In the Stars

Jessica Edwards and Abby Dyke turn their

passions into a thriving urban farm

By Shawndra Miller 

»One day last winter, before Cosmic Gardenseven existed, its founders sat indoorsdreaming of farming. Having met when bothworked at Pogue’s Run Grocer, Jessica Edwardsand Abby Dyke discovered shared passions forart, food and plants.

The friends bonded over a mutual wish to beoutdoors as much as possible. “We werealways enclosed, always behind windows,”Dyke says. “We both just wanted to be outsideso bad.”

Fittingly, this conversation is taking placeoutdoors, as the two stand under a lightdrizzle in the middle of lavishly productivegarden plots.

“When we’re inside, we feel like we’re wastingour time,” Edwards explains.

Read more →" /> Read more →" /> Read more →" />

(http://www.farm-indiana.com)

Dyke picks an early strawberry and divides itin half to share. A few feet away, peas twineup a trellis, and a stone-bordered lettuce bedsoaks up the rain. Wide rows of rich black dirtsupport plants ranging from purple peacockbroccoli to white acorn squash. Honeybeessallying forth from two hives in the back ofthe lot nd a wildly diverse range of food inthe quarter-acre space.

Munching the fruit, Dyke remembers, “Sheasked me what I truly wanted, and I was like, ‘Iwant to grow things.’”

So they made a plan, and a new urban farminginitiative was born. Cosmic Gardensencompasses several near-eastside Indy lots,including each of their yards. Here at Dyke’sproperty, which she rents with her boyfriend,it’s her second year of converting her lawn intoa haven for plants and bees. Their favoredpractice is to set cardboard right on the grassand heap high-quality soil called “Mark’s Mix,”sourced from Indiana Mulch and Stone, on topof that base. They eschew chemical inputs,preferring to support the plants with qualitysoil. They use natural pest control methodslike hand picking and companion planting.

It’s clearly an approach that works: A fewmonths into the growing season, there’ssomething green everywhere you look, and itisn’t grass.

“We don’t want to use resources for mowing,”Edwards explains.

A big part of the young women’s mission is torevitalize the neighborhood, where weedy lotsand empty houses are a common sight. Withthe aid of each of their boyfriends and otherhelpers, they’ve begun farming two vacant lotsthrough the city’s urban garden licensingprogram.

“A lot of our volunteers have been kids of theneighborhood, so far,” says Dyke. “They are thecurious ones willing to come up to talk tostrangers.” When the children ask if they can

help, the women immediately nd a job thatsuits them, whether it’s moving dirt, planting,transplanting or watering.

“I have a little girl named Allie who comes andwaters, and although she can only carry thecan a quarter full, it’s still helpful, and she’sreally sweet,” Edwards says.

At some point during high harvest time,Cosmic Gardens may run a more formal kidsclub. Working with children ts with theirsecondary goal of getting people to growmore of their own food because youths canlead the way at home and into the future.

Bending down to tug an errant weed, Edwardsreports on something she’s read: “No matterwhat,” she says, “if a kid is given some kind ofgarden mentoring at some point in his life,even just for the smallest bit, no matter howlong it takes, that kid will come back togardening at some point.”

Another way Cosmic Gardens supports homegardeners is through the build-a-gardenproject. Before the growing season evenbegins, the duo takes orders from would-begardeners interested in receiving plant starts.Edwards and Dyke plant and tend theseedlings with care, using only rainwater or

ltered city water for irrigation.

They offer medicinal herb starts as well asstrawberries and garden vegetables. Nearly allare heirloom varieties. A gardener’s preorderpayment buys more than seeds; it funds thefarm’s building materials, soil, light bulbs andother supplies.

Since May, Cosmic Gardens also runs a smallCSA. Subscribers bene t from their farmingthroughout the season, and each week theyalso receive a “forager’s nd” such as morelmushrooms, ramps or lambs quarters.

Cosmic Gardens also offers surplus seedlingsand produce at the weekly Beech GroveFarmers Market on Sundays from noon to 4p.m.

To meet them is to understand farming as acalling and a spiritual pursuit. They namedtheir farm in deference to the cosmos, whichhas a deeper in uence on plants than mostpeople realize.

“We call ourselves Cosmic Gardens becausewe practice biodynamic farming,” says Dyke.“So we try our absolute hardest to consult thestars before we actually plant, because we areknowledgeable that the moon is the watermagnet. The moon draws water from theearth.” She explains that the moon’s locationin a particular constellation determinesoptimum planting and harvesting times.

Rather than the traditional Farmer’s Almanac,biodynamic farmers consult the Stella NaturaCalendar to guide their endeavors. “We referto it on a daily basis,” says Dyke. “We plant byit, harvest by it, transplant by it.”

They are also conscious of the microbiology ofthe soil, in keeping with biodynamic practices.That’s why they don’t touch the plants withcity water without rst ltering it: Chlorinatedwater kills healthy soil bacteria.

Though there’s a steep learning curve to theart and science of biodynamics, CosmicGardens’ plantings respond to this level ofattention. Exhibit A: ourishing tomato andpepper plants, transplanted on a “root day” togive maximum support to the root system.(The calendar enumerates speci c days thatare best for roots, owers, fruits and leaves.)

