Family garden offers cornucopia of fresh produce

***Published in The Parkland Press in June 2012***

When Michele Jacobs and her family decided March 20 to plant a garden in the backyard of their Orefield home, it was originally just going to be a trial and error experiment with simple seeds just to see what would grow.

Now, the Jacobs family garden boasts a supremely veritable cornucopia of assorted fruits, vegetables and herbs.

In addition to the broccoli and carrots they recently pulled, the garden contains dill, catnip, lettuce, red cabbage, green cabbage, eggplant, arugula, banana peppers, parsley, cilantro in one section, according to Michele Jacobs.

In the larger section of the garden, there are tomatoes, hot peppers of all different kinds, sweet peppers, cantaloupe, watermelons, pumpkins, peas, corn, zucchini, and cucumbers for making pickles later, which is why they planted dill.

For the Jacobs family, the garden has helped them save “a lot of money” because they are able to use their garden as their own personal produce department.

“We eat everything,” Jacobs said. “A lot of the time, when you go to the store and buy the bag [of salad], it ends up going bad. So now, we basically just come back [to the garden] when we want a salad or anything, we just cut it down and take it inside to wash it.”

They also take the time to share their plentiful harvest with their neighbors. One such neighbor, Catherine Mlynek, said the garden has been a source of joy for both Michele and her kids.

“The kids are fascinated by the little farm they have back there and it’s healthy for [them], too, because they’re learning things,” Mlynek said. “Instead of sitting in the house playing video games or whatever it is kids do these days, they’re out there cultivating and breaking up the ground so the rain can seep through.

“Every once and a while, Michele will say, ‘Cat, come over and look at my garden!’ It seems like the garden [grows] right in front of your eyes,” Mlynek said. “I’m so impressed with it and [Michele] just loves it. She puts her heart and soul into it.”