Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JEANNE JOHNSON DUDZIAK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Where can you find a painted gourd transformed into a hot-air balloon, a rare Peruvian Rainbow pepper bush and Kermit the Frog atop an antique toy tractor?
These fun things and more can be found at Sunken Acre Farm, a unique and colorful world that is soon to be no more.
The Virginia Department of Transportation plans to raze the one-acre Christiansburg farm, along with other homes, to make room for Alternate 3A, the proposed bypass between Blacksburg and Christiansburg. "A bypass for the bypass" is how owner Johanna Rae Jones puts it. Jones said she doesn't mention the loss of her home to gain sympathy, "but I want people to know what happens when a road is built. People are displaced and it's very disruptive."
In the case of Sunken Acre, the small, bucolic farm is an unusual world of rare plants and animals tenderly developed and cared for over a decade by Jones and her husband, Delbert. Delbert Jones, 45, is a lab supervisor at Virginia Tech's College of Veterinary Medicine; Johanna, 36, is a Virginia Tech publications specialist and Radford University graduate student.
For the time being, at least, their garden is a lush Eden, a respite from encroaching "mall" civilization. The farm is home to 20 mostly exotic chickens, a Scotch Highland cow, two pot-bellied pigs (one miniature and one not-at-all-miniature), an African pygmy goat, two outdoor guinea pigs, five ducks, three bronze-breasted turkeys, two Zebra finches and an iguana. Their organically grown garden, once an overgrown briar patch, was recently featured on a garden tour to benefit the Blacksburg public library. It includes unusual varieties and heirloom specimens such as a yellow zucchini from the Dakota Indians and an "old-fashioned rose bush from Jefferson's collection at Monticello," said Delbert Jones, a New River Valley master gardener who collects antique toys and regularly wins prizes at local fairs for his vegetable collection.
Their garden includes a small water garden, a rock garden and a "kitchen" garden for vegetables. "When something goes out, something else takes over and things are blooming at different times," Delbert Jones said of his evolving garden. "That's the fun of it. For example, when my lettuce is through, Nasturium (an edible flower that tastes like lemon pepper) takes over."
Along one short, garden path you might find delphiniums; four o'clocks, wispy, towering fennel that gently brushes against your face, and Arugula, a plant with a peanut butter flavor.
The Joneses, who once grew an "amazing" 70-pound gourd in their garden, are members of The American Gourd Society, which has about 30 members locally. Their home is filled with gourds that have been turned into art - a cathedral, a city, drums, a Zeppelin and, of course, bird houses made from gourds. One painted, Peruvian gourd opens to reveal a small clay figurine mariachi band.
Gourds, which grow on vines like pumpkins, are members of the Cucurbita family of vegetables, which includes squash, melons and cucumbers, Delbert Jones said. Gourds can last a few years if kept outside, he said. Indoors, if dried and coated, the gourds can last indefinitely and can even be passed on as heirlooms.
Gourds are unpredictable and can grow in a seemingly endless variety of shapes. "With gourds you never know what you're going to get," he said. "I can look at each one and see something different. Some bed and breakfasts are beginning to sell them, and a couple of Southwestern artists are becoming well-known for their gourds."
He said he seeds many of his flowers and vegetables in March in a cold frame greenhouse with a small heater. He mixes perennials with an annual theme. This year's theme is sunflowers.
Animals are an essential part of organic gardening, he said, explaining the animals eat pests and provide manure that, along with hay, makes a rich compost.
As members of the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities and former members of The American Minor Breeds Conservancy, the Joneses are committed to helping preserve rare animal breeds. "Some breeds aren't commercially bred because they don't provide enough meat or milk to make it profitable," said Johanna Jones, who particularly likes Black Sumatra chickens because they're "very graceful, beautifully iridescent and come straight out of the jungle." She also found Sumatras are very affectionate and will follow her all over the yard if raised from chicks. Some animals scurry across the yard, while others hide out from the heat in shelters, bushes or trees, peeking out from unexpected places like Waldo in a "Where's Waldo?" puzzle.
The Joneses plan to take their animals, gourd vines and as many plant specimens as possible with them when they have to leave Sunken Acre. They already have new house plans. But Sunken Acre as it exists will be no more. That, as they say, is "progress."
by CNB