About Us
Rugged Weeds is a team of two people, Stacey and Norman, who met in 2015 and have since worked together to create handmade goods and help each other succeed. We chose the dandelion to represent our venture because it persists.
Life in the 21st Century is challenging. Humanity faces unprecedented challenges - changing weather, the elimination of work by technology, increasing concentration on wealth, and the erosion of the middle class. The dandelion represents our approach to persisting through adversity and living harmoniously.
The products we sell - while a source of income - represent something more fundamental. We made them. Consumerism today separates us from skills that allow us to take control of our lives.
So, making something is an affirmation. We also spend time in the garden, growing herbs, and some of the food we put on our table. It puts organic produce on our plates and being outside and physically active and seeing life develop at a pace our bodies are attuned to is beneficial, too.
Stacey Smit
Stacey has worked as a coach since 2017, and enjoys helping others reach their goals. Stacey is a mother of two, with a son who has autism. Stacey has experienced divorce, displacement, and breast cancer. She graduated with her BA in psychology at age 46, and her Master's in Organizational Leadership (MAOL), at age 48. Through years of abuse, and hardship, Stacey has turned her life around. Stacey was diagnosed with ADHD (combined-type) at age 46, Autism (age 50), and thoroughly understands what a diagnosis and coaching can do to help those who have the same brain wiring. Through all of her life experience, Stacey enjoys helping others become all that they can be. She currently works with students who have intellectual disabilities.
- Stacey is certified as a Life Coach, Transformative Life Coach, and a Mindset Coach.
- Stacey's coaching focuses on ADHD, Self Esteem, and Organizing.
- She also has earned a BA in Psychology and a Master's in Organizational Leadership from Florida Tech.
Norman Smit
Norman Smit grew up on a farm in South Africa before being called up to serve in the South African military, a requirement for all while males during Apartheid. In the army, he was selected for Infantry School, becoming a platoon sergeant and weapons instructor at the army Equestrian Center, a volunteer counter-insurgency operations unit that served on the border of Namibia and Angola as part of South West Africa Specialist Battalion in the bush war with SWAPO.
It was his time in the military that made him decide to become a journalist, and he obtained a degree in journalism with a post-grad degree in the social sciences.
He has worked as a journalist in Africa, Europe, India and the US, including helping to launch South Africa's first independent national television newsroom and prime-time broadcast.
He will tell you that weeding the iron-hard hockey fields at boarding school created some negative associations towards gardening, so it was perhaps ironic that he married a lifelong gardener who used gardening as a foundational way to be life-affirming in her battle against cancer. Together, they started the garden used for therapeutic horticulture at Rugged Weeds, back in 2004. After she died, the garden became a place in which he was able to grapple with grief before starting Rugged Weeds as a venture with Stacey.
This long experience of working with the land, coupled with life experiences led Norman to study Therapeutic Horticulture, obtaining two certificates in Therapeutic Horticulture from NC State University.
About this site
Some of this site's content comes from a previous blog called Old Water Gardens. The name of that site comes from the Creek Indian word "Wedowee", which is the type of soil on our property. "Wedowee" means "old water".
On some pages, large images have been used to provide detail that require images able to offer clarity, but the large file sizes may impact page load times negatively. If you right-click on the images and open in a new window, you'll see the larger image.
You may find the occasional broken link - but if it's a choice between being out in the garden or fixing this site, the garden will win. If you do come across a broken link - especially since some of the content on this site has been around for more than ten years and some reorganising of the site has taken place, please send us an email and we'll get it fixed. Similarly, if you come across a gallery that isn't loading, drop us an email with the page link for the fix.
Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the site.
