Yard Farmers: DeKalb residents growing their own organic food

Heath Johnson of DeKalb breaks apart soil Thursday afternoon during the beginning stages of an organic garden. Johnson and a friend, Nathan Dettman, started the garden in their friend’s mom’s front yard along Short Street in DeKalb. The men live in an apartment near Northern Illinois University and have wanted to start their own garden for several years. “It’s kind of an experiment,” Johnson said. “I’ve never had a garden before.” KATE WEBER CARLSON | kcarlson@daily-chronicle.com

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Heath Johnson and Nathan Dettman always wanted a garden. But the two live in an apartment on College Avenue in DeKalb, with no room for planting and growing. So they turned to a friend's mom, Maureen Buntaine-Brown, who is letting them plant in the front lawn of her home on the 400 block of Short Street in DeKalb. “She wanted a garden, but she didn't have time for it, and we wanted a garden, but we didn't have the space,” Johnson said. They hope to plant a variety of vegetables and fruits, including corn, squash, tomatoes and watermelon. “We dug all of Wednesday, and we're just filling now,” Dettman said Thursday. They created two bathtub-size holes, and 11 smaller holes, which now take up a section of the front lawn. Johnson and Dettman spent Thursday afternoon filling the holes with clay, sand and composted manure. The two have employed a practice called “double-digging,” which involves digging up the top foot of soil, tilling the bottom part of the soil underneath and then replacing and tilling the top foot, Johnson said. An apartment building once stood on the property, which is why Johnson and Dettman say they've dug up plenty of clay and sand. They've also found several bricks as they've prepared the garden. They hope to plant seeds Friday. Johnson and Dettman have been reading up on organic farming practices and have volunteered at the organic City Farm in Chicago. “We were going to rototill, but it kills earthworms,” Johnson said, describing an engine-powered landscaping tool that uses rotating blades to lift and turn over the soil. “We're into the whole organic farming thing.” Though they've never tended their own garden before, the two have high hopes. “I don't see how it won't work,” Dettman said. “It's just going to take a lot of effort.” And if their mini-farm doesn't yield any produce? “We'll learn from our mistakes,” Johnson said. “We're trying to get as much experience growing stuff as possible.” Selling what they grow seemed to be a possibility at first. “When we first talked about it, we thought maybe we'd have enough surplus to have our own little booth at the farmers market,” Dettman said. “But it's probably not going to happen.” During the school year, Johnson and Dettman work as teaching assistants for the multiple handicapped department at DeKalb High School. Both are graduates of Northern Illinois University.