Jim Akers grows sweet potatoes, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, garlic, yellow squash, zucchini, okra, lettuce, strawberries, blackberries, asparagus and cantaloupe.
“We grow things everywhere,” he said, even in the landscaping.
Akers grew up on a farm and became the patriarch of a family of public servants. All the men are police officers, and all the women went into medicine — in fact, his wife remains an active RN. When Akers retired from the force, he decided sitting still was not an option.
“I retired and needed something to do, and I had gobs of those railroad ties,” he recalled. Those ties became the edges of raised gardens.
He also grows in containers including tires, pickup truck bed boxes and cattle buckets.
“If anyone wants a backyard garden, they can grow one in any container,” he said.
Containers need to be watered every day, unlike beds. The unusually severe heat this year forces Akers to irrigate constantly, and he is unsure how much water he uses. Some crops are especially thirsty, like onions, which require an inch of water per day.
The intense hydration pays off, though. Akers estimates he and his family will harvest 4,000 pounds of those onions which, extrapolated over the growing season and about 4,000 plants, means his homestead will yield an estimated 10,000 pounds of produce. His crop is almost entirely free of pesticides and herbicides, and all of it goes to local restaurants and hungry neighbors.
Akers began supplying to Myrtle’s Place first, followed by Tio’s Bar and Grill and the Stateline Travel Center & Longhorn Grill.
“I had more than I could use or give away,” he said. “We eat at Myrtle’s all the time, and I took her in some onions. And she said, I’ll be glad to buy whatever you’ve got, and I said, I’ll just give it to you. No, she wanted to pay me for it. (The) Stateline restaurant’s the same way. We’ve known them for a long time.”
His only struggle was pricing, so he just charges half of whatever an item costs at the grocery store.
Keeping it local avoids the supply chain issues plaguing many businesses. Akers uses heirloom seeds from previous crops or goes to Hillis Greenhouse in Broseley. He noted, “It hasn’t been hard to get to get what plants we needed at all.”
Akers is always happy to hand out fresh fruits and vegetables to his neighbors, but he also wants people to know anyone can grow a garden. And if they need tips, he is glad to help.
“Weeds and water, that’s all you have to concentrate on,” he said.