On a sunny, quiet road off Central Avenue in Hartsdale lives a unique couple on a growth mission. It started 15 years ago when husband and wife Steven Mudrick and Chikae Ishikawa left their rooftop garden on the Upper West Side to find greener space to expand their passion for growing organic food from their own soil.
As new residents, they soon learned that urban gardening prepared them for turning their shaded suburban patio into a garden oasis. As a novice gardener with a lust for homegrown produce, I jumped at the chance to learn from their experience. Like theirs, my garden is small and shade-rich. However, theirs produces an enviable yield, while mine produces a handful of novelty tomatoes and wonky cucumbers year after year.
In my fifth year of gardening, I resolved to get serious. With Steven and Chikae as my sherpas, I learned the secret to a functional home garden – and now I’m sharing it with you – sun, soil, and soul.
To find sun in a shaded garden, Steve and Chikae recommend a grow plan that raises plants closer to the energy source – the sun. For their garden, Steven built an impressive system of raised beds and trellises that boosted their plants two to three feet from the ground. As a result, sun-loving crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and eggplants sprout and ripen to perfection.
To keep heat in the beds even in colder months, Steve constructed cold frames. These window covers lift from the plant beds, giving access to plants when desired but creating a greenhouse effect when closed. Burying wood under the beds is another choice they made to keep energy flowing to the plants. When the wood decomposes, it creates heat trapped by the soil, helping the plant thrive into the winter. Accordingly, they feast on fresh broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, kale, chard, arugula, and other Asian greens as frost descends upon Westchester.
With their system of pots and beds optimized for energy, Chikae, the true green thumb in the relationship, mixes her secret sauce – the soil. After years of reading, taking classes, and watching experts on YouTube, this self-taught plant wizardess discovered a formula for soil that she believes is essential to growing food in shaded spaces.
It starts with a base shipped from Virginia, which uses only organic manure collected from animals fed a non-chemical diet. Next, Chikae adds kitchen scraps, garden waste, fallen leaves, and twigs. At the beginning of each season, she adds compost to her soil.
During growing seasons, she adds compost around each plant every four weeks. She includes organic rock minerals called Azomite and worm castings for young seedlings in her compost. After planting, she covers her soil with grass clippings or fallen leaves to protect the microbiomes in the soil. In addition to what Chikae proactively puts into her soil, she is resolute in what she keeps out.
Rather than use pesticides to chase the suburban dream of perfect grass, Chikae’s garden is surrounded by a pesticide-free meadow lawn. Without pesticides, Chikae explains, “a grass lawn becomes a polyculture.” She explains that allowing many species of grass to grow into the lawn, including weeds, brings minerals and microorganisms deep in the soil up to the root level.
The more gardeners let nature do its thing, the better the environment becomes for growth – both for plants and ourselves.
To that end, Chikae and Steven garden not just with science but soul. Their choices in the garden indicate a respect for nature and the power of positive energy. They believe in the circle of life, leaving pest control to the praying mantis and ladybugs. They fill their slice of the earth with prayer and positive affirmations of love and gratitude.
Surrounded by plants lovingly raised, Chikae reflects, “When you eat a salad that came from your own garden fifteen minutes ago, the taste and nutrients are unparalleled.” Drawing on the beauty of her garden and 15 years of harvests, she recalls the ethos of Dr. Masaru Emoto, an esteemed writer and scientist: when you put love and light into the earth, even in the most polluted waters, something grows.
