Cultivating community

Carol Bryan’s front-yard garden stands out on her block in Peaceful Valley. Even though it’s on a small lot, it is overflowing with colorful plants.

“My passion is flowers and native plants,” the Master Gardener and retired teacher said. “I like anything that grows without a lot of water and have been given so many plants from neighbors’ and friends’ gardens.”

The result is a delightful tapestry of lupine, lady’s mantle, lilies, hydrangea, viburnum, serviceberry, irises, poppies and alliums, to name just a few.

“My yard is like a kaleidoscope of rotating colors,” she said. “It’s kind of an adventure because I walk around and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that was planted here.’ ”

Her goal is to have something blooming from April to October.

“I do flowers for my church and also take them to places like City Gate, the Women’s Hearth and the Women’s & Children’s Free Restaurant.”

She related how people are moved to tears when she brings flowers there.

“They reverently ask, ‘Are those real?’ ” she said. “Then they talk about how they learned to garden from their grandmother and so on. Connecting with them is so meaningful.”

Bryan also feels a strong sense of community in her neighborhood.

A few years ago, she contacted the property owners up and down her block to get permission to plant flowers and edible plants in the parking strips along the street. She worked with many of them to add both beauty and utility to their surroundings.

“My biggest support comes from my neighbors,” she said. “We weeded around the neighborhood, dug a trench around each bed for drainage purposes, and then worked on improving the soil.”

To accomplish this, they placed cardboard on top of the grass, mounded manure and the weeds they’d pulled on top, added wood chips and watered everything in. They soon were growing ornamental grasses, poppies, irises, black-eyed Susans, rhubarb and squash.

Bryan is thrilled with what happened after that.

“One neighbor saw me working in my yard, so she started doing her yard,” she said. “It kind of spread that way; we all enjoy sharing plants with each other.”

Raspberries can be found in nearly every yard on the block – all as a result of Bryan’s desire to share this productive, tasty plant.

“I’m planting raspberries throughout the neighborhood as a way to connect with my neighbors,” she said.

If there’s one thing Bryan has learned from her gardening activities, it is to put effort into building up the soil.

“You have to nourish it every year,” she said. “I try and make a cycle of it by putting nutrients back in, through the addition of compost and manure every year.”

When gardening, she employs permaculture techniques which, as she explained, involve minimal reliance on chemicals and letting plants grow where they do best.

But Bryan takes it a step further:

“It involves trying to permanently improve your soil, your neighborhood, your connections, and improving the culture around you – not just the soil culture.”

In addition to growing flowers, she cultivates vegetables such as lettuce, peas, cabbage, cucumbers, beets, turnips, garlic, peppers and squash. There are also plenty of herbs on hand – sage, cilantro, parsley and dill – for culinary uses.

She is tickled by the reactions of neighbors and passers-by when they see her vibrant, colorful garden.

“One day, I was working out in the yard when a gal came along,” Bryan related. “She said, ‘When I walk through your yard, I feel just like a butterfly.’ ”