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Community Corner

Front Yard Vegetable Garden a Hit with Neighbors

Dunwoody gardener's plot finds popularity in the neighborhood

What would the neighbors say if you planted a front yard vegetable garden? 

‘There goes the neighborhood’ might be the first concern for many gardeners who like to grow their own vegetables but have shady back yards and sunny front yards.

 Van Malone’s neighbors had the opposite reaction. It was here comes the neighborhood after he put in his front yard vegetable garden.

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For them, the front yard of Van and his wife, Sally, at the corner of Womack Road and Vernon Oaks Drive has become the nearest grocery produce aisle. People along the street know they are welcome to pick what they want, Van says.

Not only does the front yard garden yield strawberries, leeks, carrots, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, snow peas, bell peppers, onions, garlic and a variety of other vegetables and herbs, it’s very attractive.

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Where landscapers – the professionals and the do-it-yourselfers – might plant pachysandra as a ground cover, for instance, Van has planted strawberries. From the street you can’t tell the difference. But try getting four gallons of strawberries from pachysandra. That’s how many strawberries Van has picked so far this year. And they are still coming!

The garden started about 10-12 years ago as a small flower patch. Van wanted to plant flowers on the corner. Sally said ‘no.’

So one day when Sally was out, Van (you guessed it) tilled the area up and planted flowers. “I went nuts after that,” he admits a little sheepishly.

(Note to Sally: Van’s story reminds me of a man I know in Fayette County who wanted goats for his farm. No goats, his wife told him. Then she went out of town for the weekend. He, of course bought goats. Unfortunately, while unloading them he had his back turned and they escaped. He looked everywhere but couldn’t find them. Then the realization sunk in: THE HOUSE. Somehow, they found their way in. The damage was so extensive he couldn’t repair it all before she returned home!)

Van’s planning on staking about 40-50 tomato plants. Some are already in the ground near the driveway. The varieties include heirlooms such as Pink Brandywine, Violet Jasper, Calabash, Organic Black Cherry and a host of others.

His bell peppers are far ahead of anyone else’s. Gardening guru Rod Pittman taught him that peppers are perennials. So Van dug his plants up last November, potted them and put them in his basement, watering them occasionally. The plants kept their leaves and now are back in the garden where they are far ahead of the seedlings that are available in the nurseries.

This is my science project he says, proudly surveying the garden.

“It’s his baby,” Sally once told me. She and Van also both volunteer at the Dunwoody Community Garden in Brook Run Park.

Van’s also proud of the fact that he’s not gotten one single negative comment about the garden. To the contrary, when Van’s in the garden people driving by on Womack Road often honk and wave. Those pulling out of the neighborhood on Vernon Oaks Drive frequently stop and chat.

“I meet two new people every week!” Van says proudly. Typically they tell me ‘I love your garden!’ “And this is Dunwoody!” he points out.

Sally says I’m running for mayor, he adds. Politicians can rest easy. That’s not the case.

But if Dunwoody ever holds a popularity contest, there’s a certain two-year-old on the street who would certainly cast her vote for Van. He grins as he recalls the time she was eating strawberries in the front yard. With juice running down her chin, she looked up at him and said “More, Moan,” not able to pronounce Malone.

There are four nearby families that pick tomatoes who even bring him Christmas presents. It’s their way of saying thank you, he says.  “Last year I had the best Christmas ever!”

Where’s it all going? The space is planted out, Van says with a sigh.

He’s trying fig trees and some other plants, such as paw paws, in other parts of the property. The light levels, though, just aren’t high enough for the plants to set fruit, he fears.

But the neighbors need not worry. Van, as they know, gardens year-round, and there’s always plenty enough for children and adults alike.  

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