Maximizing the space available

PLAINS - In the town of Plains, one resident has proved that a small backyard garden can produce a viable, high yielding crop with a vast variety of fruits and vegetables.

“In here we have cherry tomatoes, we’ve got six varieties of tomatoes, we have onions, red/green/yellow peppers, there’s butternut squash, lemon cucumber, seedless cucumber, sweet peas, dill, squash, spinach, lettuce, green beans, egg plant, cabbage, broccoli, sunflowers, rhubarb, raspberries, I think that is all!” said Cori Morrow.

No larger than a typical home garden, Morrow, with her mother, sectioned the garden and created raised boxes to maximize the space available to create a garden that will provide them with an ample amount of vegetables and fruits.

The process of creating the garden, planting, and raising the fence took Morrow and her mother about a week, Morrow said.

Though Morrow lives in the middle of town, the deer that live in town made Morrow and her mother have to take necessary precautions to protect their crop.

“We had to put the wire fence around, and we put a little bit of black netting on top, but we left holes for the birds,” Morrow said, explaining the she wants the birds to help keep the bugs from eating her crop.

Explaining why she and her mother have put so much time into their garden, Morrow said, “Of course to have food, it’s relaxing and to have a nice little hobby.”

Despite the complexity and size of their garden, it is actually Morrow’s first year gardening in quite some time. She explained that as she was growing up, her family had a garden every summer, but then they stopped for a while.

Much of Morrow’s garden was started by seed or little seedlings. She said that some of her tomatoes were given to her from a friend who started them early in a greenhouse. She then laughed and said that she just threw the seeds in the ground and hoped it would work. So far, every plant has come up.

It is still to early to know if every plant will produce in Morrow’s garden, but she said that in no time the garden has grown exponentially.

“We’re really excited and impressed with how it is doing this year, because things are just taking over!” Morrow said excitedly.

As of the 11th, Morrow’s dill, a couple of her peppers, and greens had already begun to produce.