Dunwoody Food Gardeners #1: Meet Van Malone

Whether or not Dunwoody keeps its farmers market, here's something that grew this year that can't be lost--connections. The same group of people have been trotting into meetings since February to represent a wide range of reasons in support of our farmers market, and farmers markets in general. As a result, we're starting to put names and faces together, and a sense of community has been growing even stronger.

I was driving to the Dunwoody library to get this week's issue of the Crier on Tuesday (mine doesn't come sometimes until Saturday!) when I saw a man I had met at one of the meetings digging away in his front yard vegetable garden, full heads of lettuce at his feet, peas hanging heavy on the trellises. I pulled over and waved my arms in greeting.

Meet Van Malone. Van and Sally live on a corner on Womack and have been growing a front-yard vegetable garden for about five years. Although Van grew up on a small farm in northern Alabama, he hadn't gardened much until after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Now a six-year survivor, Van says, when asked how much time he spends gardening, "You don't keep up with time when you're gardening, because it's fun."

Van and Sally grow vegetables all year, using a cold frame for the winter and for starting vegetables from seeds they get from the South Carolina Seed Foundation at Clemson University. In addition to vegetables, they have blueberry, fig and pear trees. Plus, Sally grinds her own wheat and bakes bread each week, and makes cheese, butter and kefir from raw milk.

Van's Gardening Advice


* The most important thing you can do is add mulch so that you get worms.

* You don't need to till after the first year.

* Treat it like a science project.

Van says that since they started gardening, they have met many neighbors and passers-by whom they didn't know before. He said that several of his neighbors have invited him to pick fruit from their trees, and a man down ther street chops up his leaves every fall for Van to use as mulch. On Halloween, a group of children stood at his front door and said, "We don't know who you are but we love your garden!"

Well, now you know. He's Van Malone. Say hi when you see him out there. And let me know if you have (or know of) a vegetable garden you'd like to see featured on Sustainable Dunwoody. I'd like to get to know who grows food here in our City. Although the Secret Gardens of Dunwoody Tour sounds very nice next weekend (I have enjoyed it in the past), and it benefits the wonderful Dunwoody Nature Center, I see only one mention of edibles in the garden descriptions--at Katherine Feemans' house.

The creation and care of home gardens serve as a critical component of local food security (40% of all Americans had home veggie gardens during the World Wars--statistics indicate that 37% of all Americans intend to grow food this year).
Besides, it's one sure way to get a legal, local tomato!