Organic garden grows from DIY

Homeowner makes hard ground a memory.

Contact this contributing writer at PamDillon@woh.rr.com.

When Judi Copler and her husband, Patrick Kenrick, moved to Springboro from Bloomington, Ind., 19 years ago, they moved into a nice suburban home with a yard full of … hard clay.

Copler’s family owned a 500-acre farm in Floyds Knobs Twp., Ind., and she had farming genes in her blood. Undaunted, she told the landscapers no sod and proceeded to do everything herself.

“I’d brought 90 plants over from Indiana, and the ground was so hard. We got a couple of loads of mulch, and the first year we just laid out two beds,” said Copler. “We dug holes in the ground, dumped in the mulch and put new dirt in. We’ve been conditioning the soil ever since.”

Almost two decades later, they have one of the most spectacular gardens you will see in a subdivision. They have 16 raised beds, a pop-up greenhouse, and a cold frame. She grows heirloom tomatoes, squash, onions, carrots, lemon cucumbers, and rutabagas. The raised beds were built about four years in.

“About my third season here, I had this spinach planted. It was looking prettier every day, and I thought, ‘I’ll give it one more day and then I’ll have a great big spinach salad,’ ” remembers Copler. “I actually went to bed thinking about it. The next day, it was down to just stubs. The rabbit in the corner of the yard seemed to be smiling at me.”

She cooks the rutabagas like you would any potato. She also has tons of herbs: chives, oregano, Indian pepper/basil, Thai coriander/basil/peppers. Four small lavender plants grow in the middle of her brick paver labyrinth they’ve built to navigate around all of the plants.

“Some put lavender in liquors; lavender lemonade is very good. I use the basil in iced tea,” Copler said.

The cold frame has a lid that keeps plants warm in the winter. They grow romaine lettuce through December. She grows three different varieties of kale.

She also grows many different varieties of perennials. Iris, hostas and daylillies dot the back and side yards. The most sentimental one is the pink Iris handed down from her maternal grandmother, Mamie.

She has a totally organic garden, and makes her own compost. Every year she rotates her plants, except for her berry beds. It helps to keep the bugs down. She starts her heirloom tomatoes inside the house under a glow light. She has 10 varieties.

Kenrick said, “I love her tomatoes, especially the Black Krims. When they come in out of the garden they taste much better than anything you can get in the store.”

Actually, Kenrick was the one who convinced Copler to start eating healthier. When they first met, she chowed down on chili dogs and Big Macs. What’s worse, she smoked.

“He told me that’s a deal breaker for a long term relationship. The cigarettes went right away, but it took me awhile to get there without meat, about two years,” said Copler.

They’ve been married and happily eating no meat for several decades now, and the organic garden helps to seal the deal.

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