Growing up in the Garden:
Gardening has always been a passion of mine. I do include the flashy kind, the flowers and shrubs and bulbs that delight the eye - but more important to me is the vegetable garden that delights the palate and stomach. To many, gardens are something their parents or grandparents had. Many were more “hobby” gardens, nothing that really fed everyone, but something that supplemented on the dinner table or added a tomato or two the salad. Most of us have lost the green-thumb that once was prevalent and for many necessary to survive. We don’t need to garden and we don’t need to feed ourselves from our surroundings. But need doesn’t always have to be the driving force for everything and growing enough food to feed yourself doesn’t have to be a rural undertaking.
My gardening journey began young - with my grandparents in Charlotte and their ever-present single row of veggies along their backyard fence. Every Spring and Fall I was given a dollar or two to turn the soil and add in fresh compost and fertilizer. They grew herbs, squash, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. The dinner table during the summer always had a sprinkling of something just picked in the mix and the Fall had homemade pickles.
My grandparents in the mountains near Asheville also gardened but had the additional surprise of a walk through the forest to collect wild mushrooms - I still remember how fresh and woody they tasted - like nothing I’d tried before. They also had a small orchard and a tiny greenhouse that provided fresh options year-round.
My mom and I carried on the tradition with a small plot almost everywhere we lived. It was nothing that yielded much, but it did cultivate a desire to keep my hands in the dirt and a love for the taste of something you’ve grown and toiled for yourself. Through the years my personal gardens waxed and waned depending on where I lived and what I was up to. College doesn’t lend itself easily to growing much and condo living didn’t either - though we did have containers of herbs, peppers and tomatoes on the terrace of our Uptown pad.
When we moved to a house in SouthEnd 4 years ago the desire to garden in our tiny urban lot was resurrected by a visit to a neighbors home early in the Spring. Her Winter garden was still giving up cabbage and other greens. That same day we headed to Lowe’s, picked up bags of soil, peat moss and compost. The new chapter of gardening began. Since then we’ve moved, within the neighborhood, to a spot with almost half an acre and we have over 60 edible plants in our yard: 19 fruit trees including figs, pears, apples, and peaches. We have all types of herbs, greens and garlic. In the Fall we plant cabbage, beets, collards, and broccoli and repeat these in early Spring. The Summer brings tomatoes, peppers of all kinds - especially the HOT ones, okra, cucumbers, zucchini and squash, and eggplant. Our home also came with a huge pecan tree that surprised us this year with more bounty than we, the squirrels, and passers-by could possibly eat.
We aren’t the only ones that we know that grow much of what they eat right in their own yards, just blocks (for us) or within a mile or two of the center city core. To some that we know our garden isn’t quite the farm we like to believe it is - they add in chickens for meat and eggs, something our dogs would never go along with without a feathery mess.
If you’ve never gardened and didn’t grow up with any experience it’s not as tough as people seem to believe. It’s best to start small and simple - tomatoes and peppers - then branch out to more if you find growing some of your own food is for you. The easy way to tell what is ready to plant is just as easy - the garden centers put it out when the time is right, so check with them to get started. Herbs are definitely easy, can be grown in pots in the yard or on the deck, and add fantastic fresh flavor to Summer meals. Dried they can be saved throughout the year.
I think many would be surprised at some of the intense gardens I’ve seen all over the Queen City and more surprised at just how much great food could be yours just by stepping out the front door.
