Home Gardening a Boon to More Than Richfield Residents’ Dinner Tables

Home gardens are common enough in Richfield—drive down any street during summer and you’ll likely glimpse one or another resident tinkering about in their yard, spade in hand. But while many gardeners in Richfield spend their time considering how best to pair yellow chrysanthemums with blue bellflowers, a more utilitarian home garden is flourishing in the yards of some Richfield residents, including and his wife Lynnae.

Driven by concerns over health and economics—and aided by the added family connectivity which comes with a garden dedicated to producing fresh produce, fresh eggs and beer-yielding hops—the Haines' backyard garden puts food on the plate while keeping the their family in touch with friends, family and each other.

The Garden

Set in a raised circular bed roughly twelve feet in diameter, the Haines’ garden is centered by a large tree bearing a trellis on which David grows hops he uses to make his own beer. David keeps in touch with friends in Richfield through "trades" of hops with other home beer brewers.

As for the Haines' garden bed itself, it was originally overrun with hosta plants. David and Lynnae tore the hostas out of the garden bed in order to make room for tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, herbs and other vegetables.

“[The garden] is definitely an evolution. We started with herbs ... and then tried some things that never came up,” Lynnae said. “We’ve experimented with different sections [of the garden], seeing what worked where. It’s definitely constantly evolving.”

Lynnae said she estimated they would likely continue to expand the garden each year.

"I’d like to do [more] raised beds eventually," she said.

A Family Affair

David and Lynnae both reported that, since they decided to begin growing their own backyard vegetables three summers ago, this “constant experiment,” in Lynnae’s words, has had unanticipated benefits that go beyond the food produced.

When the Haines decided they would keep chickens so the family could harvest fresh eggs every week, they turned to Lynnae’s father, an experienced carpenter, for help constructing a chicken coop.

By far the most expensive part of the Haines’ backyard setup, the coop took three consecutive weekends to build—meaning six days of near full-time collaboration between David and his father-in-law.

Using the labor of Lynnae’s father made building the coop far more cost-effective, but enlisting a parent’s direct help wasn’t the only way the couple felt they were connecting with their parents’ generation. David comes from “farm stock” on his father’s side, and in some way feels connected to gardening that way.

“I feel like I’m doing a small part to carry on the family legacy,” David said of his decision to transform the backyard garden into one which produces vegetables. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t have a garden like ours. If you’ve got the space, why not have something that produces for your family?”

Lynnae said she felt like they were teaching their three kids an important life lesson with the garden as well.

“I’m a farm girl at heart,” she said, although she did not grow up on a farm. “I want to teach my kids where we come from. I love being outside and I want to instill that in my children too.”

The Haines reported that time spent in the backyard as a result of the garden and chicken coop is having that effect, as their daughter has requested they next purchase a goat.

“We’re not getting a goat,” David said.

The Costs

Aside from the start-up cost of building a chicken coop, the Haines' backyard efforts aren't terribly expensive. While the couple doesn't keep track of the money they spend on it each year, Lynnae estimated that buying the seeds and plants to establish the garden each growing season costs them less than twenty dollars.

“We didn’t know if it would save us money or not, but we didn’t really think it would cost us any more than we were currently spending, so we went for it,” David said.

He estimated they spend $8 per chicken at the beginning of the year.

In late September or early October the Haines are planning on gathering family and friends for a "big brew day" to celebrate the end of summer. They plan on serving beer David makes with his homegrown hops, along with a chicken stew made from the chickens they keep and vegetables harvested from their garden.