Top Stories Richmond

Azaleas and boxwoods have long been staples of the traditional Richmond garden, but these days, you’re more and more likely to see plants of the edible variety integrated into residential landscapes. Inspired by a growing national movement to eat healthier and locally, some homeowners and apartment dwellers are taking the mission to heart. You can’t get more local than one’s own backyard, porch or balcony.

For Kim Davis, a Northside resident, growing food is a source of fulfillment and satisfaction. “I’ve always liked to grow things, even as a kid,” she said. “It helps keep the rest of life in perspective.”

A former Peace Corps volunteer in the 1980s, Davis helped women in the Dominican Republic improve nutrition by growing produce and raising rabbits and sheep. She’s been growing her own food ever since. Last year, Davis deconstructed her house’s backyard deck, turning the reclaimed wood into seven 4’-by-16’ raised beds, where she grows tomatoes, herbs, eggplant, zucchini, okra, peppers and strawberries. The area also houses two compost bins and a rabbit hutch.

“I grow what I like to eat,” said Davis, whose garden features some more unusual crops, like paw paw trees and Concord grape vines that grow along the backyard fence. “The garden’s different every year. I’ll try anything.”

A few miles away, just north of Carytown, Anne Cook’s garden features a combination of flowers and vegetables, including plenty of Swiss chard, cucumbers, beets, soybeans, leeks, sweet potatoes and eggplant. Cook spent her childhood summers helping out on a family farm and has been gardening at her Ellwood Avenue home for the past 18 years.

“It’s in my blood,” she said. “I always feel better when I’m digging in the dirt.”

Cook says she grows enough to feed her family, which includes four children between the ages of 10 and 16, and occasionally induces her sometimes-reluctant children to help her tend to the gardens. She recently added some raised beds to her front yard—the shade cover in her backyard has grown to the point that it hinders the growth of sun-needy plants like tomatoes— and is enhancing her backyard garden with drip irrigation that will provide her plants with more efficient watering from a rain barrel.

The new raised beds include an Italian sauce garden, which includes eggplant, garlic, oregano and other sauce ingredients, and a salsa garden, featuring cilantro, tomatoes and other veggies. Like Davis, Cook says she gets a sense of accomplishment from working in the garden.  

“I’ve taken a bare space and created something from it,” she said. “And I like teaching the kids how to grow their own food.”

Of course, for those who don’t come by gardening naturally, the idea of growing food can be intimidating. Local businesses like Backyard Farmer and United States of Food can mitigate gardening anxiety by assisting with garden installation and care.

“People are tapping back into our inherent desire to know where our food comes from and how it grows,” said Shane Emmitt, cofounder of United States of Food, which installs ready-made raised-bed gardens, complete with healthy soil and planted seedlings, throughout Virginia. “But not everyone has the inclination to spend seven years improving the soil quality of their yard. Our gardens don’t require a lot of maintenance. Your main job is to harvest it and eat the food.”

Emmitt says business has been good since the company started advertising its services about two months ago. In addition to installing gardens at businesses and high-end restaurants, United States of Food delivers gardens of varying sizes—a $235 four-square-foot wine barrel up to a $695 32-square-foot raised bed—to urban residences.

“Our clients are folks who knew nothing about gardening to folks who want the automatic drip system so it will water while they’re away,” he said.

Would-be gardeners can find inspiration on Saturday, July 17, during Tricycle Gardens’ inaugural Edible R-evolution Garden Tour, which will highlight 13 urban kitchen gardens throughout Richmond, including those of Davis and Cook.

“You’ll see a range of what is going on in the city,” said Andrea Almond, a board member of Tricycle Gardens, a sustainable food advocacy group. “It’s so broad—people of all ages and socioeconomic status. We’re trying to build on local interest and hope to get more people to start their own gardens.”

Participating gardens, including the joint Strawberry Street/Belmont Butchery garden and a community garden at Holton Elementary School, will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and a potluck and wine reception will follow from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Jefferson Avenue community garden. Tickets ($20 per carload or up to four people on bicycles), available on tricyclegardens.org, at Tricycle Gardens’ 9th and Bainbridge Urban Farm or at Holton Elementary School on the day of the tour, will benefit Tricycle’s programming. Maps and garden descriptions are available on the Tricycle Gardens’ website.