company, a bathroom sink salvaged from
Sweetwater Surf Shop, and the list goes on.
Needless to say, Deener’s farm is planted
and worked by the sustainable book.
“It’s all about the soil,” she says. The
soil at Federal Point Farms, located near
Carolina Beach off Carolina Beach Road,
has been amended and amended and
amended some more with horse manure,
green manure, lime and much more. The
only topical fertilizers Deener applies are
organic fertilizers produced as close to
home as she can get them.
“Peolple learn to fertilize,” Deener says.
“They think that chemical fertilizers are just
what you use. And this automatically sets
them off the sustainable track.”
Nitrogen, a prominent element found
in most fertilizers, is as serious a water pollutant
as most pesticides. (According to
Taylor, it is connected to more fish kills
than pesticides.)
Almost all fertilizers, chemical and
organic alike, contain some percentage of
nitrogen.
Deener, like most organic farmers, tries
to redistribute necessary nutrients like
nitrogen added to the soil through the use
of cover crops. Not only does this practice
keep nutrient content from infecting the
watershed, it builds the rich humus necessary
to grow strong, healthy plants.
The illusion of chemical fertilizing,
Deener says, is that the plants are usually
big and healthy, for a short while.
But, in the case of fertilizer, instant gratification
can be deadly. Aside from producing
toxic runoff, these high-nitrogen chemical
fertilizers essentially kill the soil. All
those awesome microbes, earthworms and
other insects that burrow in and feed the
soil are nonexistent in areas where chemical
fertilizers are heavily used. Eventually, this
takes a toll on plants, leaving them defenseless
and vulnerable to disease and fungus
because their natural nutrient source is
gone. To garden sustainably, Deener says,
living, nurtured soil is essential.
Molly Rousey
Copper Guinea Farm
Molly Rousey, artist turned
gardener and baker, has four
children, ages 5-12. Still, somehow,
in the last five years, she has managed
to: restore a gorgeous country house in
Pender County, built in 1840; help create
a small Community Supported Agriculture
farm, for which Rousey’s one-acre garden
provides; design and operate an in-home
bakery; create a line of dressings; and set
up a reinvestment fund that assists farmers
in developing new sources of agricultural
income through the provision of a costshare
grants initiative project that helps
fund Molly’s garden and bakery endeavors.
Left and top left: David Higgins and Christin Deener of
Federal Point Farms at the Riverfront Farmers’ Market
in downtown Wilmington. Above: Molly Rousey in her
bakery, and far left, chive blossoms at Copper Guinea Farm.
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