Two years ago, Iola was advertising availability of lands acquired during the 2007 flood buyout. Donna Culver, at the corner of Rock and South Washington, took advantage to attain a lease on a nearby plot that she has used to grow corn, cabbage, squash and more last year and this.
Gardening went so well last year, in fact, that she doubled the size of her plot this year, thanks to the help of friends with a tractor and pull-behind tiller.
Culver also has regular assistance from her son Dan, who on Thursday morning was busy hoeing up weeds, removing maple seedlings and wondering what had gotten into his cucumbers.
“It’s probably a cutworm,” the 51-year-old said.
Leaves were neatly sheared off, but not devoured as would happen if an animal had attacked the plants.
Undaunted, Dan planted one nipped branch, pouring on Miracle Grow to try to get it to root.
Miracle Grow and Sevin are “about the only things we use,” he said.
Other than that, the experienced planters rely on the quality of the soil they found where, before the flood, a mobile home stood.
“I did have it soil-tested,” Donna Culver noted.
“It’s worked out pretty well for having been covered by a house for 100 years,” Dan said.
“It came back as being suitable for vegetable gardening,” Donna added.
Radishes, zucchini, tomatoes, beans — all went into the rich, light soil.
Dan had a water meter and pump installed, at a cost of about $200, he said.
The permit to lease the garden plot is free, Donna noted. “All you had to do was sign a contract for a year agreeing to keep it mowed and not put any permanent structure on it.”
Along with the veggies, Donna Culver planted flowers: canna, iris and sunflowers grow along one edge of the plot.
Dan added touches of his own: old food service-sized vegetable cans, with both ends cut off, that house his tomato plants.
The trick keeps out weeds and more importantly, rabbits, Dan noted. Plus, as the plants grow, he can fertilize and water locally, directing the vital liquid to the root zone and not “all over the place,” he said. Culver waters directly into the can, filling it to the brim for best results, he said.
The cans aren’t as useful on pepper plants, he noted. They may provide too much shade for the heat-loving nightshade. But, he said, one those plants are a little bigger, it won’t matter — rabbits prefer soft, tender growth.
When not helping his mother, “Dan has a big garden out in the country” Donna said.
Dan first began helping her “when I was little,” he said. “We had a pretty big family — we all helped.”
And, he said, they always had a pretty big garden.
Donna Culver grew up on a farm in Yates Center, and has “always had a garden,” she said. “Whether it was just lettuce in the flower bed, I always planted somewhere.”
She and her husband moved to Iola, to a house on South Street, in the 1950s. Dan lives there now, she said.
In 1994, she purchased her current home, but the only space for planting was a thin strip between her and her neighbor’s home.
“The first thing I did when I moved in was spaded it up,” she said of the strip.
Now, fragrant ruby roses mingle with tomatoes and coreopsis blooms sun-gold over bright green lettuce. Her basil, though, she keeps in pots to protect from roaming cats, she said.
The large plot across the street has been a blessing.
“It’s so handy because I can come here at 6 a.m. when it’s cool and weed and pick.”
Culver plans to can beans and tomatoes from the large garden and is already pulling up radishes. She’s also planning fall crops for when the corn is done in July, she said, and will likely move a pumpkin plant that sprouted in her compost heap.
Bountiful growth is everywhere. The only thing that isn’t doing well is the carrots, Culver said.
“We forgot they were there and planted something over them.”
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