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Behind the Bluff
Uncover best practices to participate in life on your terms. Every week, hosts Jeff Ford and Kendra Till guide listeners with short conversations on trending wellness topics and share interviews with passionate wellness professionals, our private club leaders, and additional subject matter experts offering valuable tips. Each episode conclusion includes Healthy Momentum, five minutes of inspiration to help you reflect and live differently. Subscribe now and discover the keys to living your greatest active lifestyle.
Behind the Bluff
What If Your Backyard Could Feed Your Family? | Lynn De Witte
Lynn De Witte shares her journey of growing and harvesting food in her 3,000-square-foot garden at Palmetto Bluff, where she's cultivated a plant-based lifestyle for over 35 years. Her garden, Le Petit Jardin, demonstrates how anyone can grow their own food through patience, learning from nature, and starting small.
• Early influences from her grandmother's love of flowers and a nutrition course in the 1980s sparked Lynn's interest in plant-based living
• Eating from your garden creates deep philosophical connections to food, gratitude, and mindfulness
• Companion planting mimics natural ecosystems - like planting basil near tomatoes to infuse flavor through their roots
• Garden design incorporates vegetables, fruits, herbs, and 23 varieties of roses selected for Hardiness Zone 9A
• Morning ritual begins with warm lemon and ginger water, followed by cold-pressed juices from garden ingredients
• Family participation in harvesting creates meaningful connections and turns meals into stories
• Commercially grown flowers often lack fragrance due to breeding for shipping durability rather than scent
• Top five plants Lynn would choose: tomatoes, kale, lavender, roses, and basil
• Three beginner steps: start with plants you love to eat, use containers or raised beds, and learn your growing zone
• Wellness means living in harmony with natural rhythms - "presence over perfection"
Visit Le Petit Jardin's open house on May 10th to experience Lynn's garden and artisanal products. All proceeds support a school garden project in Ghana, West Africa. Contact Lynn at lepetitjardinpb@gmail.com for gardening advice.
Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. Do you think you need acres of land to grow your own food? Think again. I'm your host, jeff Ford, and today I sit down with Lynn DeWitt, owner of Le Petit Jardin. In four short years, lynn has grown and harvested a garden in her very own yard here at Palmetto Bluff. She is a role model for garden to table living, and Lynn lives with respect and patience, something that I'm still working on, allowing nature to assist her and inspire her every move. During our conversation today, lynn will share how to start small, plan smart and build a sustainable garden, even if you have zero experience. Lynn, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you for inviting me, jeff. First of all, I'd like to thank you, and I think I speak for all of Palmetto Bluff when I say that you're an asset and an essential part of this community.
Speaker 1:Thank you for all you do. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate that, and I first heard about your story from recommendations by a couple of other members. That's lovely, and I've been looking forward to this time together because, after you toured me through your beautiful garden, not only was I inspired, but I was hyped up to share your world with our listeners and the membership.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, let's go ahead. Dive. In Lynn, you've been practicing a plant-based lifestyle for over 35 years that's about as long as I've been alive. You've not only been growing your own food, but eating vegan. What inspired you to start gardening and transition into a fully vegan lifestyle?
Speaker 2:Yes. So as a child I was always outside in the garden. My grandmother loved flowers, so she taught me a lot. And then, as I became a teenager, I became very curious about a plant-based lifestyle, which back then wasn't common, of course. I took a course in nutrition and it was an elective and it changed my life because I started realizing everything that's put into our food, especially back in the 80s a lot of hormones and animal products and canned goods and so forth, which we unfortunately still have. But it just became a transition and it was a process. It became something much deeper as I became more aware about the impact of our food choices on animals and the planet. It just really clicked. So garden became an extension of that.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're tied to the same sense of connection. As I became more in tune with how food is grown, I started learning more about the broader systems behind the concerns and, of course, health effects. This wasn't an overnight change, as I said, rather a natural progression toward living in alignment with my values.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds like your early experiences and the knowledge that you gained has brought you to where you are today.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I never look back. Once I started, I just never looked back, and back then, of course, it was just pure resources books and going to the library and how do I get my protein, and so all these things were quite foreign back then you had to do a lot more research on your own.
