The Hammonton Gazette 042920 Hammonton Gazette Digital Edition | Page 5

Stories from locals with home gardens in Hammonton
Page 4 • Wednesday, April 29, 2020 • The Hammonton Gazette
VEGGIES, from Page 3
“My home garden is a straw
bale garden which is replaced each
spring with new bales. Using
straw bales is not at all labor inten-
sive ... at the end of the growing
season, the bales are sufficiently
decomposed and are placed in my
outdoor compost pile along with
leaves, etc.,” esposito said.
esposito is not the only one with
a garden that is potentially self-
sustaining. Tanya LaGuardia
noted that at least a part of her gar-
den self-regenerates.
“We have a pumpkin patch
every year; right after fall we
throw our pumpkins in our garden
area, and we end up getting our
pumpkins back in the fall. it’s cool
because the kids love watching the
vines latch onto everything else
around as much as they could,”
LaGuardia said.
LaGuardia said that her children
appreciate working on the garden
with her.
“My kids enjoy it; we grow all
of the typical Jersey vegetables ...
with peppers, we’ll do a variety of
colors. We’ll do the orange and the
yellow, the red and the green.
We’ll tend to do beefsteak toma-
toes, Japanese eggplant and cu-
cumbers. We also did zucchini and
squash as well,” LaGuardia said.
Jen rajkowski noted that her
daughter Kaelie has played a
major role in her home garden as
well.
“i used to have a community
garden plot, but i also have a 3-
year-old and work full time out of
the house and in Philadelphia, ex-
cept for currently. i decided it was
too much to maintain, not just
being able to run outside and take
care of things. Last year i down-
sized, but this year it’s probably
going to be about twice that size in
the backyard, because of time and
necessity at some level,” ra-
jkowski said.
rajkowski said that her gar-
den—which is raised, with a sup-
plemental herb garden area in
pots—takes up a good portion of
her backyard.
“i used to have a full backyard
garden when i lived up north, and
i had some experience with gar-
dening. i find that where we are
has more shade than normal, so i
tend to favor things that i can grow
in a little bit more shade ... There’s
different things you can do if you
don’t necessarily have full sun in
your backyard,” rajkowski said.
Tracy Dwinell enjoys her back-
yard garden, too, and is no
stranger to the virtues of planting
in pots.
“i have a nice little set-up; i
have about 10 pots that i work
with. i grow tomatoes, peppers,
basil, mint, cucumbers—i did cu-
cumbers last year and i want to do
them again; that was really a good
time. One was a hybrid; it was
called a lemon cucumber, and it
looked like a medium-sized
lemon. it was yellow and every-
thing; it was really cool. The other
was a Kirby cucumber. They did
really well; this was my first sea-
son, last year, planting them, and
it went well,” Dwinell said.
Dwinell has been cautious this
year, though; as she works with
young plants and not seeds, she
has been mindful of weather con-
ditions before planting anything.
“i’m waiting for warmer
weather; this weather’s too weird
right now. it’s not consistent and i
don’t want to get them early and
then kill them,” Dwinell said.
Menzel noted that working with
manageable gardens—e.g., pots
instead of a section of the
ground—is good advice for all
gardeners, especially beginners.
“if you are new to gardening,
start with something manageable.
Hold off on rototilling your entire
backyard; you can plant a smaller
area using more intensive square-
foot gardening methods. You can
grow many things in containers or
even plant some veggies and herbs
in your flower beds. raised beds
can be built with minimal skills
and expense. Select a spot that of-
fers enough sun for the plants you
choose to grow. Many veggies
need a lot of sunlight, but others
will tolerate or even thrive in
shade. Make sure that you have a
water source close to your plants,
especially when seeds go into the
ground or new plants are getting
established, it’s necessary to keep
from drying out. and while this
may sound silly, grow the plants
that you really love to eat,” Men-
zel said.
rajkowski said that gardens
don’t even necessarily need to be
in one’s yard to be successful.
“You can actually grow more
than you think in a flower box. i
used to live in Brooklyn, and i was
able—on my fire escape—to grow
tomato plants. it just takes a little
more creativity in finding the right
sort of plant for your situation, but
there’s a lot out there. it’s not a
See PLANTING, Page 18
Bettyanne and Elisabeth Davis tend to the planters they made from children’s swimming pools.
Courtesy Photo