March is the start of spring planting season here in the Carolinas.

It's time for gardeners to get those tender plants in the ground with fingers crossed that we won't have frost.

Before the buds start blooming.

So, go ahead and dig out your backyard gardening tools.

Carolina Impact's Jeff Sonier and videographer Russ Hunsinger show us a program here in Charlotte that's helping homeowners turn a little bit of landscaping into a lot of food.

- Yeah, everybody wants a nice yard, but you know, yard work can also be hard work.

So, why not have more to show for it?

Not just a yard that looks good, but also a yard that tastes good.

(bright music) The shrubs that they're planting, well, they aren't very big, but these bushes grow blueberries.

- [Member] And these blueberries that we're growing are definitely gonna be my favorite.

- [Jeff] And the shade trees are all figs.

- Those figs will grow, you know, they're about a foot now.

In five years, they'll be 10 to 15 feet, and they're gonna be loaded.

So, their production kind of goes nothing, nothing, nothing, explodes.

Blueberries, they're gonna get about six feet wide.

So, every year the production's just gonna increase, increase, increase.

- [Jeff] Steven Capobianco is the owner of Green Hand Gardens, (machine whirring) one of several partners in Mecklenburg County's Edible Landscapes Program, installing their 50th community garden since 2016, working side by side with volunteers here at The Meadows at Plato Price, a new Charlotte Habitat neighborhood just off Morris Field Drive.

- We are not just planting seeds and soil.

We are cultivating relationships, fostering community engagement, and promoting healthy living.

- And the idea came from working with communities to ensure that they would have access to their own food.

- Not only does it help address chronic disease, but it also gives people a source of self-respect and dignity in that they're not begging for anything, but they're producing for themselves.

- Okay, everyone ready?

All right, three, two, one, three.

- [Jeff] The volunteers take a quick break for group photos, and then... (machine whirring) It's time to start building these raised beds where neighbors at Plato Price will plant their own produce.

- [Lapri] Creams and cabbage and potatoes, and things like that.

- [Jeff] All right in your backyard, just about.

- Right in my backyard, right in my backyard.

I was not sure whether we had plans to do a garden, but I didn't think it was gonna be like this big of a garden.

- We're here now, and I can't wait to turn this key in the door and call it home.

- [Jeff] We first met Lapri Holmes back in 2023 when she became a first-time homeowner here at Plato Price.

- A half bath over here, and this is a closet.

- Do you like gardening?

- I do not.

(both laughing) And now Lapri's also becoming a first-time gardener.

- Like rough it up like it needs a bad hair day.

Because if you don't, those roots just keep on round and round and round.

- [Jeff] Getting her hands dirty alongside her new neighbors while also getting some expert advice.

On everything from prepping the plants before putting them into the ground.

- [Member 1] So, you push in, mark, mark.

- [Jeff] To measuring and framing these two-by-tens for a do-it-yourself planting project that the whole neighborhood can enjoy.

(machine whirring) - We've got one more on top, and then a... - [Jeff] The planting beds laid out just so.

- That way, they'll have a four-foot walkway in between this bed here.

They can access the tool shed.

- [Jeff] To help this new garden grow.

And once the beds are ready, the Edible Landscapes program even brings in this rich new black soil by the truckload to replace the old red clay that could delay their gardening success.

- And we wanna have a much quicker success to bring new soil in.

- [Jeff] For Edible Landscapes, success is defined as making food both attainable and sustainable.

Bringing fresh and free produce to neighborhoods where shopping for tonight's dinner or tomorrow's school lunch often means paying too much or driving too far.

- It's hard to find food in this area.

There's only like maybe two good grocery stores, Walmart and Food Lion in this area.

Other than that, we have to go pretty far out.

- [Jeff] Instead, gardens like this one here at Plato Price are teaching neighbors the skills to build their own and then to grow their own.

And every new garden is a learning experience for the Edible Landscapes program, too.

- This one, I think, is better than all the ones we've done in the past, mainly because it brings everything together.

Mainly, this site was built to house this.

A lot of times, people go back, oh, I wanna put a garden here.

Oh, you've got trees that are shading it, no access to water.

This one was built to where we have the sun.

The water system was pre-thawed out, installed.

The beds are gonna be aligned with that to cut down on the maintenance drastic about upwards of 80%.

It's laid out nicely.

The community is really close by.

We'll have edible plants for anyone who just wants to walk by.

It's a really open, welcoming space.

- [Jeff] And one of 50 spaces across Charlotte and Mecklenburg County with real roots in the community, all from a program that year after year, season after season, is still growing, one garden at a time.

(bright music) - Now, Mecklenburg's Edible Landscapes program doesn't just choose any neighborhood for a garden like this.

In fact, it's also the neighborhoods that choose them.

And this particular garden at Plato Price, garden number 50, well, it turned out so well that now it may be the model for the county's next 50 gardens.