“It would be really awesome if we could oneday have a school where we actually teachother people about this,” says Dyke. “So farwe’re just stumbling through the dark on ourown, using the stars as our guide.”

Dyke is not a newcomer to growing things,however. Childhood summers spent helpingher mother in a large kitchen garden laid thefoundation for today’s vocation, even thoughshe rejected everything about gardening andplants as a rebellious teen. “I hate plants!” shesays she declared at 18. When she woke up

one day in her 20s and wanted to put in herown garden, she took a bit of a stealthapproach.

“Last year I got starts from Amy Matthews (ofSouth Circle Farm),” she says, “and when Ipicked them up, I told her, ‘Please don’t tellmy mom.’” The warning was unnecessary, sinceMatthews doesn’t even know her mother. ButDyke felt the need to proceed cautiously inbreaking the news to her mother.

How did her mother take it? She was“ abbergasted,” Dyke says, remembering whenher mother nally saw her efforts. “She waslike, ‘You grew all of these?’ … I sort of snuckup behind her and (said), ‘Look, Mom, lookwhat you taught me!’”

For her part, the 21-year-old Edwards grew upon military bases with zero exposure toagriculture. In art school, however, she oncecanned lawn mower clippings for a classproject. Her quirky critique of Americans’ turfgrass obsession didn’t make much sense to herclassmates.

“My boyfriend had spent all day mowing,” sherecalls, “so I canned it up and presented it on ashelf, all these jars of canned grass. My classwas so confused. I was like, ‘You know mowingis kind of like harvesting. You don’t get it? Icanned all this grass, if you want to eat it. Imean you spend so much time growing it,seeding it, watering it. … What are yougetting out of it?’”

In other words, “Grow Food, Not Lawns,” amovement these urban farmers have heartilyembraced.

Their mission resonates with many, and in ashort time they’ve gained a core group ofvolunteers to help with physical labor andbehind-the-scenes tasks. Their support systemincludes a grant writer/social media expertand an architect interested in water catchmentprojects.

The grant writer, Annika Larsen, is ajournalism student who happened to see oneof Edwards’ Instagram posts about the farm.She leapt at the chance to help with a causethat’s dear to her heart. “I love the draw tobring local food to people and places thatmight not have access to it in abundance,” shesays. “I love how it connects the community togood food.”

Her rst task was to get Cosmic Gardens a taxID number to enable grant applications. Nowshe’s pursuing grants for season-extendinghoop houses to allow the farm to continue towork year-round.

Though Cosmic Gardens has capped thenumber of lots for this year, the women hopeto expand in future seasons. One of the vacantlots is located on an entire block of emptyhouses, and they’d love to stretch theboundaries of their farm to these adjacentproperties and perhaps even purchase one ofthe houses to serve as a home base.

Their dream is to have enough volunteer helpto farm numerous locations and potentiallyhand off the farming to the immediateneighbors at some point.

Noting there’s no shortage of nearby availableproperties, Edwards says, “We feel like we’vegot a giant coloring book, and we’re just goingto start, page by page.”

For more information, visit cosmicgardens.farm(http://www.cosmicgardens.farm).

0

Tweet

Like 0

PREVIOUS STORY

Room and Board

NEXT STORY

The Good Road

RELATED POSTS

(http://www.farm-indiana.com/2015/08/31/room-

and-board/)

(http://www.farm-indiana.com/2015/08/31/the-

good-road/)

By mwininger

By mwininger

By mwininger

By mwininger

Beyond question

(http://www.farm-

indiana.com/2017/01/05/beyond-

question/)

Taste Test (http://www.farm-

indiana.com/2017/01/05/taste-

test/)

Waste Warrior (http://www.farm-

indiana.com/2017/01/05/waste-

warrior/)

Innovation Station (http://www.farm-

indiana.com/2017/01/05/innovation-

station/)

(http://www.farm-indiana.com/2017/01/05/beyond-question/)

(http://www.farm-indiana.com/2017/01/05/taste-test/)

(http://www.farm-indiana.com/2017/01/05/waste-warrior/)

(http://www.farm-indiana.com/2017/01/05/innovation-station/)

(http://twitter.com/FarmIndiana)

(http://facebook.com/FarmIndiana)

Read the latest issue online

Farm Indiana | January 2017

Powered by issuu. 

Click to Read

Categories

Agritourism (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/agritourism/)

Classes (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/classes/)

Education (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/education/)

Expert Advice (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/expert-advice/)

Farm Services (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/farm-services/)

Farm Stories (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/farm-stories/)

Farm Tech + Tools(http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/farm-tech-tools/)

Farm to School(http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/farm-to-school/)

Featured (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/featured/)

FFA (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/ffa/)

Food (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/food/)

Initiatives (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/initiatives/)

Local Food + Drink(http://www.farm-

Search...

indiana.com/category/local-food-drink/)

Recipes (http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/recipes/)

Uncategorized(http://www.farm-indiana.com/category/uncategorized/)

(http://facebook.com/FarmIndiana)(http://twitter.com/FarmIndiana)

© 2016 AIM Media Indiana.