Speaker 1:Absolutely you couldn't just go log on to a website and find the information that we have today.
Speaker 2:Needless to say, my parents were not very supportive.
Speaker 1:No, no, it sounds like your grandmother was an inspiration.
Speaker 2:Although she also thought it was a little quirky.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, back then, exactly. It worked out yeah yeah, back then, exactly, it worked out. You were ahead of the curve. I think is a fair statement.
Speaker 2:I guess. Yeah, I guess I was.
Speaker 1:So what does eating from your garden mean to you? When we first met, I could tell that practically, it allows you to get energy every day, but philosophically, it also plays a role in your life. So yeah, go ahead, tell us more about eating from the garden.
Speaker 2:Sure, and that's a great question. I believe eating from my garden is meaningful to me on multiple levels. Practically speaking, it means freshness, it means nourishment and self-reliance. I know exactly where my food comes from, how it was grown and what went into it. How it was grown and what went into it, there's no mystery and it's just real. Whole food, harvested at its peak. It's more sustainable, more affordable over time, and it reduces waste and dependency on industrial systems. Philosophically, that runs even deeper. Eating from my garden is a form of gratitude, it's a form of mindfulness, um. It's a daily reminder of the cycles of life, the patience required to grow something and the joy of tending to it.
Speaker 1:It's so powerful to hear how you create that connection philosophically. Was that always there when you first started to garden?
Speaker 2:Yes, I think it was the most important underlying factor, because it just reinforced my values, values, as I mentioned, uh, of living gently and ethically and you know you're, you're in harmony with the earth. Um, that's getting very philosophical yeah so every meal feels like a quiet act of reverence, a return to something essential, and to something honest, because what I'm growing becomes what I'm consuming, and so that connection is difficult to explain, but it doesn't get any more real than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there has to be a lot of reward in your daily acts in the garden and then sitting down for a meal.
Speaker 2:It's beautiful and the wonderful thing is sharing it with my family.
Speaker 2:It's just it's just a lovely thing to be able to cultivate something that was a seed and now is this beautiful, lovely, healthy vegetable, and the creativity that comes out of that. When you go outside to the garden, which is steps away from my kitchen, and sometimes I really don't know what I'm gonna make that evening for dinner, and I go outside and I say, gosh, that kale looks so good. Let's make like this amazing kale salad, pick some blueberries and, you know, some herbs to go nicely with it, some mint, cucumbers, radishes, you know it's just so colorful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, if I'm hearing correctly, whatever speaks to you could become dinner that evening. 100%, wow, yeah, it's just a 180, 360 degree turn however we want to describe it of how most people actually eat and how we go about preparing our meals. So I'm excited to learn more as we go here.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Lynn, let's start with the foundation. Can you describe your garden setup, size, location and the overall growing methods?
Speaker 2:Right, so the main garden is about. It's a little bit over 3000 square feet. It's pretty big.
Speaker 1:That's big.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's big, big, that's big. Yes, it's big, uh, and within that, I tried to design it so that we would get optimal sun, which is of vital importance, of course, and then I grow a mix of vegetables, herbs, fruit, flowers. Currently, this spring, as you saw when I took you around, uh, I have a selection of celery, kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, lots of herbs, blackberries, oranges, lemons and lots of flowers. Roses are my favorite, I think you.
Speaker 1:We spent some time with the roses yeah, it was amazing. So right now I'm caring for about 23 different types of roses.
Speaker 2:So right now I'm caring for about 23 different types of roses, and all of them chosen to thrive in our climate. We are in a hardiness zone 9A, which is important.
Speaker 1:What does that mean? Hardiness zone 9A.
Speaker 2:Right. Every city in every part of our country has hardiness zone and that's based on frost dates, and so you need to make sure that in your zone, that you're educated and you can look that up, obviously, online. The Farmer's Almanac is really good also. It's a great source, uh, and what it just gives you a guideline to what you can grow in your specific world.
Speaker 1:That's really interesting right now. Does that change very often? Or once you've been gardening in a certain zone, location of this part of the country, does the gardener start to learn those dates like intellectually, and just have them?
