By Natalie Broda
The Oakland Press
PONTIAC (AP) - Amber Kelso, like everyone else, doesn't want to go to the grocery store.
The 37-year-old mother of two young girls is torn. She wants her daughters to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. But her mother is sick with a heart condition and non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis, and she's her primary caregiver.
"I have to weigh that balance on a scale. All we can think about right now is keeping her out of the hospital. Is it worth the risk?" Kelso told The Oakland Press. "If we could have access to food and not have to touch anything someone else has touched ... It's scary to think things could go on like this."
Kelso has always wanted to start her own vegetable garden - But between work, marriage and motherhood, she's never had the time or the space. She's from Kalamazoo and lived in urban areas with her husband before moving to the Westacres neighborhood of West Bloomfield.
It's a quaint, wooded subdivision built in 1933 for low-income families. It was constructed with the intent that each homeowner would have enough land to grow crops to feed their entire family, according to the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society.
"I always felt kind of silly living here and not having at least a few plants," she said. "Everyone here has a garden, it's really something different. This is my first time trying to grow food on my own. I'm pretty nervous."
She was planning to start the garden this year, use it as a way to help her oldest daughter learn about the earth, and plants, and work on her motor skills.
There's more urgency now to get it right. As her potted seedlings begin to sprout on the windowsill, Kelso said she hopes she can grow at least one plant.
Luckily, Kelso won't be alone at trying her hands in the dirt. She's got a green thumb on her side.
Cate Martinez, 36 of Pontiac, and Kelso have been friends since the duo met in college. They lived together, worked at a cafe together for five years and have been inseparable since. At Kelso's wedding, she introduced Martinez to her husband's cousin. They fell in love, got married and started their own family.
Even the women's own two children are nearly identical in age.
"It's my literal dream come true that she's getting into gardening," Martinez, an events coordinator with Goldner Walsh Garden & Home, said. "It gives us something else to share together besides our kids."
Martinez grew up in the garden with her mother, a master gardener, in northern Michigan. There were always fresh salsas, canned tomatoes, sauces and vegetables for cooking in her home growing up. She's kept that tradition alive in her own backyard with six raised-garden beds.
This year the family will be growing tomatoes, green beans, peppers, carrots and corn. Martinez, like Kelso, brings her daughter into the garden to learn where fruits and vegetables come from.
"If you're thinking about starting a garden, now is the time to do it," Martinez said. "Especially with the virus, running to the store isn't just an inconvenience, it's almost a hazard."
Martinez said she encourages anyone interested in gardening to give it a try, with a little internet research first. That's where Kelso started. She said watching videos online and looking up techniques made the whole process less intimidating.
And at the end of the day, in the midst of a global pandemic, it's the little moments in the garden that are making a big difference.
"I love my children but they're very needy right now, this is all definitely impacting them," Kelso said.
"If I can go outside for an hour, it's really soothing. Any little moments right now you can get, or try to get, matter."
Published: Wed, Apr 22, 2020
