Labor of love

Tuskeegee – One of Graham County’s most unique gardens is located far out on South Fork Road, near the Double 00 Farm at the home of Kathie Hatton and Len Sheffield. 

In the eight years that the couple has lived in their yellow 1890s farmhouse, they have transformed their property into an organic garden oasis with a large vegetable patch, herbs, fruit and close to 25 different types of flowers growing in 17 raised beds. 

Although the garden is not among the county’s largest – measuring in at approximately 50x30 – the couple grows several types of vegetables, including lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash and myriad tomatoes, in several varieties. 

The property is also adorned with blueberry and raspberry bushes, and an apple tree. 

“These tomato plants are taking over,” Hatton said. “We call it a tomato forest and the peppers too. We’ll have peppers until, gosh, the first frost really.” 

Hatton, who grew up on a farm near Tampa, said she gardened from her early childhood onward. She said her need to garden came out of a love or growing things and a love for sharing. 

“She likes everything about it,” Sheffield said. “She likes getting up early, coming out here and watering when she needs to. She’s just a farm girl.”

Hatton said she spent approximately three hours a day working in the garden, with Sheffield also doing some of the work. 

She said Sheffield’s primary focus was on the tomatoes and peppers.

“The rest of its mine, including all the flowers,” Hatton said. “You know, I don’t have to have the flowers, but that’s really what I love.”

The couple’s garden is primarily organic, although Hatton said she would use a small amount of Sevin to protect the plants as they first began to grow. 

“She likes picking the bugs off, just because we don’t want to spray,” Sheffield said with a laugh.

Hatton referred to keeping the garden as a “labor of love.”

“You’ve got to really enjoy it, or it becomes not fun,” she said. 

Hatton said weeding was the most difficult part of keeping the garden, especially in an organic setting. 

She also spoke to the need to stay on top of maintenance for the garden.

“You have to come out here about once a week, and tie plants up so they’re not on the ground,” Hatton said. “It’s a maintenance thing. The maintenance of the garden and the maintenance of the flowers.” 

She said the couple planted the garden in mid-May, after Mother’s Day and would have approximately a month of downtime before the real work of maintaining the garden began.

She suggested raised beds as a good way to start for someone new to gardening. 

“I recommend raised beds, but they should know this, you don’t use treated lumber, because it’s got chemicals in it,” she said.

However, she said 17 raised beds on her property was enough for her to manage. 

“I wouldn’t want to make it any bigger,” she said.

Sheffield said the couple was able to get most of its produce from the garden during the summer. He emphasized that they ate most of it fresh, with very little preserved. However, he also said he would make spaghetti sauce, chili and vegetable soup to freeze. 

Additionally, he said the couple did not plant some vegetables they could buy cheaply at the grocery store including potatoes, corn and onions.

“I tried growing radishes,” Hatton said. “That’s a pain in the butt for just a little bit of pleasure. We do not grow onions or potatoes because they’re not expensive to buy.”

In addition to the tomatoes, the couple said one other favorite items in this year’s garden was no-heat jalapeños.

“It was a variety we didn’t even know existed until we found it at Satterfield’s,” Sheffield said. “It’s crazy and they’re incredibly good if you like peppers.” 

Hatton said that she was not the first to garden on the property, with the previous owner of the home being known for his horticulture as well. 

“It was supposed to be the best garden in the valley,” she said.