By: Kimberly Smith
Last year, around the beginning of spring, a citizen of Antwerp who goes by Ken Conkle started a community garden for himself and the community of Antwerp. I couldn’t help myself but to wonder why he spontaneously grew a garden… so why did he? Mr. Conkle has a burning passion and has great techniques for growing gardens.
Ken became interested in gardening when he was about twenty years old. He attended school in Fort Wayne, IN to earn his master gardening skills at the age of forty! Ken’s community garden is not so spontaneous after all. “I love to create win-win situations,” Ken tells us. If you asked Ken what his favorite thing about gardening was, he would explain to you that there is a certain sense of pride and accomplishment that you really can’t put into words. How much more passionate can you get about gardening?
Mr. Conkle is a proud man and is happy to help his community. He loves to share his crops in such a selfless way that he is not ashamed to boast about his extraordinary garden.
If you’re pondering about where he gets his inspiration, his brother Rod is where his encouragement lies. Mr. Conkle is not afraid to inform us that Rod could grow circles around him and gives Ken a hand with any heavy lifting involving gardening. Ken definitely doesn’t appear to be crestfallen when he says he wouldn’t be able to garden if it wasn’t for his brother.
Mr. Conkle says gardening is absolutely one of his favorite pastimes and would even go crazy without it. While he loves to grow a little bit of everything, tomatoes are his favorite vegetables to grow because they’re so visually appealing and grow to large sizes.
On another note, he shared with us a quote he favors from his beloved brother Rod, “God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt.” A personal quote he likes to live by his own, “Everything starts with the dirt.” Looking through the eyes of any gardener, that is probably the best place to begin with.
