Grow Y’Own makes gardening easy. Photograph courtesy of Grow Y'Own.
WHEN STORES RAN SHORT on yeast, flour, and other kitchen essentials at the onset of the pandemic, many folks reevaluated how they get their food. Shortening the supply chain from farm to table—or even garden to belly—suddenly became a priority. Yet even as a trained chef, I rarely grew more than a pot of basil on the kitchen windowsill.
I turned to Ken Kuhne, a friend who owns Grow Y’Own, in Santa Fe. After a career designing and building custom homes, Kuhne helps novice farmers channel their inner green thumbs by building raised-bed gardens for their yards.
The Santa Fe company supplies virtually everything you need. Kuhne builds the structure—available in sizes ranging from a 2-by-4-foot mobile garden cart to a 4-by-8-foot raised bed with built-in hoops and cover—fills it with soil, offers vegetable suggestions, buys your picks, and plants them. He even installs a watering system and regularly drops by to check on your progress. “It’s no-brainer gardening,” says Kuhne.
In my first season, I had more cucumbers, lettuce, chard, sorrel, and kale than I could use, so neighbors and friends benefited. (One neighbor even christened me Farmer John!) And as the Pinterest-worthy saying goes, “Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes.”
Grow Y'Own, 505-466-0393.
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