Bountiful+Backyards+Visit

Bountiful Backyards Visit ** 919.619.9862 bountifulbackyards@gmail.com 723 North Mangum Street Durham, NC, 27701 We were met in the Durham Farmers Market by Sarah Vroom, a young woman with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. Sarah began her career in the land conservation field which meant long hours spent in the office in front of a computer screen. She found that this was not something she could truly enjoy and thus ended up at BB. The business is about 4 years old and operates as a collective. All its employees share the work load and pay evenly so there is no single head of the operation. This way, each of the members experiences all aspects of the business, from outdoor work, to planning, to funding, and publicizing. They specialize in edible landscaping and Permaculture (mimicking natural relationships when designing human settlements). They work mainly in residential areas, creating annual veggie gardens, tea gardens, culinary and medicinal herb gardens, and planting numerous perennials. BB shies away from the use of invasive species which crowd out most native flora. They also refrain from using chemicals and vie for an eco-friendly option while caring for their plants. For example, planting a shrub that deer love intermingled with plants that the animal can’t stand, rather than spraying the shrub with a pesticide. There are a large number of natural substances that will keep pests away without having a harmful effect. BB also promotes water capture with rain barrels and organic composting. This way a homeowner can create his own amazing fertilizer and enough water to sustain his garden in a sustainable fashion without wasting money. BB offers numerous workshops to help people of all ages learn the tools of the trade. For those who cannot afford the expensive costs of landscaping, but have some extra time on their hands, BB will work out an arrangement. The landscaping will cost less if one devotes manual labor to the project. In this way many schools are able to afford edible gardens.
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A lot of planning goes into each of the landscaping endeavors. Water is a major problem. Many homes have large amounts of runoff from gutters that will collect in the yard, especially in a slanted yard. BB must design their work so that plants are not drowned by all this runoff. Often times they will create trenches filled with sand that will trap this water and put plants that love water into the soil there. The water simply filters out through the sand and goes back into the earth below. We were shown several of BB’s landscaping endeavors in the area. The Garden of Eatin’ located right next to the Durham Farmers Market is a public space created through the collaboration of SEEDS and BB. It contains a herbs, grapes, peaches, blueberries, Goumi berries, figs, and many more. All of these plants are doing quite well and are open to the community for picking and eating. Following this taste and view we traveled to several nearby residential homes. One of which was in the pre-landscaping stages where initial planning was taking place. This seemed very overwhelming, the mere task of removing the cornucopia of undergrowth seemed quite impossible, yet they planned to complete the project in less than a week. I found this to be quite impressive. On the whole, Bountiful Backyards provides a wonderful service to the community through creating delicious, nutritious, and beautiful outdoor spaces.