CityView Magazine

40 October 2023 Backyard bounty A retired couple's journey from Jersey brings them to Cumberland County where they are pursuing a passion for gardening and sharing their table with their neighbors. BY BOBBY PARKER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CINDY BURNHAM I t's the garden clippers she carries in a pocket of her overalls shorts that give Tracy DiMarco away. On any given day, she spends half her time out in her backyard garden, so it only makes sense that she's always prepared to snip a wayward weed or snap a ripened eggplant, okra or squash. She just loves growing fruits and vegetables. "e satisfaction I get is seeing something that I planted from a seed grow and produce something edible or beautiful flowers," says the retired nurse, who moved from New Jersey to Fayetteville with her engineer husband, Mike, on Christmas Day. "I like to grow stuff that I can't buy." ey settled in a house in the Bayboro neighborhood south of Vander, close by one of their daughters and her husband, who is a major at Fort Liberty. ey loved the expansive backyard with scattered patches for gardening, as well as a detached garage perfect for Mike's 1959 Corvette and assorted car parts. Gardening is mostly Tracy's thing, but Mike jokes that he comes in handy for watering. at's OK with him, as long as he has time to tinker with those classic car parts. On a sunny and humid morning in mid-August, Tracy's leading a horticultural tour for a couple of visitors. What's most striking is the bounty and variety of produce and how most of it is not growing in the earth but in containers. Tracy and Mike DiMarco enjoy their back yard garden. Fruits become jellies and jams; vegetables are turned into pickles. FEATURE

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