Ten years ago, Ben Marsh was working as a biology teacher and wondered what it would be like to grow his own food.

Today he not only grows his own vegetables, he is helping others in Bend grow theirs, too.

Marsh is the founder of Around The Bend Farms, a Bend-based nonprofit that grows and donates vegetables to residents of Warm Springs. It also helps people in Bend set up raised planter boxes so they can grow their own vegetables and donate excess produce to local food banks.

Marsh is part of a growing movement of Americans who are trying to increase the amount of locally produced food for both health and environmental benefits. When food is grown locally it reduces the use of fuel and energy to haul produce, shrinking a community’s carbon footprint.

Growing food in local gardens and small plots also results in fewer chemicals and toxins in food. Having a food source in the backyard can also help to lower a family’s grocery bill. Home gardening had been on the rise for years and then spiked earlier this decade due to a combination of the online DIY movement and the pandemic.

Veggies, not grass

For Jinny and Bill Martin, a retired Bend couple, the opportunity to tear out their lawn to save water, plus grow vegetables, made for an obvious choice. Now in their 80s, the couple felt they needed some help in getting such a project started. Following some research into building a home garden, they contacted Marsh to have a raised planter box installed on their property.

The Martins’ yard became the Around The Bend Farms’ first customer for a planter box. It was set up in late summer and the couple quickly saw beets, carrots and lettuce growing in their yard.

“We wanted someone to grow a garden, and we found them by searching on the internet,” said Jinny Martin, referring to Around The Bend Farms. “It’s just amazing. We got an urban garden, we didn’t have to do the work, we got fresh vegetables and we were able to contribute to people with food insecurity.”

Garden interest grows

Marsh’s journey to helping people in Bend produce garden vegetables first began a decade ago while living in San Jose, California. He was teaching high school biology and got involved with a native plant gardening project at the school where he worked.

The garden sparked an interest in growing more things. He wanted to raise his own produce, but living in a small home in a large city made that all but impossible. Looking around Silicon Valley, he was dismayed that no farmland remained in his area and his community members relied on food grown elsewhere.

“There are no places to grow food there,” he said. “No farms, no fresh food supply. All the farming got pushed out to the Central Valley and places like Gilroy and Salinas, all the orchards went away and urban sprawl knocked out any semblance of agriculture in San Jose.”

Finding Bend

In 2015, Marsh and his wife Briana were looking to move to a smaller, less dense community. They heard about Bend from a friend, did some research and decided to make a move north. Their new home came with a yard and he saw an opportunity to grow the vegetables he’d always desired..

“I built a garden in front of my house. I grew lettuce, kale, radicchio. I planted some sunflowers, potatoes, basil. I was experimenting with the climate and trying to figure out what types of things grow well here,” said Marsh.

With a garden full of produce, he was able to eat well and give away the extra food to neighbors.

Marsh saw an opportunity to donate more food to underserved communities and made connections with people on the Warm Springs Reservation. He started a nonprofit, began growing crops on land in Deschutes River Woods and Madras. He donated food to Warm Springs residents with little access to fresh vegetables.

He also believed that with some education and tools, more people in Bend could be growing vegetables in their own yards.

Turf removal incentives

Marsh now leverages knowledge and skills he gained as a home hobby gardener and offers other Bend residents a way to grow produce on their own property.

The concept of building small gardens in yards works well in Bend because the city now offers residents payment in exchange for tearing out their lawns — a city water conservation effort. Some have replaced their turf with a rock garden, but a vegetable garden is now another option.

Around the Bend Farms will build a 4-foot x 10-foot planter box with a drip irrigation system and add soil. The property owner can then choose to grow their own vegetables or, for an extra cost, have an Around the Bend Farms employee maintain the garden.

When the amount of vegetables exceeds the need of the homeowner, Around the Bend Farms donates the produce to the Family Kitchen food bank.

Jinny Martin, Around the Bend Farms’ first customer, believes there is potential for more people to grow crops on their property in Bend. She encourages others to give it a try.

“People in our situation, we’re older and we don’t have the energy to do it ourselves. But we want to enjoy the benefits of a garden, it’s a dream come true,” said Martin. “Once we made the initial investment, the monthly cost is lower than paying someone to mow our lawn.”