Retired police officer plants new career at garden center

Earthly Artifacts, a home and garden decor shop on the triangle corner at Coleman Boulevard and Hibben Street, is where co-owner Debbie Alfaro has learned that she can change the world with a garden just as much as with a badge.

Alfaro, a retired Mount Pleasant Police Department SWAT and watch commander with a 28-year career, graduated from Garrett High School in 1980 and went into law enforcement.

Alfaro said she wanted to make a difference, protect children from domestic violence and save animals. She still does all three at the garden center, minus the chases and fights.

"I'm making a difference, but in a different way," she said.

Alfaro, co-owner Lisa Churchill and neighboring business Square Onion Too use their combined outdoor space as a location to raise funds for the causes they champion, including the SWAT Southern Women Animal Task Force.

On regular days, Earthly Artifacts sells and displays the works of local artists, Alfaro's Breathe soy candle line, Churchill's planters and fairy houses and a range of flowers and greenery from the shop that Churchill describes as "a handmade and vintage-inspired home and garden shop."

When Alfaro told other officers that she was going to retire and open a garden center, they thought it was funny but said it sounded like something she might dream up.

Alfaro drove by the small wooden plank building last winter and saw that it was for rent. She called Churchill, an old friend who formerly ran Plantin' Thyme on Bowman Road, and asked her if she was ready to go back into business.

Churchill said "Can I have a car?" as in a giant planter. Alfaro agreed, so long as she could have a fire pit and a swing.

Since opening in February, the owners find themselves always on the go, either creating or plotting what to build next. They recently created a community supported agriculture drop-off site, complete with a plastic set of singing vegetables, and just started building a musical garden along a path that leads to Town & Country Music, another store on the triangle corner.

Space outside the Square Onion Too will become a fairy wand-making station for children who soon may be eating treats from Yo Yogurt, a business still in the works. "This corner is magical," Alfaro said.