I’ve driven past it for years, glancing at the fence, the greenhouse, and the garden beyond. “I really should stop there sometime,” I would say and keep driving.
That is, until one day a few weeks ago. I pulled into the driveway next to the sign, Martins Garden at Coleman Farms. A 7-acre farm in a busy suburban area, Martin’s Garden was created by Tony and Shari Martin to provide a special place to encourage healthy living for their family and the community and to support charitable organizations. Over the years, with the help of their farmers, they’ve created a bountiful one-acre garden that sells fresh vegetables to the local community and donates produce to local charities. They also provide space for a local flower farmer, Erin Champion of Posie Fields, to grow her flowers, and they have beehives onsite, with the help of beekeeper Jeff Farmer.
On that muggy morning last month, I had an appointment with farm manager, Mary Connor, for a tour. We started inside the greenhouse, which fortunately, has fans for the hot summer months and a heater for the cold ones. Plat after plat of seedlings were lined up on tables with a center aisle down the middle. She showed me several different types of seedlings, including tiny beets with purple stems on the left and celosia plum on the right.
Then we headed to the garden. One of her volunteers, Dave, stood at the end of a row of very tall plants. As he picked the okra, he was marveling at how much of it had ripened over the weekend and how quickly the bucket at his feet was filling up.
Mary mentioned to me that the okra bloom is pretty, so I checked it out. Wow! The shape of the bloom reminded me of one of my favorite flowering shrubs, Rose of Sharon. Who knew that vegetable blooms could be pretty?
As we started down the row, more tall okra plants stretched to the sky on the right, and pattypan squash vines stretched along the ground on the left. Mary lifted some leaves and showed me the squash blooms. More flowers!
We kept going, with her explaining the planting and growing process and me taking notes and pictures. She wore her gardening boots, and as I squished along the recently-watered rows in my tennis shoes, I pictured my rainboots back at home, snug and dry in my closet.
Thinking about those boots led me to my next question: “Do you see many snakes?”
She shook her head. “Not many. They are usually small and they’re the good ones—the ones that eat pests.”
Hmm. Maybe so, but I didn’t want to come across any.
Most of my questions revealed the depth of my ignorance, but Mary answered patiently. As she showed me the plants, talked about the work she does, and pointed out weeds that always need to be pulled, I got a small sense of what a workday might look like, and of the work that would always be there, waiting for her.
We ended our tour at the bell peppers where I saw another surprising sight. Apparently, they come in purple. While I was oohing and ahhing over them, she said from a few feet away, “Speaking of snakes…”
My head snapped up. “Oh?”
She peered down through some leaves. “Here’s a baby one. He’s a good one though. Wait…Where did he go?”
“What?” I squeaked, fighting the urge to step back/run like mad. “Good snake,” I whispered, checking the ground around my feet. Then I tiptoed over to get a photo of the flaming red bell pepper nearby.
No sign of anything slithery, although a bug of some sort did pose on a leaf for me.
“So, what’s next for the garden as summer winds down and fall approaches?” I asked.
Mary explained that she and her volunteers will continue to harvest the few remaining okra, peppers, eggplant, and other summer crops. For fall, they’re already planting their seedlings of beets, carrots, kale, butternut squash, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, and radishes. And as those grow and bear, the team will gather the bounty into crates and sell it to the community, starting in October. Whatever’s left goes to local charities.
Over the winter, the team will be cover-cropping with kale, collards, and broccoli, all of which can survive the cold weather. They’ll also be preparing other beds by putting in compost and laying down tarps to cover it. In the spring, voila! The soil will be ready for planting, and the cycle will begin again.
Mary’s love for what she does shows in her smile and her voice, and I’m glad I got to see it through her eyes. I believe that gardeners are co-creators with God, and I appreciate the work she and the Martin’s Garden team are doing to help feed the community with good things.
Where have you seen beauty lately?
Photo of okra bloom taken by Rachael Male, Martin's Garden Team