Speaker 2:No, I mean, look at the winter we had. Yeah, we had a really bizarre winter and we had snow, which of course was beautiful, but at the same time it was nerve wracking for me because I was like, oh boy, what's going to survive? But I have to say, all the worry it just. It's amazing how resilient nature is and how everything, once we had passed that frost date, just came to bloom again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember when we were walking around your garden you could tell you had so much confidence from that experience for your garden it felt like Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And it was crop after crop, plant that you were like, yeah, this one survived. And that was so interesting to me that you kept going back to that theme of nature is resilient. Nature will tell us where to go, nature speaks to us and I just found that connection in your way of looking at the storm and the resilience of your garden to to rally like that. It almost seems a lot like life.
Speaker 2:It sure is. It's a metaphor. I mean you know it's. I think that we well, I know I do, I speak for myself, I question it's resilience all the time, and the interesting thing is that I'm always wrong the important thing is to be patient. Thing is is to be patient. I think that sometimes we, you know, we, we live in a society that's really just instant gratification and we want things now, we want things, you know, as soon as possible.
Speaker 2:But nature does not work that way and we have to really step back and let it just do its work yeah you know we shouldn't just throw something away, or you know we just need to just wait patiently, because it's amazing if you do. It teaches us a lot of patience.
Speaker 1:What a great metaphor, lynn. When we first started exploring your garden, you use the term companion planting Right, and it immediately sparked my interest what is companion planting and why is it helpful?
Speaker 2:Right companion planting. It's a method I swear by in the garden. Essentially, it's about growing plants together that naturally support each other. It's kind of like building a community in your own garden. Certain plants help others by attracting pollinators, repelling pests and improving the soil. For example and I think we mentioned that the day that you toured the garden I plant basil. The garden I plant basil near my Roma and my San Marzano tomatoes to enhance flavor, because the root of the basil will eventually unite with that of the tomato and by doing so, that tomato will develop this unique and delicious basil essence. So if I do a caprese salad, there's no need for the basil.
Speaker 1:It's already woven into the flavors.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. You can taste, and I think it's interesting not to use the basil, because you will taste the basil essence within that tomato.
Speaker 1:It's fascinating. Very fascinating. Now you shared the example of tomatoes and basil. I found that just not ironic is the right word. I was like blown away that that was the thought process in the companion planning. Is that infusion and the roots kind of coming together like a community of people? Now I'm interested to have you share a bit more with listeners. What are some other classic companion pairs that you swear by?
Speaker 2:Right, and I will mention that what I love the most about companion planting is that it mimics the natural balance found in wild ecosystems. Right, when you go out in the wild it's not done by somebody, but together they help each other. So right now I'll tell you some of the companion plantings I have. I have carrot next to cucumber because the cucumber is high.
Speaker 1:High from a growth perspective. Correct, it's tall.
Speaker 2:It grows very tall. The carrot stays low, so there's no fighting for space, so the carrots will always remain smaller. The cucumbers stay taller, and also my carrots, the species that I'm growing right now. It doesn't need a lot of sun, so the cucumbers provide some shade. In that raised bed where I have the cucumber, and the carrot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a protective mechanism for the carrots.
Speaker 2:As well, and then sometimes you grow like I've got chamomile next to peppers, which is kind of a strange combination.
Speaker 1:Funky, yeah, yeah, explain.
Speaker 2:But it works so well because the chamomile attracts a lot of pollinators. So when you have a lot of pollinators that are interested in that chamomile, they'll look next door and they'll say, oh, here's a pepper did in that chamomile. They'll look next door and they'll say, oh, here's a pepper and there's such a lovely flower there and that is great because it just attracts so many pollinators and that means that they're going to move on to the peppers and just create some beautiful peppers.
Speaker 1:And and well, the strategy behind it all is intriguing to me, and I know that my wife Lindsay and I are going to be doing some companion planning for sure A small bed garden.
Speaker 1:We'll figure it out because it just makes so much sense and I love how it is yet again another community type connection, which is what this podcast is all about. So, lynn, every morning, you go out to the garden and you shop for what looks good. I found that funny phrasing when you explained it to me, because all of us are shopping at grocery stores. You're using your own garden. Your, your day begins with a fresh juice made up of ingredients only from your garden. What does a typical day's meal, typical day of meals, look like for you, your family, all sourced from your garden.
