Newspaper Page Text
March 23, 2022
Reporter
Page 3C
GreatOutdoors
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Ennis shares spring garden tips
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At age 71, Denny Ennis
of Shi Road still builds and
installs kitchen cabinets,
grows and tends a large
garden and has relatively
few health problems.
As garden season arrives
in Middle Georgia, Ennis
tells the Reporter that he
attributes his good health
and longevity, in part, to a
lifetime of growing and eat
ing a lot of his own food.
“The processed foods we
get now don’t hurt you im
mediately’ said Ennis. “But
it is like if you don’t change
the oil in your car. Eventu
ally she’s gonna give me a
hard time.”
The owner of River North
Cabinets, Ennis said he has
loved growing things ever
since he was a boy growing
up on Bloomfield Drive
and then later Arkwright
Road in Macon. By age 6
his dad, a fireman, had him
driving a truck back and
forth to the shop to rim er
rands while he tended the
garden.
“I couldn’t see over the
windshield,” laughs Ennis.
“I thought I was big time
though.”
Now living in southern
Monroe County, Ennis has
plenty of room to grow
every kind of fruit and
vegetable he wants, year
round. In the winter he
grows and eats turnips,
kale, cabbage, broccoli, car
rots, onions and garlic.
Now that it’s spring, he’s
planting corn, tomatoes,
butterbeans, peppers, zuc
chini and squash. Later will
come watermelons and
cantaloupes. Ennis plants
mostly seeds instead of
small plants, but he said ei
ther way is fine. Ennis said
he’s picked up a lot of tricks
over 5 decades of garden
ing. But he said most of
those tricks can be learned
online today thanks to the
miracle of the internet. En
nis said raised bed gardens
are increasingly popular,
but said he was ahead of
the curve, having used
raised beds for 27 years.
Ennis said a raised bed
allows you to bring in the
soil you want in a boxed off
area rather than depend
ing on the kind of ground
already there.
Ennis uses well water
to irrigate. He says city or
county will work fine too
it just has more chlorine.
Ennis said he doesn’t use
any pesticide (“poison”
he calls it). The result is a
much fresher, healthier and
better-tasting food than
you can find in the store.
“I know what’s in my
soil,” said Ennis.
Ennis said he does use
fertilizer, such as 10-10-10
or nitrogen. For anyone
considering a garden this
year, he encourages them
to take their soil to the
UGA Extension Service for
a soil test to see what their
dirt needs to grow certain
crops.
As the crops start coming
in, Ennis said good garden
ers have to learn when to
harvest. He said by check
ing your garden daily, you’ll
find that certain crops
are best picked at certain
times. “Pull one every now
and then and taste it to
see when you want to pull
them,” said Ennis.
And watch out for the
deer. Ennis has an electric
fence to keep the deer out,
but they somehow out
smarted him and got his
kale this year.
“The only thing that gets
a deer is a gun!” laughs
Ennis.
Ennis has gotten to be
such a good gardener
that he produces not only
enough for his wife and
granddaughter to eat, but
also enough to share with
friends and family and put
away a lot in the freezer.
He said butter beans and
corn freeze really well, and
he also makes huge pots
of vegetable soup that he
freezes for later.
Recently, Ennis bought a
greenhouse so that he can
grow those summer veg
gies all year round too. The
way prices are skyrocketing
and given the turbulent
world situation, Ennis said
it’s nice not only to save on
his grocery bill, but also
have some food tucked
away if hard times hit. It’s a
lesson he learned from his
parents.
“My mother and dad, we
didn’t make a lot of money’
said Ennis. “If we didn’t
Denny Ennis of Shi Road in
Monroe County says with
skyrocketing food prices
and home-grown being
healthier, planting a garden
this spring is a no brainer.
Below, he s even added a
greenhouse to grow veg
gies all year long.
grow it, we didn’t eat it.”
And now, seeing what
prices are doing in the
stores, Ennis said it’s good
to have his own food sup-
ply.
“The taste is better and it
certainly helps defray the
costs of feeding a family’
said Ennis. “I have a little
bit of control over my life.”
Not only that, but it’s also
healthier.
“A lot of my friends are
hurting or dead,” said En
nis. “You can have health
problems no matter how
healthy you eat. But it’s not
gonna hurt you to grow
your own food.”
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