NEWPORT NEWS, Va. ? Dressed in blue jeans and short-sleeve cotton shirts, wet grass clippings caked on their shoes, Whitney and Fred Farris look comfortable and relaxed as they stroll their family farm, a 300-acre elongated point of lush land on the Nansemond River in southeastern Virginia.
The farm is where the couple spends weekends and many vacation days, tending to more than a dozen beds of various sizes they?ve created on two acres.
Collectively, their plantings are called Long Point Gardens.
Organic gardeners for decades, they prefer the aromas of aged compost and ripening heirloom vegetables and fruits instead of the smells of gas fumes from traffic along city streets. They dig many beds by hand, and Fred fashions trellises, pergolas and fences from fallen branches and sticks. Tools are kept in a vintage corn crib, which is now officially their gardening shed.
?We have been organically gardening together even before our marriage on a North Carolina organic farm in 1980,? says Fred, deputy director of the educational Virginia Living Museum (www.thevlm.org) in Newport News, Va., since 1999. Many of Fred?s conservation ideas have been incorporated into programs at the museum, including the Living Green exhibit with a green roof, rain barrels, compost system, energy-conserving tips and earth-friendly building methods and products, according to Christine Lewis, museum education director, and other staff members. Fred is also a member of the local Green Building Council.
?The physical gardening work is not really work but fulfilling exercise that has made us both healthier. Being outdoors and tending the garden is invigorating and fun,? he says.
After restoring the farmhouse on the Suffolk property from 1980 to 1983, they moved to the city to raise a family.
Although the couple gardens at the farm, their crops begin at their city home. Seeds are started on heat mats under grow lights, and then the seedlings are transferred to a small backyard greenhouse before transplanted into Suffolk soil.
Tomato varieties they can whole and also make into pesto and salsa include Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra (winner of the 2011 Monticello tomato-testing contest, says Fred), German Riesentraube, Italian San Marzano, Sun Gold, plus Tomatillos.
Flower crops that benefit pollinators include zinnia, coneflower, black-eyed Susan, yarrow, lemon basil, sweet pea, bachelor buttons, butterfly bush, agastache, mountain mint, statice, strawflowers, larkspur, ageratum, amaranthus, cleome, sunflowers, hyacinth beans (seeds from Monticello), Ammi white dill, celosia, Sweet William and phlox.
?We provided all the cut flowers for our daughter?s wedding on the property in 2008,? says Fred.
The couple sticks to strict organic techniques using horse manure and bedding from a nearby farm to establish compost beds that fertilize the gardens. Dormant oil helps control insect issues on fruit and nut trees ? apple, pear, plums, figs, pomegranate, cherry, pecan, English walnut, persimmon, apricot, trifoliate orange, Chinese chestnut and hazelnut. They harvest two kinds of kiwi ? fuzzy and smooth Russian, both cold hardy in Hampton Roads, Va.
They hand weed, mulch extensively and grow cover crops such as crimson clover, buckwheat and wheat during winter to improve soil conditions for upcoming plantings. No pesticides or commercial fertilizers are used, and limited botanical sprays and soaps eliminate most pests on other plants.
Gardening organically and diversely, especially with native plant mixes, brings increasing numbers of butterflies, bees and other good wildlife to the gardens, they say.
Source: http://onlineathens.com/home-and-garden/2012-09-15/family-gardens-together-organically
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