M R Gardens of Asheville is now offering an opportunity for clients to be involved with the growing of their own food at the two-acre farm in the Oakley community.
Called “Grow,” participants meet for a full year on a nearly weekly basis, starting in mid-October with building the soil for the following spring. Grow participants learn how to cultivate food in diversified, ecologically sound gardens, and then take home the bounty, dividing up the harvest of vegetables, fruit, flowers and/or herbs. M R Gardens is now taking applications from potential students.
Grow offers education not only in the specifics of growing each particular vegetable and fruit, but also in creating a healthy system to support the crops. That includes beneficial microbes that convert the nutrients in the soil into a form that plants can uptake; beneficial flowers that attract pollinators as well as predators of garden pests; and native plants that are key elements of the food web. Participants also learn about naturalized landscaping, ground covers in place of grass, medicinal herbs, and seed starting in M R Gardens’ passive solar greenhouse, which is climate controlled by design with no additional heating or cooling.
“My goal is to create ease and fun in growing food,” Riley said. When farming is concentrated in the hands of a few, it can become drudgery, she said. Farmers aim to make their food affordable, but in doing so, they are often inadequately compensated and tempted to sacrifice the health of the land for fast, efficient production. On the other side of the coin, home gardening can be frustrating if the knowledge and the group structure isn’t in place.
“The Grow program is my way of creating an exceptionally sustainable model of growing food,” Riley said. “While there are a lot of promising advancements in all scales of organic and sustainable agriculture ventures, I gravitate to a farm size in which I can create the healthiest soil ecosystem possible. For me that means limited mechanization and more hands helping in the garden.” She also gives attention to the diversity of plants, insects and microbes—to all that surround the vegetables to help them grow—rather than solely concentrating on food crops.
Similar to a Community Supported Agriculture model, Grow offers residents an opportunity to essentially pay up-front for their produce for the coming year, therefore sharing in the risk inherent in farming. The difference is that the emphasis for Grow is on education and participation. While Grow students might not go home with quite as much produce as a CSA basket, they get to harvest unique, nutrient-dense fruits such as jujube berries and chokeberries, along with the typical vegetables that are in season. “For some participants, it may be a relief to only take the amount of food they know they can handle that week,” Riley said.
Because of the structure of the Grow program, the weekly gathering in the gardens is something members look forward to. The education is hands-on, so most of the learning is through activities, such as preparing garden beds, planting, and tending the plants, rather than in memorization of facts and terms. While participants are physically active and are given opportunities to bustle if they so choose, most of the work is relaxing and meditative—or lends itself to conversation with others in the group.
To confirm that the program is the right fit, potential students go through a simple application process. Candidates can contact Riley at 828.333.4151 to set up a meeting at the farm. The main requirements are an interest in a unique ecological way of landscaping, excitement about the work of gardening, the ability to help create a conducive learning environment for all in the group, and acceptance to others of different backgrounds and belief systems. Applicants should express interest as soon as possible, and the first payment is due October 20. See www.mrgardens.net for more information.
Budding ecological horticultural professionals may consider Grow’s parallel program, Emergence, which is designed for students who see themselves one day making an income from farming. As the Grow model expands to sites other than just M R Gardens, Emergence students are prepared to help coordinate these gardens. Grow can be replicated on sites such as businesses that hold the intent to better the lives of their employees and communities.
A few students of M R Gardens, who started out as volunteers, have already begun making a side income from gardening. After more than a year of learning from Riley, Asheville resident Jenna Payne occasionally helps out M R Gardens’ landscape design clients, if Payne gets a break from nursing school and a midwifery apprenticeship in which she’s currently enrolled.
“Megan is a skilled teacher and mentor with the basis of her instruction focused on real-time, hands-on learning,” said Payne, who has been working off and on with various growers for a decade. She was struck with the uniqueness of Riley’s style—her way of building the soil, of using ground covers in place of grass, and of integrating plants that naturally pop up in the garden.
“Her gardens are incredibly abundant despite the small scale,” Payne said. Most of the edible and native gardens are currently in a half an acre, but Riley plans to eventually expand throughout the two-acre property.
Payne is particularly impressed by the care and attention that Riley gives, which makes for strong, robust plants and also skilled students. “She excels at conveying her successful gardening processes and systems in a digestible, fun and applicable way to beginner or advanced gardeners,” Payne said.
The inspiration for Grow and Emergence is multifold. While Riley is in part responding to customers’ need to gain more vegetable growing knowledge and have greater success in the garden, she is also addressing an issue that persists despite the many films about food and agriculture that have been released in the last decade. The general public is still too removed from farming to fully understand all that is entailed—such as the resources spent, the skills required, and the timing and seasonality, Riley said.
“This lack of understanding of how our food is produced strikes me as a bit concerning considering food is what sustains us,” she said. “It seems we should all know what is entailed in producing the substances we put in our mouths every day.”
Riley has also noticed a great need for connection. Community members are drawn to help out in the garden simply because they want to be around the plants and in a natural environment. “When I give volunteers vegetables to thank them for their assistance, they often act like I am giving them too much,” Riley said. “Just being here and participating was enough ‘thanks’ for them.”
Riley continues to offer garden coaching and native/edible landscape design services to clients at their homes, which she has done since 2012. Some new clients are combining the Grow program with Riley’s home landscaping services to help renovate their own yards.
Caitlin Johnson of North Asheville shares her experience with gardening alongside Riley this past spring. “When my husband Patrick and I began working with Megan we had very little gardening experience and little vision for what our yard could look like—we just knew we needed help,” Johnson said. “Megan gave us a vision for what the empty dirt patches in our yard could be.”
“The most helpful part of the process was gardening with her,” Johnson continued. “She taught us how to amend our soil, what to plant where and why, and how to care for our plants. Everything we planted before working with Megan died or looked awful, but we now feel confident in our ability to plant in such a way that our yard thrives with beautiful native plants.” The Johnsons, along with their children—Isla, 7, Luke, 7, and Claire, 4—also just had fun planting their new native slope together.
Riley’s garden coaching services and the Grow program are a way for Riley to share her lifestyle with others. “I thoroughly enjoy my day-to-day activities of gardening, learning about the natural world, and having conversations with fellow gardeners, even in the midst of the vast amount of attention a business needs to grow,” Riley said. “Why should I be the one to have all the fun? There’s plenty here to go around.”