“Just being around plants is good for you.”—Noah Curtis
Noah Curtis got dug-in to the garden from about four years old. His first experiences with fresh-growing produce came as a child helping his father tend the family garden. By junior high school he had claimed some of that family garden as his own, and by 24, he started his own farmstand business, encouraging people to get dug-in to their own gardens, and share that so-good produce with their neighbors.
“When I was a kid, I was always outdoors,” says Curtis. “I was really into reptiles and animals and nature growing up.” His love of nature and the garden took him through middle and high school, and when life in a college dorm meant lack of garden space, still, says Curtis, “I was always outside hiking, and I came to appreciate that kind of lifestyle even more, including the health benefits of it.”
Curtis joined the Mount Washington United Methodist Church in Mt. Washington, Kentucky, in part attracted by the garden they had started there. The church is planted on eight acres of land, and Curtis has been part of the team continuing to develop the land with raised beds and other garden spaces designed for different kinds of interactive experiences.
“We have the community garden,” says Curtis, “so people can just have their own spot and grow something. But then we also have a pollinating garden, like a native flower garden. It got planted last season, so it should start really growing this year. There’s a prayer garden, and right next to it is a child development kind of garden, where kids can just go in and play around.”
There is also a veteran’s ministry at the church, and the joy of working in the garden includes providing specialty access for veterans. Led by the church veterans’ ministry, they will also “put in a sensory garden for veterans.” Says Curtis, “We’re going to build a raised bed so you can get a wheelchair under it, if you need to.”
Just as Curtis has gotten dug-in with gardens, he is also finding inspiration in and from the Bible, bringing the two together. The church garden already features the Stations of the Cross, but with planting season soon to begin, they will be expanding the prayer garden, intentionally adding plants mentioned in the Bible.
“We have it all ready,” says Curtis. “We did the soil last year, made the pathway, and now we’re going to plant it this spring.” One of those plants will be anise hyssop. “Anise hyssop is something I’ve really liked, and the Bible talks about. You can use it in teas. In salads it tastes like licorice, if you get young enough leaves. You can see butterflies and bees swarming it, which is so beautiful. It lasts long. And I never really have a problem with it, like pests or disease.”
When Curtis talks about plants, his love of nature and God’s world really shines through. But when it comes down to it, he says, to grow beautiful, healthy plants, this treasure on earth is all about the soil.
He recommends two experts when it comes to better understanding the importance of soil, and how to prepare and support life-giving earth. He recommends the no-dig books and method promoted by Charles Dowding. He also recommends and eulogized Elaine Ingram, who passed away earlier this month, saying, “She was one of the pioneers of soil health. She looked at soil under a microscope and saw it was alive. It’s not a dead thing. Healthy soil feeds your plants, if you get the ecosystem in the soil right. She is a little bit more technical, but she knows what she is talking about.”
In addition to the inspiration and teamwork that he finds in the church garden, Curtis also runs a food sharing business called Pineal Garden, a business featured locally and in the Washington Post. Pineal Garden brings a lot of things together, it addresses food access, sustainability, health, and helps prevent food waste. His idea bloomed, like a Little Free Library for produce, and you can find the wooden farmstands iconic to Pineal Gardens in 15 US States.
“I was 24 at the time when I started it, and I did it for a year before I even had the stands, just helping people in their gardens.” Gardening is rewarding to do, but even more rewarding when you have the opportunity to swap ideas, extra produce, seeds, and starts with other gardeners. For Curtis, “it makes sense. Why isn’t anybody doing that on a big scale? Because if you have grown your own food, everybody has the same problem that eventually you just have way too much stuff just going to waste.”
Curtis built his first farmstand, what he calls a station, in his father’s driveway. “It was a little wooden farmstand,” says Curtis. “Then I came up with a little banner to put on it, and I just asked one of my clients if I could put it in his yard to see what would happen. I put it in his yard, and I started a Facebook group for it, and it started taking off. People started really using it.”
It’s efficient, neighborly, and also healthy. “There are many new people trying to grow their own food,” says Curtis. “People are understanding that the food that we’re getting from the grocery store is probably not all that healthy, even that healthy food has been sprayed with a bunch of stuff, and you have no idea where it comes from. It doesn’t taste nearly as good either. I saw a way to be efficient, but also to connect a bunch of different kinds of people together.”