City gardeners create urban oases

Gardening came naturally for brothers Terence and Jesse Carter, who created a pastoral oasis in an urban neighborhood overlooking downtown Lynchburg.

Starting with an overgrown, underused vacant lot in their neighborhood, they tilled the soil and replaced weeds with stalks of corn and rows of greens and tomatoes over the past few seasons. Summers spent on a family farm in Naruna helped train them, they said.

“We’ve all been doing it basically since we were kids,” Jesse Carter said, after planting a row of blackberries along Harrison Street. “Both our grandfathers were farmers.”

Even though the nearest supermarket is miles from downtown, Terence Carter said he’s happy to have fresh, healthy food nearby for his family and neighbors.

Across town, the Hatch family is on the road to self-sufficiency, with chickens, a garden and a fish pond on their eight acres off Old Boonsboro Road.

“I always thought it was funny that you bought eggs in a grocery store,” said Keith Hatch, who grew up in a village in Alaska. “For me, I guess it’s a way of life.”

Backyard gardeners and urban agriculturalists are bringing the farm back into cities large and small — even in Lynchburg, where country life is just a few miles outside the city limits.

“I think people are trying to save money, and I think people are interested in growing healthy food, locally grown food,” local extension agent Don Davis said, noting an increase in the number of gardening questions he’s fielded lately.

Urban gardening can be intensely productive, but there are a few key differences in an urban environment to consider before getting started.

“You might find a lot of debris in the ground,” Davis said. “Doorknobs, plumbing, car parts …”

Davis recommended contacting a soil lab such as A & L Eastern Laboratories in Richmond, who could test the soil for contaminants such as lead for about $20.

Zoning regulations and lot size also have to be taken into account in the city.

Rules vary by zoning classification and lot dimensions, but city zoning administrators say generally, up to four chickens or two livestock animals (goats, cows and horses, but not pigs) are allowed on residential lots in Lynchburg. Coops must be 20 feet from a property line and barns 200 feet from a property line. The city’s community development department can provide further details.

Netty DiMattia said she’s using a technique called “lasagna gardening” to make the most of her small yard in Lynchburg. The technique starts by placing wet black and white newspaper on the area you want to grow, then adding wet layers of leaves and grass clippings and cover with black plastic.

In six weeks, she said, you’ll have perfect soil. She also recommended planting vegetables together in two-foot-by-two-foot squares to save space, and finding people online who would trade heirloom seeds for free, rather than buying seeds from a catalog.

Not everyone has access to a yard or vacant lot, but neighbors can band together to create their own community gardens. Lynchburg Grows is working to create one such community garden in a lot on Cabell Street this summer, after growing some vegetables there last year.

Jesse Carter said his family’s garden plot is so successful, they hope to sell some of what they grow this year.

“If we can help bless anyone to eat better, that’s a good thing,” he said.

For the Hatches, who bought their land in 2007 and are teaching their two children to care for the chickens and harvest the eggs, a garden is not enough.

They want the full urban farm experience, Addison Hatch said.

“Just being able to have your hands in the dirt and having your kids involved is the greatest feeling,” she said. “It beats going to the board meeting.”