09/26/2024
Gardeners of Atlanta Series #1 - Deiatra Eudy
Deiatra is a gardener in East Atlanta Village, where she is an active participant in the garden community. She famously helps run an annual charity sale with another gardener in the area, which has benefited charities like Pet Buddies Atlanta, East Atlanta Community Association, and Blessing Bags of Warmth.
M: So yeah, first question, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your garden philosophy?
D: I started gardening in 2008 and I really didn't want to do anything more than hold the hose. So there was someone in our resident area who had taken on the garden that belonged to the property. So it was a big house, two big houses, a cottage, and an apartment building. So we were in the cottage. She was in the apartment building. But anyway, she was a horticulturist and had taken over where the previous owner who was deceased had gardened. And I told her, go ahead and share any knowledge with me. If you feel like it. I can't guarantee that I'll retain it. And she did a little bit and I remember not being very interested. Mostly I was there to water. And then we moved to Ann Arbor in the middle of January. Then, that whole very cold winter, I watched YouTube videos on growing things, growing any kind of edible. And then I started ordering stuff online. And then I had grow lights in my bedroom. By spring, I was making containers out of anything I could find to put on my porch. The apartment management was about to send me a letter to tell me that that's common space and I can't have my plants out there. So I panicked and I looked online for a community plot. It had just come to the end of the waiting period for people who paid to show up. So I snagged a half plot. And I was so, like, paranoid that people were going to pass judgment on my garden or on my plants or what I was doing and what a rookie I was, that kind of thing. But it wasn't the case. I grew something like 35 varieties of tomato and 29 varieties of hot pepper. Yeah. It's a lot. And before like chili eating contests were a thing, not chili, the soup chili, like the Carolina reaper. Before that was the thing. So back then [my partner] used to help harvest. They don't anymore. They don't want to do anything but take pictures of our cat in the garden. So that was the only season that they were interested in harvesting. But we made hot pepper powder. We made flax crackers with tomatoes and the hot peppers. And I did traditional vinegar pickling. So, that's what I did initially. And then at a winter seed swap, some, you know, potluck, we got together and this is the only place you can just prattle on about gardening because everybody else is like, “Oh my God, don't mention her garden!” You know what I mean?
M: Yeah.
D: Or don't talk about plants. Yeah. So someone sat at my table and said, “Did you use vinegar? Did you do fermentation?” And I'm like, what's fermentation? So that launched into learning more about dehydrating and fermentation and food preservation through alcohol and oil and lactobacillus. So I went down rabbit holes daily. I had a little more energy back then. Anyway, so we left Ann Arbor after a couple of years in the community garden and moved to Scotland, where I was convinced like I'm a self-taught master gardener kind of thing, and I was unsuccessful in Scotland. It is so dreary and so wet and so many slugs like Legion that it's really hard to grow. It never gets hot. You can grow some stuff, like if you buy the plant with all the flowers on it and you stick it in soil, you can grow that. But like traditionally doing this, no, absolutely you can't do it. It's just not sunny enough.
M: Really? That's interesting. I wasn't aware of that.
D: And then the slugs are just, you just can't ever get ahead of them. Because as soon as you clear 100 in one night, it only opens up space for the next 100 to come in. So you can't ever get rid of them. You can kill them but then you have to put poison down.
M: So how long were you in Scotland and what did you do since it was so hard to garden there?
D:It was disheartening. it was very depressing and dark and wet and gloomy and I couldn't garden and I felt trapped. And I just was getting more and more depressed. I grew iceberg lettuce in a soup can in my window. Like, that's how much I missed it! I just wanted to connect and then [my partner] said that there's an opportunity- someone asked them to interview in Boston. And I'm like, yes, please! So fortunately, they got that job and we moved to Boston. When we got to Boston, the very last day of December, I was like, it's so sunny here!
M: And that's really far north.
D: Yeah, but it felt like endless sun compared to where we'd come from in the middle of December, the shortest month of the year. So we left Glasgow and our first summer I immediately started growing. We bought a condo. So it had a postage stamp [yard] out front, a sidewalk with green on both sides. And then I think that was it. Yeah, that was it. As you came down the steps, there was a little triangle of empty space. So I put a bunch of pots there that started growing immediately, like as soon as we got to Boston. And then, yeah, we moved here [Atlanta] from there. So it's just been feeding the addiction.
M: That's excellent. So you mentioned growing edible plants. Strictly.
