Weed It & Reap: Cody Kaiser proves never too young to garden

Cody Kaiser raises and sells about 400 chickens a year. Enlarge

To read about gardeners featured in previous Weed It & Reap columns, go to

toledoblade.com.

Name: Cody Kaiser, a freshman at Liberty Center High School, living in Liberty Center.

Garden specs: The main vegetable garden in the backyard is 24 feet by 12 feet, and two gardens by our ditch are each 12 feet by 4 feet. I also plant the flowers in the yard. Our soil's really black. There used to be a pasture with cows here.

When did you start gardening? When I was 9. After my grandpa died, we met his friends, the Upells, who are hog and corn farmers. They inspired me to farm when I get older, so I decided to start small. They let me ride in the tractor when they're planting field corn and in the combine when they're harvesting — that's pretty cool. I also have a farm on FarmVille [a farm-simulation game on Facebook with millions of players]. It's one of the biggest farms you can “buy.” I have a lot of corn (on FarmVille). I like corn, how it tastes.

What do you grow? In my main garden, tomatoes, bush cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, different kinds of peppers, and green beans. I have an heirloom French filet bean that's got good flavor and is good for canning and freezing. In my back garden I have melons and onions, along with new blueberry bushes. In the side garden I have zucchini plants. Last year we had this sweet red corn and it was really good. This year we're doing acorn squash instead of corn.

I have about 400 chickens that I raise and sell (I sold about 200 in March and that pays for a lot) as well as eggs. I do the bookkeeping, and go to bird auctions. We have lots of fancy breeds. My favorites are Mille Fleur d'Uccles; Blue Old English Game bantams, and a Green Melanistic pheasant.

What do you get out of it? I enjoy fresh salads. My mom cans salsa, tomatoes for chili, spaghetti sauce, freezer cukes.

Just being outside and playing in the dirt instead of playing video games or watching TV all of the time. I just like to keep it up. I know I'm going to be a farmer, so it's my way to farm until I get my own farm. I'm going to go to Four County Career Center to learn diesel repair so I can repair tractors.

Hours spent gardening: About four hours a week keeping the weeds down and harvesting vegetables; more in the spring.

Annual expense: I usually spend about $75, depending on how the prices rise and drop. I start from small plants except for green beans, lettuce, and radishes that I start from seed.

Challenges: The insects that eat tomatoes and the tomato worms; they usually come in the fall. For them I use Sevin dust. Rabbits? I got a Jack Russell dog, he's crazy for rabbits. I usually keep up with the weeds, but they're bad when I get back from vacation.

And watering when it's dry. We use rain water from four 55-gallon barrels. Rain water is better for plants than faucet water. We have well water and it has sulphur

and a lot of iron.

I'm proud of the abundance of produce that I give my family and friends, and how happy it makes them.

Most used tool: The hoe and gardening rake to keep the weeds down. I also go online if I am growing something new to find out how to grow it correctly.

Word to the wise: Rotate all the vegetables every year. Keep the weeds down; they take a lot of nutrients and water from your plants. We mulch the garden with leaves in the fall and put chicken manure (we let it sit all winter) on in the spring. We roto-till the garden three times so the soil gets soft.

If anybody is thinking about gardening, it is a great idea because it makes your lifestyle healthier from enjoying what you have grown and enjoying the outdoors.