Home gardening is booming. Due to the pandemic, demand for seeds has skyrocketed and seed companies have run short of vegetable seeds. Apparently being stuck at home with time to kill moved folks to look for healthy exercise, healthy food, something educational to do with the kids, and stress relief. Gardening fills that bill.
Even better, gardening is scientifically proven to make you happier. That's because dirt has microbes in it (mycobacterium vaccae) that produce the mood elevator and antidepressant serotonin in the brain. (“Soil Bacteria Work in Similar Way to Antidepressants,” medicalnewstoday.mom)
Early this spring I Zoomed in on Prescott College's “Food Systems Friday” and listened to a presentation by Gwen Garcelon of the Roaring Fork Food Alliance, who described her project to build community resilience and food-security by teaching people how to grow food. She enlisted university-trained master gardeners from her area, matched them with beginning gardeners one-on-one, and the gardens happened. I thought, “this would be a great pandemic project for Slow Food Prescott,” of which I am the chair. “We can do this.”
I called Gwen for help and we approached Jeff Schalau, director of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Yavapai County, and Mary Barnes, program coordinator for Yavapai County Master Gardeners. Master gardeners are required to put in a number of volunteer hours, and they were hard-pressed to find pandemic-safe choices. They liked the idea and we joined forces.
We distributed applications and found 20 experienced mentors familiar with local growing conditions and 20 enthusiastic beginning gardeners. Then we matched them up, and the Grow Food In Your Backyard Project was launched to teach people how to grow food.
The mentors acted as advisers and coaches, while the gardeners put in the labor. They worked together to analyze the particular climate, location and soil conditions, build garden beds and install irrigation systems, select the right seeds and plants for the season(and account for family likes and dislikes), identify weeds, resolve disease, insect, and pest problems, and know when and how to harvest. That's a lot to figure out and learn.
I started growing food in my backyard over 50 years ago, knowing nothing. I made a bazillion mistakes. I overwatered and underwatered, over-fertilized and under-fertilized. I planted the wrong crops at the wrong times. I planted in bad soil. I harvested too early and too late. I battled strangling vines, sucking aphids, invasive Bermudagrass, corn borers, blister beetles, tomato hornworms, mold, viruses, snails, rabbits and javelina, and sometimes I lost. My garden was flattened by hail and heavy winds, scorched and shriveled by searing heat and restored by life-giving monsoons. Eventually it paid off with fresh, healthy, delicious and abundant garden harvests, while enjoying the wonder and reward of it all.
Growing food is a dance with nature, a grand adventure, and you never know what’s coming next. It teaches us patience, humility and persistence. In the words of my favorite vegetable grower, farmer Corey Rade of Whipstone Farm, “Just don't give up.”
The project needed labor and money to build garden infrastructure like raised beds, irrigation systems and fencing. It needed donations for seeds and seedlings, soil, fertilizer and tools. Here's where the real magic happened.
Armed with a strong letter of intent and the backing of the UofA Extension, we marched out into the community and asked. We received a fantastic response in seeds, soil, plants, tools, drip systems, water timers, liquid fertilizer, lumber and cash. We are grateful for grant support from the Yavapai Community Foundation, the Alta Vista Garden Club and Trinity Presbyterian Church.
Wonderful volunteer gardeners and mentors worked together to build raised beds filled with composted soil, install water timers and drip tape, fence out rabbits and trap gophers. Seeds were planted. They came up! The seedlings grew into peppers, chiles, squash and other veggies. Weeds were pulled. Lush gardens gave us a bountiful harvest.
The Grow Food In Your Backyard Project developed into a community, sharing problems and solutions over Zoom, touring each other’s gardens and enjoying a potluck garden celebration. Thanks to Rita Carey of YRMC's “Your Healthy Kitchen,” we have a video on the project, with interviews and a garden tour. To see it, search for “The Grow Food In Your Backyard Project” on YouTube.
In the final evaluation there were certainly some problems this first year, but every single gardener said that they will be growing food in their backyard next year. Of course, growing food is addictive and contagious, and we're doing it again.
The Grow Food In Your Backyard Project is powering up for an even more successful 2022 season, and we need you. If you're an experienced gardener, we need more mentors. (You don’t have to be an expert.)If you're a beginning gardener, we want to help you succeed. Request applications for both mentors and gardeners at PrescottAZ@slowfoodusa.org.
If you live outside the Prescott/Yavapai County area and would like to bring this project to your town, contact Gwen Garcelon of the Roaring Fork Food Alliance: gwen@roaringforkfood.org.
Photos by Molly.
Chef Molly Beverly is Prescott's leading creative food activist and teacher. Photos by Gary Beverly.
