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Charlotte couple grow an abundance of veggies with three raised beds, containers...and The List
By Nancy Brachey; Garden Editor-The Charlotte Observer

Charlotte, NC- Spring has clearly arrived in the garden of Chip and Elizabeth Cannon. Herbs look perky, and garlic, onions, cabbage and spinach are growing rapidly.

But the Cannons, whose property is less than one fourth acre, didn't have to devote their entire back yard to a vegetable garden. Their story holds lessons for anyone who wants to try small-space gardening.

With smart planning, they've created a year-round garden in three small raised beds and a set of containers.

Photo by Charlotte Observer Elizabeth and Chip Cannon, who live in Charlotte's Wilmore neighborhood, are successful smallspace gardeners who grow a huge range of flowers and vegetables throughout the year. The Cannons have three raised beds and a set of containers for their garden.

To look at their young tomato and lettuce plants, you might think all the Cannons have to do is sit back and relax in their Adirondack chairs while everybody else goes into a spring gardening frenzy.

For the Cannons, it's all about The List, the neverending summary of chores that everybody faces through the garden year. "In fact, we spent about 30 minutes last night over in the chairs over there talking about what we need to get done in the next couple of months and what our goals were for this year." These folks are real gardeners

This pair of 30-somethings - he's a landscape architect and she's a glass artist specializing in jewelry - are real gardeners. They garden year-round. They grow things from seed. They practice organic methods, including making their own garlic-pepper spray to deter insects, and using liquid seaweed and other organic fertilizer such as mushroom compost. They rotate crops to reduce disease.

And naturally, two visual people would have a garden with an interesting look to it.

The herb and vegetable garden is behind a new picket fence (painting it is on The List) at the rear of their home in the Wilmore neighborhood adjacent to the South End. There, raised beds built by Chip provide a place to grow herbs and vegetables.

Another item for The List is the upcoming addition of a drip irrigation system with a timer. It's one of the special assets of a raised bed and container garden.

"There is no wasted water, and it's very economical to do in a small garden," Elizabeth explains. It also keeps leaves drier and reduces leaf diseases.

The couple moved to the house nearly four years ago. The backyard had no garden, but it had potential. It had open sunshine, and lots of day lilies that Elizabeth spent the summer moving to a better spot, so they could begin their garden. Chip had to fill a huge hole left by an old stump.

The couple - he from Georgia, she from South Carolina - had always been around gardens, and the idea of a small-space garden seemed natural here. And Chip was determined to build raised beds. Each bed is 4 by 12 feet, 20 inches tall, just right for sitting.

The chief reason, he explains, is having total control over the quality of the soil in the beds.

"It's (also) easier on your back because you can sit on the ledge. It's contained. I have walks between them. It looks organized," he says. "This is what I've always wanted."

Elizabeth mentions the bonus that goes beyond the act of growing.

"We don't use this space just as a garden. It doubles as an outdoor living room for us," she says.

They like to think of their garden as a magnet for building friendship and community. "People will be on their walks in the summer, and we'll stand together eating cherry tomatoes off the vine," Elizabeth says. "It's a reason to get together."

It is also a place to experiment. Already they are trying rutabagas this spring, uncertain how well they will grow or even if they will like to eat them. They are still experimenting with broccoli, trying to figure out how to make it produce better than it has done.

"We can't get the timing right," Chip says. Once they were close to broccoli success, with plants coming along well. But a rabbit ate them.

Those are the things that don't deter the Cannons.

"I just have to dig in the dirt," she says. "My friends come over, and I can feed them a meal in the garden that came from the garden."

Chip adds, "It's very satisfying knowing we are cooking our own vegetables.

"And it's local, as local as can be."

Chip is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gary Cannon of Colquitt.

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