Urban Farm Tour features Melrose, Mass. backyard gardens

We’ve had steady crowds of people all day long, and great conversations. It’s a great community-building event.”

By Conor Powers-Smith
Melrose Wicked Local
Aug 13, 2019

Excerpt:

“People have been really interested, and asking a lot of questions,” said Steph Zabel, whose hilltop backyard garden on North High Street was busy throughout the tour. “There are a lot more than we expected, and everyone seems very enthusiastic, so many good questions, and people really into what we’re growing and how we’re doing it and what we’ve done.”

Zabel and her husband meet much of their dietary needs through their carefully cultivated vegetable beds.

“I just love growing our own veggies, all of our tomatoes and kale and squash and zucchini, being able to come out here and get that for dinner is so nice,” Zabel said. “We want to try to be urban homesteaders as much as possible. We are trying to grow as much of our own food as we can. That’s hard to do, but we do what we can. Having chickens for the eggs as a produce source is really important to us.”

The garden also features herbs for medicinal purposes, and plants designed specifically to attract pollinating insects. It’s part of an overall gardening philosophy.

Read the complete article here.