“If I can’t eat it, I don’t plant it.”

Longtime gardener Gail Folinas of Barnegat Township goes by that motto as she tends to her vegetable garden at the Brighton at Barnegat development.

“I’ve been gardening for decades,” said Folinas, who moved to Barnegat last year from Spring Lake Heights. “The first thing I found out is that the soil here isn’t very rich in nutrients. It’s a little sandy, so I had to use a lot of compost.”

In her 18- by 27-foot plot, Folinas has beans, cucumbers, zucchini, snow peas, tomatoes and squash among others. While she literally enjoys the fruits of her labor, she wants others to like them, too.

“What I have left I give to my neighbors,” she said. “In the spring, I must have given out 30 bags of lettuce.”