For local dentist Dr. Chelsea Dean, growing food at home began with a childhood memory.
As a little girl, Dean often stayed with her Aunt Gayle, whose backyard held the kind of garden childhood memories are made of. Each evening, her aunt would hand her a bowl and send her to gather ingredients for dinner.
“I would walk through the cutest picket fence to a beautifully overgrown garden,” Dean recalls. “I always thought to myself, ‘I want this one day! I want to grow what I eat.’”
Her grandmother was an avid gardener, too, and Dean spent hours as a child admiring the flowers in her backyard. About six years ago, she began creating a garden of her own.
Fast forward to today, and the garden Dean imagined as a little girl has come to life.
This year alone, Dean is growing 25 varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, jalapeños, green beans, cucumbers, herbs, raspberries, blackberries, apples, cherries, nectarines, peaches, cantaloupes, strawberries, zucchini, and squash.
Her favorites? Black Krim and Sun Sugar tomatoes, cucumbers, and golden raspberries, which she describes as simply “to die for.”
Just steps from the family’s back door, the garden is also where Dean goes to unwind. After a day at her dental practice, Dean often grabs a sparkling water or pours a glass of wine and heads outside.
“This [gardening] is such a moment of decompression for me,” she says. “The kids always know where to find me.”
And they often join her. Whether watering plants, picking tomatoes, or hunting for squash bugs, her kids are by her side. What they harvest eventually makes its way to the family table in salads, pasta sauces, salsas, jams, cobblers, applesauce, and more.
Of course, growing that bounty in Northern Nevada takes a bit of strategy. Dean recommends using organic garden straw as mulch to retain moisture and keep soil temperatures down. She also uses movable umbrellas to shade her plants during the hottest part of summer.
For those inspired to grow something of their own, Dean suggests choosing a crop suited for Northern Nevada weather and, perhaps more importantly, something you’ll actually want to eat on repeat.
“Try tomatoes first because they really grow easy here,” she says.
Her profession gives Dean another reason to appreciate all those fruits and vegetables. She calls the mouth “the gateway to your overall health,” noting that healthy eating, paired with proper brushing, can support healthier gum tissue and reduce inflammation.
But for Dean, gardening is as much about joy as health. She makes time for it, often heading outside early on days off to work in the yard before the day heats up.
And just as her aunt and grandmother once introduced her to the pleasure of growing things, Dean now gets to share that experience with her own children.
“They can help plant, help weed, help harvest, and learn about pruning,” she says. “It really can be a learning experience from start to finish.”
“Only grow what you will eat. If your plant is successful, you will get a lot, so you better like it!”