D: Yeah. Like when I met someone at the community garden that said, “this is my first time growing food”. I was like, really? Just taken aback. Like, what else would you grow? And she goes “I usually grow flowers”. And I thought, well, how many flowers can there be? I was thinking, like, you know, your Walmart flower options, the periwinkles and maybe zinnias, whatever they offered at the local garden center. I had no concept that there were native plants and that there was the need to provide food for the bugs because I thought, like, I don't want any bugs! I don't want any birds either because they're going to eat my plants- or eat my fruit!
M: Right! So that slowly changed. Because you're kind of considering, I've heard you talk about yourself that you are also a rewilder.
D: Yes. And that was my goal on moving in here. It [the yard] was so stereotypical. It was just green lawn and a couple of shrubs, the camellia, I think, and then gardenia there, and lawn. He [previous owner] had those big tall shrubs. He had them into a narrow- the abelias over there- he had them into a narrow fence-height hedge. Not like an eight foot one, but so ugly. You could see straight through it. It was a tall rectangle. So that he could walk along the whole thing, and just be done in one swipe.
M: Yeah. And this [gesturing to the current natural look of the abelias] is the way they are supposed to grow. They're supposed to arch.
D: They look so much better that way. Right now is the time of year where all the swallowtails start lining up over there. And there's one yellow one up on top.
M: Yeah, I see it!
D: Anyway, yeah. So I set up some habitats. I was like, when can I get my first opossum? When can I get my raccoons in here? I need snakes. I need frogs. I was setting up little shelters for animals to crawl in at night and opening up our fence so that things could come through our yard. And I really didn't see much. Uh, because it's a process. I brought down a couple of invasive trees and then I got an arborist to clean up some other parts of it. Like that path, the beds over there are mostly logs from the invasive tree that I brought down. I didn't want any resources to leave the property. If it grew here, it stays here.
M: The permaculture principle.
D: Yeah. If it grew here, I want it back. Including very noxious w**ds, which there are two now that I will put in the trash directly. A handful of nutsedge, straight in the trash. I think I'm getting a handle on it this year. So, like, the magenta spreen lambsquarter and all amaranth. I let it come up because it's a wonderful trap plant for the Colorado beetle. Mm-hmm. No. The, uh, cucumber beetle. Instead of going to my cucumbers, it goes to this. Then it'll go to the next one and it literally turns it to lace. I cut down a bunch yesterday because you could see through them. But then they get returned to the same soil. There's only two things I put in the trash. I'm really proud of it.
M: You mentioned that at first [your partner] used to help you with the garden and now they only want to take cat pictures.
D: In the garden, yes.
M: I want to talk about your cat Nessie, because your cat is insta famous, right? And, you know, obviously she enjoys being part of the garden.
D: She loves being outside.
M: Does she have any favorite spots in the garden?
D: Yes. Just several, but right in front of the Black Eyed Susan, between the coleus and Black Eyed Susan, is catmint. Yeah. And she likes to lie there. Um, any bit of dirt she likes to roll in. And when the beds aren't occupied, she likes to do her business in the beds.
M: I think you've told me this before, but, um, I don't quite remember, how did Nessie become famous?
D: Her first viral video, and there was a long gap between that and her next one. But the funny thing is both of them are videos of her taking a s**t.
M: Oh, great.
D: Yeah. One of them is Tyler Perry's Medea character. It's her voice saying, look at my face, bye, girl, bye. And that got like 350,000 likes. And the long gap later is, um, one that [my partner] fast-forwarded a little bit while she's, you know- cats will do this while they're getting ready to p**p. So she's doing that, but they sped it up and they coordinated, coordinated it with, um, the audio really well. And it's just too cute. That one got really, really big. Then there's been some more that have been moderately popular. They [my partner and Nessie] are bonded in a special kind of way, but, um, [my partner] is very appreciative of the landscape, but their not interested in actually gardening. It's a lot.
M: So I’ve got to ask about the chickens. What are your favorite, some of your favorite edible and medicinal plants to grow, and what is the role that chickens play in your permaculture garden, and do they offer any benefits beyond just fresh eggs?
D: Oh my God. They're my beloved pets. In fact, the little white one, the picture of me, she stayed indoors last night just so I could have company. You know, I have three cats, but they [chickens and cats] don't fight when they're together. Oh my God. Chickens. So here's the thing. Chickens, like, you know, cats kind of do this. Like, let me just check you out. But yeah, the chickens. So obviously I grow more than I need. I also don't like to cook. So when I make extra, it's all being used.
M: I'm surprised to hear that.