Speaker 2:Right. So when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is I have warm water with lemon and ginger. I've been doing that since the beginning, and the reason I do that is because it's a gentle way to wake up the body. It cleanses your body and it also grounds me before the day begins. Not that that makes sense. Some people need coffee to wake up. I need my warm ginger and lemon water. I just feel like it just purifies.
Speaker 1:Fair to say, it kind of sets your nervous system for the day, gets you in a great state.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel like it also cleanses your gut, which is so important to do. I feel that that's the root of a lot of issues for many people yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. So that's how my day begins. From there. I just really listen to my body. I don't eat by the clock and I never have. I eat when I'm hungry. I eat when I'm hungry. So when I'm out gardening, when I get hungry, probably after midday, maybe one, maybe two o'clock, sometimes even three.
Speaker 1:I know that sounds crazy but that's just the way I am Just depending on what your body's telling you. That's right. So when I'm hungry then I'll just have probably a fresh, cold pressed juice, which I thought you you brought me the most amazing juice, yeah, and, and it's gonna be gone by the end of our time here today so, just as an example, the one I made you this morning, um, which is, which is done in a masticating juicer right, as opposed to a blender.
Speaker 2:It contains spinach, it contains kale, oranges, cucumbers, blueberry and mint. I call it the spring detox juice, but every meal contains something from the garden, and it's that garden to table rhythm that feels nourishing and deeply aligned with what's in season. So, it's ever evolving, and I harvest what's ready and then just build from there, as we mentioned before, and one of the most meaningful parts of this lifestyle is being able to cook for my family.
Speaker 1:Oh, I ran into your husband, Chris, when I was over there touring the garden.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you could just see his face shining with how good of a cook you are.
Speaker 2:He's a good guinea pig, but for you know, basically that's what I do, so I got in the garden for my family. As an example, when my family's visiting my sons and my daughter-in-law, my son's girlfriend, if we're making pizza, let's say so. I'm preparing the dough. They'll go out and they'll pick peppers, tomatoes, basil onions, anything they want.
Speaker 1:They'll get you all the ingredients for the pizza.
Speaker 2:Yes, they go out with their basket and they cultivate and they harvest and it just. It's nice because it becomes a family affair and then when we're having it, it just. I feel that every meal turns into a story. Yeah, there's also a sense of pride and care. Most importantly, it's an act of love, not just the cooking, but the growing, the choosing, the slowing down enough to prepare something real and delicious. And it brings the family closer together. The meals are simpler, they're more alive, so that we eat with more presence and gratitude.
Speaker 1:And I can see that naturally taking place just because of the process of it. It's not like the peppers and the other ingredients from the garden sprouted up overnight, and so bringing that in with your family, having them part of that process when they're visiting with you, must be such a great bonding experience overall.
Speaker 2:It is. It's very gratifying, yeah. And again, it's just you feel that you're making a difference with what they eat, because I know what went into it. I know when they bring me those tomatoes and there's onions.
Speaker 1:There's a story behind them there is a story behind.
Speaker 2:I mean, those onions live through snow yeah it's nuts or the onions live to like 17 degree weather. I mean we we have. Sometimes we have really crazy weather here but we do it's very variable. It is yeah but again, the you know you keep caring for things, you keep loving them and they will be generous, right back to you and from what I've learned so far, as long as you're patient, nature will guide us that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it so simple lynn when touring the garden and for our listeners, le Petit Jardin means small garden, correct?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, the small garden in French. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Love the simplicity of it. So, when touring the garden, you mentioned to me that flowers at a grocery store are forced to grow, and we spent some time smelling the roses. Forced to grow and we spent some time smelling the roses. What makes commercially grown flowers different from the flowers that I had the privilege of meeting with during our time together?
Speaker 2:Yes, so commercially grown roses? The breeders focus on traits like long, straight stems, uniform shape and petals that are thick enough to survive shipping right. Fragrance, however, is volatile, literally so. The compounds that create the incredible scent of a rose are delicate and tend to break down quickly. They don't hold up well during long transport or cold storage. So when a rose looks flawless at the store, it's traveled thousands of miles and something's got to give, and usually it's the fragrance.
Speaker 1:The smell just dissipates.
