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Grow it yourself
With the rising cost of food and gasoline, eating healthy is becoming more and more expensive. The Edible Gardener, a new local business, offers a long-term solution to the problem, providing on-site installation of green, efficient and beautiful organic gardens to area homeowners.
With an interesting resume that includes a year-long internship at the Queen of England's Royal Estate Sandringham, Rob Burnett launched the business this spring and said he’s been “absolutely rushed off my feet.”
He believes that a movement to become more environmentally conscious, as well as healthier, combined with the pressure of high prices at the grocery store has created ideal conditions for his business.
“So many of my customers have said that they always wanted to do this, but didn’t know how to get started,” Burnett said. “If you're 30 or 40 years old and you don't know how to grow vegetables, you're not going to be able to teach your children.”
Burnett brings to the business a green thumb and a lifetime of knowledge.
A former officer with the London Police Department, Burnett grew up in the English countryside in the county of Norfolk, a beautiful place with beaches he compares to those of North Carolina's Outer Banks. Farming was an important part of his early life and, he said, his parents ensured that he knew how to care for the soil so that it would produce for him.
After studying agriculture at England's Eastern College (the school has since been renamed to West Norfolk College), he joined the London Police Department ? mostly on a whim.
With more than five years under his belt, Burnett “sickened” of the job and decided a trip to America was in order. As a dual citizen (his mother was American and his father English), Burnett was free to travel and met up with family already living in the Connecticut area. He stumbled onto a job as an industrial engineer for a clothing company, designing production systems.
Though he enjoyed the work, Burnett hated being inside all day. Longing for sunshine and fresh air, he returned to his agricultural roots ? sort of. He accepted a job with ChemLawn, where he worked for five years doing commercial design and construction of landscape projects.
He came to Fauquier County in 1994 after a job transfer and at that point became interested in getting back into law enforcement. He was an auxiliary deputy with the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office for three years, earning a meritorious recognition award in 1998 for exemplary performance of duty, before being hired full time in 2003. He worked at the county jail, in the patrol division and finally in civil process before leaving the department in December 2007.
Along the way, Burnett met his wife, Cyndy Pierce-Burnett, owner of Warrenton’s Framing by Cyndy. “Cyndy's got a real green thumb. She does all of the pretty stuff, the perennials. I do the stuff you can eat,” Burnett said, adding that the couple is currently working to turn their Viewtown home into a garden paradise.
It was, in fact, the bounty produced by their first garden in Warrenton that got Burnett thinking about agriculture as a business again.
“I can’t grow just for two people,” Burnett said of the garden’s high yield, noting that he was always giving away excess produce to neighbors who would come home to find bags of veggies hanging from their doors. “Some of my friends and family said, ‘Hey you should do this as a business.’”
So after leaving the sheriff's office, it was to gardening that he turned.
For an initial consultation fee of $125, The Edible Gardener meets with prospective clients to discuss their needs. The types of produce to be grown, how the client plans to use the vegetables (for canning or eating throughout the season) and the customer’s interest in tending the patch themselves are all discussed at this first meeting.
Armed with an idea of what his clients want, if Burnett is hired, he creates a design to incorporate the garden’s elements.
Burnett recommends raised beds for his clients, using organically treated lumber to construct the carefully designed boxes ? the size of the boxes and their proximity to one another are important for ease of use, Burnett explained. In addition to the fact that raised beds offer an immediate planting medium, they also hold moisture well and extend the growing season since the soil warms quicker in the spring and holds heat longer into the fall.
“We try to be as green as we possibly can,” said Burnett. He uses plants and seeds that are USDA certified as organically grown or produced. In some cases, finding organic seeds and plants takes some research, Burnett said, noting that he frequently shops online.
Soil is the key to growing strong plants, Burnett said. He uses a mix of 70 percent topsoil and 30 percent compost blend and has had the soil analyzed to ensure that it meets his high standards.
“People mostly think of gardening in the spring through the summer, but this system can be installed at any time. There’s so much that can be grown ? broccoli, lettuce, radishes, carrots, spinach. People forget about those crops,” he said, adding that crop rotation and supplements keep the soil rich and extend the growing season. “For instance, potatoes are huge feeders from the soil, they require a lot of nutrients. You don't want to plant them in the same spot two years in a row. So the next year, you might plant legumes. Healthy soil equals healthy plants. It's the number-one concern in getting optimal production.”
There's a lot most people can do to help create good soil for their gardens ? with no price tag attached, Burnett said. “I can teach them to make a three-bed compost system and within a matter of months” homeowners can develop useful compost for their gardens, he said.
Burnett’s boxes are also equipped with irrigation systems that reduce the amount of water used by at least 70 percent compared to conventional watering methods. His system uses a combination of soaker hoses for row crops and drop heads for individual plants. “That way the water goes where it's supposed to, and you don't feed the weeds and waste it,” he explained, adding that the system is set to an automatic timer that can be adapted to meet the specific needs of the clients' crops.
Burnett’s most basic gardens include four boxes which cost in the neighborhood of $2,200 for installation and all materials, including soil and plants. He also offers additional services to help time-strapped homeowners.
In some cases, customers want to learn more about organic gardening and maintenance of their beds. Burnett is available for hands-on instruction. In other instances, they want Burnett to continue coming to the gardens to care for the beds and harvest the vegetables. Each of those services are available at additional fees.
“This system will last for the next 15-20 years,” Burnett said, pointing out that the cost of installation will, over the long haul, outweigh the cost of buying vegetables at the store every week. He notes that homeowners will not be completely self-sufficient. “I know that what I’ve been doing over the last 40-odd years works.”
While admitting that he’s a bit overwhelmed with the multitasking required to launch a business, Burnett says he enjoys gardening and working with customers, adding that teaching parents and children about growing their own food is also a plus.
“He's an amazing guy,” said Elena Roy, one of Burnett’s customers. “I found his brochure at a local barber shop. We had wanted to do it, but we didn't know where to start. He's teaching us. He's so concerned about his little plants.”
Only, in Roy’s case, the plants aren’t so little anymore. Within a few weeks of installation, the Roy’s four-bed system is abundant with potatoes, tomatoes, herbs, peppers, squash, zucchini, cantaloupe and cucumbers.
“It makes you feel good,” said Roy, adding that her husband Stephen and their three children are ready to add four more boxes and are also interested in learning more about composting and crop rotation.
For more information on The Edible Gardener, call (540) 270-7360 or visit www.TheEdibleGardener.com .
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