Growing her community one urban garden at a time
NC State University released research in 2021 stating the number of Americans growing food in community gardens rose 200% from 2008 to 2016.
By David Williams Kentucky
Spectrum News
Feb. 24, 2024
Excerpt:
A Louisville chef and urban agriculturalist is raising awareness and wants more urban gardens to grow in Louisville.
For as long as Eneitra Beattie can remember, she has always loved to get her hands dirty. Born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. She moved to Louisville in 2005 and loves it. As she puts it, she’s been playing in the dirt and loving the soil from the time she was four or five. It makes her happy.
“It’s just like, the connection with the earth. Like, you really connect with the earth, you really understand and treat the earth better when you have a connection with the earth, like the soil is where everything begins.” Beattie said.
It’s too cold to grow anything, so she’s preparing the garden bed. Beattie cleared all the weeds and scraped things out. She has dedicated her entire yard to urban gardening. She calls it her “yarden”.
Last year, Beattie grew a host of vegetables, including lettuce, corn, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, kale, carrots and watermelon. She began growing in 2021 and encourages others to grow urban gardens.
“The homes here have plenty of space to grow your own food. With that being said, if you want to learn, I’ll try to find anybody that wants to learn and teach them, and it’s easier than they think.” She said.