Speaker 2:Yes, and some commercial breeders. They spray them with fragrance, a fake rose scent, so that we still get that smell.
Speaker 1:That's right and it might be an artificial smell. That maybe isn't, it is an artificial smell and it's not necessarily great for our health to be consuming it.
Speaker 2:I would assume so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So garden roses, however, are bred for people who actually live with them. You're growing and tending to them in your own space, so the focus is on fragrance and beauty. At least for me, it is the petals of the rose produce natural oils that release that amazing fragrance, especially when warmed by the sun. So I think I told you when you were touring the garden. So, each variety has its own unique scent. Some of them are citrusy, some of them are sweet, and that varies during certain times of the day.
Speaker 1:That's astonishing to me. Certain times of the day, the flowers will smell slightly different.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. It's nature's perfect perfume and again, I chose my roses based on not only beauty but fragrance, which I think is lovely.
Speaker 1:Now were roses one of the main flowers that your grandma grew and you guys grew together.
Speaker 2:She. You know roses are finicky, you know they're complicated, ladies.
Speaker 1:They're not easy, right?
Speaker 2:No, it's been the complicated ladies in Miami, which was where I grew up, it's very muggy, it's very hot, like now. Roses love heat. They love heat. However, black sprout is a problem when there's too much water, so they don't like to be watered a lot. They that you can water a a rose, depending, of course, if it's a new planting or if it's established, but they don't like water, and so I think grandma just thought they were just too complicated, so she stuck to like gardenias jasmine.
Speaker 2:They still had fragrance, but roses were. She tried for them, but it just didn't work out. So I'm kind of completing the mission for her.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, and I would have thought that roses required a lot of water just because of their beauty and their connection to love and it's kind of an interesting parallel, just talking this out here with you today is, in love we we will cry with our loved ones sometimes, and that isn't necessarily the heart of our relationships. There's so much more happiness that comes than necessarily tears, and oftentimes those tears can be of happiness. So we don't need a lot of water, we need a little bit of water when it comes to love. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know that's a great analogy. I think that it's interesting. And you're right. We always kind of equate plants and flora with this lushness that water is necessary. But you know what, Most of the time gardeners make a big mistake, and water way too much, way too much. And that kills the plant. Look, lavender does not like water, not at all?
Speaker 1:Not at all.
Speaker 2:It's just a drought-resistant plant and right now it's always in my's, always it's loving life in south carolina I'm not because I wanted to rain, but, um, it is loving life right now. So you have to kind of do a little bit of research and always, you know, keep in mind that more isn't better. Just by watering something too much you can actually kill it. So so you just need to just step back and not give it too much love.
Speaker 1:You can give it love, but not too much and that pause there more isn't always better applies to so much of our lifestyle that I just think it's great to hear that flowers in the same way have that relationship from a quantity perspective. That's right, lynn, before we get to some tactical questions, I can see you're excited to share with listeners some tips and tricks. I mean, not overwatering is already one that we can take away. Let's hear a little bit more about your take. You know, I almost call this a survivor question.
Speaker 2:And I know it's going to be a hard question for you.
Speaker 1:Between the herbs, vegetables, flowers, fruits, your garden boasts hundreds of plants and crops like probably too many to count. You may have a perfect count, though, so I'm not going to put it past you. If you could only grow five for the rest of your life, what would they be? That is such a loaded question Jeff, I wanted to challenge you today.
Speaker 2:Wow, five Okay. Wow, um five, okay. So let's break that down into nourishment, beauty, and how about an emotional connection?
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 2:So let's do that. I'm gonna say tomatoes because I love how versatile they are in the kitchen and there's nothing like a sun-warmed tomato that you've taken time to grow. It's all so easy to grow Tomatoes.
Speaker 1:Tomatoes oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:So easy to grow Kale. It's reliable, it's nourishing and it's resilient. It's a plant that keeps on giving it truly does, and as a plant-based lifestyle you know, as a vegan it's just an essential part of my diet lifestyle, you know as a vegan, it's just an essential part of my diet dark leafy greens and, oh my gosh, so much, so much protein yes, a lot of people don't know that about kale that's right.
