She couldn’t stay away for long — and her fellow green thumbs wouldn’t want her to.

Former Sequim resident Eleanor Garthwaite, a longtime member of the Sequim Prairie Garden Club, presents “The Secret Lives of Plants” at the club’s next meeting, set for 10:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 1, at the Pioneer Memorial Park Clubhouse, 387 E. Washington St.

“Since I was small, I would garden with my mother and father,” the 88-year-old Garthwaite said. “I love to garden; it’s one of the healthiest things you can do. I call it playing in the dirt.”

Garthwaite and her husband, residents of Sequim since 1990, recently moved to Bainbridge Island, into an assisted-living facility near where their daughter lives.

Of those 26 years in Sequim, Garthwaite was a club member for about 23 years. She said her husband Robert was in the U.S. Navy for three decades, so she’s lived in numerous places across the globe.

“Sequim is one of the best places you can live,” she said. “This is the most wonderful (place); I love all the weather, love the overcast days. I got so used to moving. It was easy … except this time.”

During her time with the Sequim club, Garthwaite gladly shared her experiences in her garden and quickly became what club member Laura Singer described as “our gardening guru” and a popular meeting program presenter. She also was a main contributor to the club’s annual plant and garden sales.

Singer helped put together a book of 10 presentations Garthwaite gave to the club along with short horticultural reports and a few old photos — including one of her hula-hooping in the 2007 Sequim Irrigation Parade.

Despite the move, Garthwaite said she’ll find a way to keep gardening — and continue to talk to plants and weeds.

“I go and play in her dirt,” she said. “The weeds, they talk to me. They’re upset with us. They’re doing their job and they don’t like being called weeds.”