CityView Magazine

52 | May/June 2015 BY MELISSA GOSLIN Carolina Ale House Photography by Amanda Amador The Fayetteville Community Garden provides food, flowers and a sense of community for people of all experience levels and walks of life. Growing a Community feature I t's a particularly windy day in near spring—that stretch of pollen-cov- ered weeks promising new growth while the threat of cold nights and colder mornings still lingers. Fayetteville comes alive with dogwood blossoms and azaleas, a gentle reminder that it's time to get seeds in the ground. At a five-acre tract of land on the corner of Vanstory and Mann, a few early birds spill into Fayetteville Community Garden to pull up the tarps covering their plots and start planning this year's crops. Depend- ing on what they planted last year, some of the vegetation might come back. Each 20x20 plot is as unique as the people who garden them. Master gar- deners grow immaculately pruned flow- ers. Ornate trellises and practical lengths of chicken wire invite vines to crawl skyward. Bricks and garden sculptures provide clues to the personalities of the gardeners. Compost bins, eggshells and string are tools of the trade. Together, the plots are a larger statement about the community at large, a way for people of all backgrounds and situations to come together in common purpose—to grow. Old Wilmington local Mitchell Mc- Coy is ahead of the game. His plot is cleared and ready for warmer weather. "I love to play in the dirt," McCoy said. He grew up on a farm in Hoke Coun- ty, where each of the kids were doled out a small garden to tend. From a young age, he knew the tricks of growing col- lards, okra and tomatoes. Since the in- ception of the Fayetteville Community Garden, he's added kale and spinach to his gardening repertoire. You won't find McCoy spending top dollar on organic-branded soil for his plot. He goes straight to the source, col- lecting turkey, chicken, horse and cow manure himself. He keeps at it all year, turning and adding to the soil until it turns a rich dark color. "at's why my garden always looks better than other people's," McCoy laughed His old-fashioned green thumb is also why other gardeners regularly ask him for tips. McCoy is the eyes and ears of the garden, watching over it from a plas- tic lawn chair in the corner. He regularly walks the length of the garden, taking in the work of other gardeners, studying what and how they grow their vegetables and flowers. If they ask, he offers advice. When new gardeners purchase a plot, McCoy is the one who shows them the ropes. He talks to them about organic gardening and demonstrates how to hook up the hoses. "Everything grows here," McCoy said. He freezes surplus veggies from his gar- den and eats them year-round. "I don't have to go to the store to buy my vegetables," he boasted. Aside from the financial benefits of growing a year's worth of produce for the meager annual fee of twenty-five dol- lars in water share and operation, Mc- Coy would rather be sitting in his garden than almost anywhere else—certainly the grocery store. He's even thinking about selling some of his excess this year. A New Generation of Gardeners Unlike McCoy, who was raised with one hand in the dirt, many of today's youth have trouble even identifying fresh foods. "Kids nowadays want everything, but they don't want to do anything for it," McCoy said. Garry Winebarger and the Great Oak Youth Development Center are doing their best to change that. One of several

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