Speaker 2:Any dark leafy green has so much protein, and that's a question that I get asked often as a vegan where do you get your protein? You, I get my protein by multiple sources, but dark leafy greens is definitely at the top of that list. You'd be amazed at how much protein dark leafy greens have Collards, kale, you know, rainbow chard, spinach, things like that. Number three I'm going to say lavender, because it calms me, it's fragrance and the way it invites pollinators into the garden makes me happy and I like to make teas and jams with it. It's quite healing. So yesterday actually, I was doing blueberry lavender preserves and it's such a wonderful combination. A wonderful combination. You know, people might get a little, you know, maybe not enthused to have floral essence with their meal or their fruits, but I'm telling you, it brings it to another level.
Speaker 1:Game changer.
Speaker 2:Oh, so delicious.
Speaker 1:When you think of lavender, sometimes you think of homemade soaps versus in food. That's right, and so it's an interesting combo.
Speaker 2:That's right. So blueberry lavender preserves. I do chamomile lavender tea, which is also very calming and so very good for you.
Speaker 1:When you consume tea, do you do it a lot in the evening time? Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's when I have tea, so it's almost like the end of the day. I start my day with that lemon and ginger infusion and then in the evening it's something just to wind down, calm your nerves, you know? Just get ready for bed.
Speaker 1:Love it, so we got tomatoes, kale, lavender.
Speaker 2:Am I missing? Oh?
Speaker 1:I'm missing two, you got two more, let's go. Oh, I'm missing two, you got two more, let's go.
Speaker 2:Roses, I mean, you know I had to put that in there. Roses for pure visual and emotional pleasure. I mean, their presence in my garden is sheer poetry. They add grace to my life. So roses for sure. And then basil. You know, basil is so fragrant, it's generous, it's deeply tied to the rhythms of seasonal cooking, because you can use basil in Thai food or Asian, you can use basil obviously Italian, but it's such a versatile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, extremely versatile oh gosh, and you know what, even a small handful can transform a dish. Yeah, no question. So there you go dish. Yeah, no question. So there you go.
Speaker 1:Wow, well, thank you. I know that had to be difficult for you, lynn.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, yeah, we could go on and on. Yeah, we'll stop at five.
Speaker 1:It's like choosing children. If you will, it is Maybe not the best analogy no, no, no, you can't do it. You can't do it. So we're at about that time in the episode where we love to get tactical. You've shared your story. You've explained interesting angles of how to garden companion planting, think specifics around flowers and the difference between flowers coming from a garden versus commercially raised. So let's go ahead and just start with the listener out there who might be thinking to themselves wow, Lynn is at a different level. I don't think I could ever be there. She's got this 3,000 square foot garden. The majority of what she's consuming in her dietary patterns comes from the garden. That's where I think health and wellness. People get scared off and there's no reason for them to be because you and I were talking about this before we got on air. Is it's? It's figuring out where are you today and how can you get a little bit better? How can you maybe listen to nature a little bit more? So what are the biggest misconceptions people have about growing their own food?
Speaker 2:That's a great question, I think. Personally, I think that it's complicated, that it's all or nothing, that you need a big yard, that you need perfect knowledge and endless free time. That's just not true. It's not. My advice would be to start small, stay curious and trust the process. You know, trust the process. Three beginner-friendly steps, let's just say I can give our listeners here if they want to start growing their own food.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would say. Number one start with just one or two herbs or plants that you love to eat, that you have consistently in your diet right, choose something simple, like cherry tomatoes, like lettuce, like even basil that we've mentioned so much on this episode. When you grow something that you truly enjoy consuming, the process feels more rewarding and motivating. Number two use containers or raised beds to keep it manageable. You don't need a big yard or a fancy setup, because a sunny porch works just fine. Pots, containers let you control soil quality and watering more easily, which helps build confidence. And number three you know, get to know your growing zones and seasonal rhythms. We touched upon that already. I mean talking about our hardiness zone, which is 9A. It's a total game changer. As we mentioned, we have a long growing season and that's a true blessing for us. So lean into that and plant accordingly. There are so many resources out there these days, but remember to treat it like an experiment and not a test. You'll learn as you go, and that's just part of the magic.
