PHOENIX — Urban gardens are popping up all over the Valley as people look for cheaper ways to put food on the table. Cecilia Nedelko, of Mesa, has been gardening since she was a child.
“I grew up in Idaho and what we had in the garden there was a bit different than what I started doing when I moved to Arizona as an adult. I prefer to work in the dirt. I’ve always been a dirt person. It’s beyond fun, it’s challenging, it’s exciting,” said Cecilia Nedelko, an avid gardener.
The small farm in her backyard has a bountiful area of flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs. And it is all for her community.
“What I’m trying to do this year is plant extra beds and experiment with growing asparagus. But I have broccoli, cauliflower, onions, peas, all kinds of herbs, I have fruit trees and carrots. I do tomatoes, garlic honestly just about anything,” said Nedelko.
While giving us a tour of her garden she taught us the importance of the seed and seed saving.
“If you don’t have seed, you don’t have a garden. A gardener is from seed to seed it’s not just about planting and harvesting the fruit or your crop,” said Nedelko.
Her wisdom comes from what she has learned from Greg Peterson and others at Urban Farm and Great American Seed Up, a seed event that has taken place in Phoenix for the past nine years.
“The thing about growing food is it’s amazingly abundant,” said Greg Peterson, founder of Urban Farm and Great American Seed Up.
Peterson believes community gardens will help to curb the hunger and nutrition problems in the Valley, where 12% of residents struggle to afford food and 1-in-6 children go to bed hungry.
“If we can empower people to plant their own small gardens and start feeding our community, that addresses the local hunger problem. When it comes to nutrition growing organic and being able to harvest at the peak of the fruit or vegetable season, then you are getting the most nutrition-dense food that you can find,” explained Peterson.
The Great American Seed Up event takes place in Phoenix at the North Phoenix Baptist Church on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28.
Tickets are $7.50. For more information, click here.
