mind went straight into overdrive as soon as he understood the gravity of the situation.
“I went straight into the analytics of it,” Sepe Jr. said. “All I could think about after seeing it and putting my emotions aside was ‘what’s next?'”
Sepe Jr. was among the detectives who drove to New Hampshire nearly a week later, where the gunman was found dead in side a storage unit. He said he still thinks about everything he saw to this day.
“If I’m on that side of the city, it definitely crosses my mind,” he said. “It was just terrible.”
Sepe Jr. said the experience also put everything into perspective for him. It made him appreciate the little things in life, including his not-so-little garden empire.
And for Sepe Jr., gardening isn’t just about growing his own fresh produce.
It’s also about what he makes with the produce. Sepe Jr. makes his own “gravy” — also known as tomato sauce — as well as jams, jellies and pickled vegetables.
He’s since started using his green thumb for good by selling hundreds of his jarred delicacies and donating the money to local charities.
“The whole reason it originally started was because I had so much extra, I didn’t know what to do with it,” Sepe Jr. recalled. “I brought it to the police department and I said to the guys, ‘just take some.'”
Sepe Jr. said the idea to raise money for charities came from a colleague.
“Someone brought up a good point and said, ‘if you guys are going to take some, give him some money and he can donate the money somewhere,'” he said.
Sepe Sr. said he’s proud of his son not only for his garden, but for paying it forward.
“This just started out as a garden for us, and he turned it into a lot more,” Sepe Sr. said.
Sepe Jr. has sold roughly 300 jars over the past few years and has raised nearly $2,000 for a number of charities, including the Nonviolence Institute.
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