Speaker 1:Is it fair to say that you didn't know very much at the very beginning of your gardening journey?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. But it was that desire and passion to keep learning and it becomes a little addictive, you know, because you just it's a hobby. Then it becomes just, it became a very integral part of my life and you'll be amazed at how therapeutic it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's benefits to this that it feels like you're not going to really be able to fully describe or know until you get in there and you start doing it and you do start the process of learning.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and it's trial and error, boy. Have I lost plants Just because I wasn't managing the soil well, I wasn't fertilizing well? It just happens. It's like everything else in life, you know, but that didn't stop me. You keep going.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You keep going.
Speaker 1:Now, selfishly, one follow-up question on the the raised beds. I like that you're pointing out that pots, raised beds control the growing process, control the soil. A couple quick tips on soil selection and then the size of a raised bed you can tell. I'm, you know, going to pretty much just do what you tell me to do, and Lindsay and I are going to get after this.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what, as far as the soil composition, I think obviously it's the foundation of what you're growing. So you want that to be really, really good and I would say compost soil is the best you know and they have. You can find that everywhere. You can find that at home, depot lowes. I buy it from a wholesaler because I need so much of it, like this season.
Speaker 2:I ordered nine cubic yards of compost soil which is a whole lot of soil, but I started with just going to Home Depot or Lowe's or Ace or whatever. You buy organic compost soil and that, and then you, depending on what plant or fruit or vegetable you're growing, you want to add a little bit of a root enhancer that they sell like on Amazon.
Speaker 1:Root enhancer. So is that just something you put in the soil?
Speaker 2:Yes, so when you dig a hole and before you put that plant, in you put a little bit of that soil enhancer or the root enhancer, excuse me and that will help the roots establish themselves, become strong. It prevents diseases. And a neat trick if you're growing tomatoes, mash up some baby aspirin.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you grind it and then you put it also at the root of the plant, and what it does is it prevents a lot of rotting, it prevents leaf damage. It's interesting, isn't it? A baby?
Speaker 1:aspirin. What a unique tip. Thank you for sharing Well, Lynn, this has been amazing. I've very much enjoyed learning more. I would like to take a pause and allow you to share with listeners how they can find you and then your upcoming event at the Garden.
Speaker 2:Oh, of course. Well, where do we start? We can, we can start with the event. How about that? The event is going to take place on May 10th, which is a Saturday before Mother's Day actually, and it's it's been a wonderful journey preparing for this day.
Speaker 2:So I do hope my neighbors, my friends, our community just comes out and supports and enjoys and experiences the beauty of the garden. It's for a good cause. My friend, alberta, who I worked with many years ago she has a very, very close relationship to a school in Ghana, west Africa, and Chris and I helped a little bit with the school and now the girls know how much I love gardening and they want to start a garden of their own. So Alberto called me and I said we're going to make that happen. So it's going to be really just wonderful that our community is going to be a part of that and I'm selling my products. Everything is homemade, everything's from the garden and it'll be displayed in front of the beds where that fruit or vegetables are growing from. So the blueberry lavender preserves that we spoke of that'll be one of the products.
Speaker 2:The juice you're drinking will be one of the products Lots of artisanal products as well, because I feel I want my friends and neighbors, when they walk inside the garden, I want them to be taken back to almost like a different time. The artisanal products are going to be all handmade crochet, embroidery, you know, things that remind us of our great grandmothers or grandmothers. Everything is done by hand, with a lot of care and love and time, and that is not just something that was bought. It's something that took months and months and months to make. So that tea that I'm making, it's chamomile and lavender and that was from last season's harvest, so it was dried, curated especially for you, for the person who's buying it, and they will taste the difference. It's delicious, it's it's, it's fun, and I I'm really looking forward to spending time and getting to know more people, and I'm actually a quite a private person this is the first time you'll be sharing the small garden with other palmetto bluff.
