Our new book, Gardenista: The Low-Impact Garden (in stores October 14 and available for pre-order now), is chock-full of inspiring environmentally minded plantspeople—including Chloe Moore, the tireless farm manager at Southside Community Farm in Asheville, NC. Conceived as an urban farm and food hubthe one-acre lot grows organic produce for locals in need and encourages a more intimate connection between the land and the people of color who live there. At the farm, anyone can wander by and pluck an apple from the orchard or pick a tomato off the vine or grab a fresh snack from the outdoor refrigerator—no payment accepted and no questions asked.
Chloe, who identifies as “a queer, Black and Borikua-Taino, landless farmer, educator and parent who loves to eat good food, sing to plants, and play in the dirt,” is passionate about the farm’s mission to support food sovereignty in the historically Black community. She’s also serious about strawberries (yes!), eggplants (a hard no!), and the hori-hori her partner hand-forged just for her (“my favorite!”).
Photography by Caitlin Atkinson, from Gardenista: The Low-Impact Gardenunless noted.
Your first garden memory:
When I was very young I lived with my grandparents, who always had a garden. I used to love sucking the juice out of ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes in the summer.
Garden-related book you return to time and again:
Working the Roots by Michelle E. Lee is a fantastic book of traditional Black, land-based knowledge. While not really a gardening book in the traditional sense, I always come back to it for wit, ancestral wisdom, and making home remedies from what I grow.
Instagram account that inspires you:
I feel like I always learn good information from @seedingsovereignty.
Describe in three words your garden aesthetic.
Lush, diverse, welcoming.
Plant that makes you swoon:
Nothing beats a fresh strawberry in the springtime. Strawberries are definitely one of my all-time favorites, but they’re also a great gateway plant for kids. We do a lot of youth education at Southside Community Farm, and when kids are skeptical about being outside or trying fresh fruits and veggies, strawberries are a sure way to their hearts.
Plant that makes you want to run the other way:
Eggplant. It’s always been one of my least favorite foods, and I’m not a fan of the spines on the plants, either!
Favorite go-to plant:
Roselle. I think it’s gorgeous and I love making teas and tinctures from its beautiful red calyxes.
Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:
Nothing is permanent—not the plants nor the garden itself. The point of caring for living things is not for them to live forever, but for them to live well. As a peasant farmer and non-land owner, I’ve been displaced from the land that I’ve stewarded many times in my life and it’s always heartbreaking. But ultimately, all the land is one land. To care for living beings anywhere mutually benefits us everywhere.
Unpopular gardening opinion:
Non-edible flowers are overrated. A lot of friends and community members come to me for gardening advice, and I sometimes have to disappoint folks with my lack of flower garden knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, I grow plenty of multi-purpose flowers (such as bee balm for tea, calendula for salve making, and nasturtiums for salads), but if you can’t eat it or make medicine out of it, I probably won’t grow it.
Old wives’ tale gardening trick that actually works:
Slugs love beer! My dad always used beer traps to get rid of slugs in the garden, and today it’s my go-to for natural slug control when they try to eat my cabbages and collard greens.
Favorite way to bring the outdoors in.
I have a lot of easy houseplants, like aloe. I have also been known to treat crop plants like houseplants on occasion. For example, sweet potatoes have lovely foliage that looks great in a hanging pot.
