‘You can’t eat grass’: Burlington’s Ken Welch is passing Joe’s gardening lessons forward

Paying it forward. Gardening it forward.

Whatever you want to call it, Ken Welch is taking the gardening lessons - the love of it and the practice of it - that he learned from an older neighbour and friend and passing them on to a much younger neighbour and friend. What his young friend, Chris Scholte, doesn't yet completely realize is that those lessons will last a lifetime.

Ken is a soft-spoken, gentle man whose affable, welcoming manner makes a visitor want to spend time enjoying lemonade and conversation in his large garden. He and his wife, Fran, have lived in their Burlington home for more than 60 years, raising four children and enjoying 12 grandchildren.

It's a lovely, large property and this past week, lilac and laburnum (golden chain) trees were in bloom in front of the house, making a spectacular display. In the back garden, there's a massive old apple tree - the sole survivor of when the property was an orchard and the road was gravel. Under it, a three-metre tall rhododendron is blooming in a soft, blush pink.

But we're here today to talk about Ken's vegetable garden - a large, sprawling patch that is home now to 150 potato plants, dozens and dozens of tomatoes, 100 garlic plants and dozens of peas, beans, eggplant, peppers, onions, leeks, carrots, beets, squash, rhubarb ... well, you get the idea.

And here the story diverges: One is about Ken and Joe and Chris; the other is about what Ken and Fran do with all the produce their garden provides.

Ken, who is 82 and says he's known as Grandpa Ken" to more than a few neighbours, was walking the neighbourhood some seven years ago when he spotted a lovely, thriving vegetable garden. Ken's own vegetable patch (much smaller in those days) was neither of those things. So he knocked on the door, introduced himself, and asked Joe Alexander to come to see Ken's garden and give him some advice.

Joe - for whom Ken's garden is now named - showed up with a rototiller. Ken's old patch, which among other deficiencies was not getting enough sun, was replaced by a big rectangle in full sun. I said Joe, that's my grass you want to tear up.'" He said, said, you can't eat grass."

Joe became a full-on mentor to Ken, teaching him about composting and replenishing the soil, about planting, about how to keep weeds down. I'd be using the hoe and Joe would take it out of my hands and show me how to do it properly." There are no chemical fertilizers in this garden, nor any pesticides. Colorado potato beetles, the bane of potato growers, are picked off by hand. Rich compost puts nutrients into the soil, which in turn feeds the plants.

Joe is dead now, much missed by Ken, who became one of the keepers of his gardening know-how. Then, last year, Ken got a knock on the door. There was a neighbour, Steve Scholte, looking for some jobs for his son Chris to do to get him out of his pandemic isolation.

Chris has since become an indispensable, well, partner, in Ken's garden. Chris plants, sows seed, weeds, water, helps with the compost and the innumerable other jobs in a busy garden. And, when the season progresses, he helps with the harvest.

Chris is exuberant about the garden that he helps with. My dad was making me do gardening in our backyard and this is more fun to be honest," he says grinning at his father. And it gets me away from him."

Now, the harvest. The other part of this story.

Last year wasn't a great year for Ken's tomato plants. He was able to donate only" 300 pounds of tomatoes to Food for Life, a Burlington food bank and distribution centre. (That was along with much of the rest of his harvest.) This year, Ken hopes to double that.

With 150 potato plants already growing healthily, he figures he should be able to donate about 600 pounds of potatoes. Then there's the onions and peppers and carrots and ... well, see the list above.

Ken grows it, Chris helps harvest it and Fran drives it to Food for Life's loading dock.

So Chris isn't just learning about gardening. He's learning about paying it forward. We should all have such mentors and teachers.

Graham Hill, executive director of Burlington-based Food for Life, says there are 15 to 20 home gardeners who donate produce to be distributed through various food-bank and meal programs. It's so meaningful because people actually go out of their way to grow this produce at their own expense. They tend to it, they care for it, they nurture it, they harvest it and then they take the time to drop it off to us."

More information on growing for Food for Life can be found at www.foodforlife.ca or by contacting melissa@foodforlife.ca

Rob Howard lives and gardens in Hamilton. He's a garden writer, speaker (in non-pandemic times) and garden coach. You can reach him at gardenwriterrob@gmail.com or on Facebook at Rob Howard: Garden Writer.