D: I'm over the cooking thing. I did it when we were in Ann Arbor. That was part of my deep dive in all these rabbit holes. Preparing and preserving and yeah, veganism and all of it. I was, I was like “crunchy”, but you wouldn't know it. Anyway, the corn I'm growing is for the chickens and I like the way corn looks when it grows. So I get to look at it and then I get to watch them eat it. And then the millet, I love looking at it. And then I get to give the seeds to the Carolina wrens and sunflowers. I get to watch the goldfinches.
M: That's part of your rewilding.
D: Yeah, exactly. So, chicken s**t is magic. I do compost it with their bedding, which is leaves that I gather from other people's yards for bags. Yeah. I think I put 40 bags in there in the fall. Then I hire someone to come and shovel it all into some compost rings. Yeah. And it sits for six months. You don't have to turn your compost or anything. The chickens do it.
M: You're not scared of what other people are putting in their lawn bags?
D: Yes, I am. If they have a chemical lawn, I don't pick it up.
M: So you're observing where the bags are coming from.
D: I didn't at first. And then I got to thinking about it. Like, what? No. Yeah. I don't want this. I only pick it up if I can see plenty of w**ds in their yard. And their trees look healthy, right? Yeah. And so that all goes, and if I open it and it's got plastic and whatever in it, then you just take that out. It just depends on what you find. But that gets mixed with the [chicken] bedding- like even magnolia leaves. Yeah. They can crush them. Just walk over them so often. So pine needles, I get pine needles. And it makes the nicest, hummusy, even compost.
M: Are you till or no till?
D: I don't till. I fork sometimes, but I have several different things going on. The very first corner was the one up there with the big persicaria. That was my, like lawn square. And that little square up there, I had to get my garlic in the ground. So first I thought, I'm just going to cover this all with cardboard and wood chips, I'm going to plant fava in and that will enrich the soil. No, that didn't happen. What happened was I ordered soil. Yeah. And so there was wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of that. plus rocks to break up the clay. It wasn't until I got chickens that I really got to add nutrients to the soil. That's why so many beds are raised because I needed to bring the soil over. But it is improving with every planting. Then the chickens. Yeah. Tremendous differences in fertility.
M: You sell eggs too, right?
D: I sell eggs. Yeah. I do. They produce beautiful manure, each one of them has a personality. They can be quite vicious and I scold them a lot. I literally sit with them a lot as a mental therapy. They're wonderfully entertaining. They're smarter than you give them credit for. I love the sound of their little coos and stuff when they talk. So I love that. They're good. Yeah. My good clean fun is what they are.
M: I do have a question about what is your favorite medicinal and your favorite edible plants that you grow because you have so many of those.
D: Right. Let me think, medicinal. I don't really do much with medicine plants. Like I know about, what do you call this? Calendula. I hear anecdotally, but I've never made a tincture of anything. Maybe I could say, like I love okra. The plant is beautiful. The flowers are beautiful. It's so freaking productive. Yeah. And you can store it for a really long time. Oh. You can pickle it. Yeah. Um, you can eat it raw.
M: How do you store it?
D: I mean, when you say you can store it for a long time, you can freeze it. You can grind it up and, instead of using a lot of flax or chia for a binding agent, the okra would be the binding agent for flax crackers or what have you. Then I think the number two, maybe is this asparagus patch.
M: Oh, I love that asparagus patch. I just think it looks cool.
D: It's a bit wiley. It needs a gate around it, but I was pondering earlier today how I would like to finally get rid of that tree, the maple, ‘cause I have two service berries, two paw paws, and I want a plum and a peach. Pomegranates in its third year now. So I would like a fruit fence. At the end of the yard and just get rid of that thing once and for all. The only way it's going to ever get going is if I do it.
M: Speaking of favorite plants, what's your favorite native plant? ‘Cause I know you grow a lot of those.
D:I do have some favorites. Um, and yeah, so I think my favorite hands down plant that is native to North America-Mexico is cosmos. I just can't get enough of the cosmos. Um, my favorite native to our area, probably Cardinal flower and some of these Asters. They're so showy. They are so showy and it's, and it's so late in the season. You have to wait for your reward. There's something for every condition. There's Asters that like wet feet. There's Asters that need to be dry. There's Asters 10 feet tall and there's Asters that are diminutive. There's so much.
M: What's your favorite flower in general?
D: It's gotta be cosmos. So I'll tell you what's second. Is this, um, purple poppy over here? The wine cup is one of the common names, but you can see how similar to cosmos it looks. I like perennials. Yeah. I like perennials just because they're easier than, well, I mean, there are a lot of free sewing, freely seeding annuals too that are easy, but I do like the easiness of perennials.