Speaker 2:Yes, Aside from my close neighbors and friends. Yeah, I mean, and it's, it's a little scary, I have to say, but it's also wonderful at the same time. Because when you have something, you know that it's beautiful, and whether it's a garden or a talent that you have that you've maybe a little scared to share or tell others about, I think that we need to just take that leap of faith and just go for it. So that's what I'm doing I'm sharing the garden and it's really, really. I just hope it's a wonderful day for everybody.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm extremely confident it's going to be a wonderful day. I was taken aback from our hours spent in the garden and I'm just very excited for you to be able to share that with your neighbors, share that with this community. To me, it tells people what's possible when you adopt a lifestyle and you become connected to something so deeply. And then to your point you have the opportunity of sharing that gift with everyone else.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:It's important that we in life ensure that we share the gifts that we've been given and the things that we've developed and learned, and our passions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't be afraid to share that joy and our passions. So, um don't be afraid to share that joy, you know, and if it's, if there's something that you really kind of hesitant to just put out there, oh, just do it Be your own legend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know cause, if you're nervous, probably should do it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know. I mean you have nothing to lose, nothing to lose at all. Um, well, and you've, you and the time on that Is it 11 to 2, 12 to 2? And it is at Le Petit Jardin, pb for Palmetto Bluff. So it's a wonderful way to connect and show folks what I'm doing in the garden and what I'm cultivating and what I'm creating and a lot of the products that I will be featuring that day.
Speaker 2:You'll have a little background look at what it takes to make them, which is kind of cool. We'll have a little background look at what it takes to make them, which is kind of cool, and then I can be reached at lepetitejardinpb at gmailcom. If you have any questions about wanting to grow something or kind of soil or fertilizer, I'd be happy to help anybody out with that.
Speaker 1:Wonderful, well Lynn. That takes us to our final question of our time together today. What does wellness mean to you?
Speaker 2:Well, wellness. To me, it's a quiet harmony, a way of living where mind, body and spirit are in rhythm with the natural world. It's the softness of morning light, the nourishment that comes not just from what I eat but how it was grown and prepared. It's a presence over perfection over perfection, the slowness over urgency, and knowing when to rest, when to tend and when to let things unfold. Gardening has taught me that wellness is not a destination, but a relationship with myself, with the earth and the way that I move through the day. It's returning to what's real and simple, and that's enough.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Lynn.
Speaker 2:Does that answer the question it?
Speaker 1:did, did, yeah. For me, patience instead of perfection, I think that's that's what really stood out. There's a lot there listeners, so if you want to learn more, lynn has shared her contact info with you. You can always email us at wellness at palmetto buffcom. And Lynn, I look forward to your upcoming event.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited and please do come everyone. Everyone is welcome. I'm so happy. It's going to be a glorious day and thank you again, Jeff, for all you do for inviting me. This has been a true pleasure. I hope we can do it again. Maybe another topic?
Speaker 1:Most definitely. You are very welcome, listeners. Feel free to hang out with me for a few more minutes and get some healthy momentum for the rest of your week. When helping a stranger is inconvenient, how many of us do you think would actually do it? A social media video went viral recently when Brazilian runner Pedro Arita helped a fellow runner cross the finish line at the 2025 Boston Marathon. He had a chance to run his goal time under two hours and 40 minutes, which is booking, but with the finish line in sight, he sacrificed his personal goal to help a runner in need. To help a runner in need. Now, if you're not a runner like me, you may not realize how big of a deal it is to stop during a race, especially the Boston Marathon. It's absolutely huge. Dozens of other elite runners cruised past without a second glance, but Arita put aside his personal aspirations and stopped to help Sean Goodwin get back on his feet. The video is epic, emotional and it makes our human behavior shine, the human experience. We don't realize is so much about helping other people, and especially the people we don't know, lifting them up and being there for them with acts of kindness that feel rare in this day and age. You see, aretha didn't leave Goodwin's side. It was an act of kindness that'll last Aretha's lifetime.
Speaker 1:And I asked myself, if I was Arita, would I have stopped? Clearly Goodwin was in need, but would that have been my immediate reaction? I hope so, but when my head's down going after a goal, I know that I could have easily been one of the dozen runners to run right past. So let me ask you, when was the last time you slowed down and sacrificed when it was inconvenient for you?
Speaker 1:Ironically, in this same week, a member texted me a quote by Etienne de Grelat with a similar message. It was this I shall pass this way, but once. Any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Powerful, am I right? Any good, any kindness to any human being, let me do it now. That's right. Let's do it now For this week. Let's lose a few minutes, do good and give kindness to any stranger that needs it. That brings us to the end of this week's episode. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to Behind the Bluff and remember to actively participate in life on your terms.
