Tell us how your garden grows

Genie Collins
The Americus Times-Recorder

AMERICUS July 09, 2006 01:38 am

— There is always something good growing in the garden of Lewis and Shirley Urick.
At their home on Calvary Church Road, the Uricks grow corn, peas, okra, green beans, tomatoes, three kinds of squash, sweet potatoes and cucumbers. Three days a week, the Uricks take some of their produce and sell it at the Americus Farmer’s Market.
Despite his being legally blind from macular degeneration, Lewis Urick, 74, plants an abundant garden.
“I’ve been gardening for 40 years,” Lewis said. He got started after watching three of his neighbors work in their gardens, he said.
“I bought some books and planted a garden,” he said, adding that his neighbors then were asking him about how to plant the ideal garden.
Urick’s macular degeneration is hereditary, said Shirley Urick.
“His twin sister and mother have it,” she said. “He’s legally blind. He can’t read the paper or drive.”
But with a warm smile and a laugh she adds, “He can ride his tractor in the wide open spaces.”
Lewis’ secret is planting the rows far enough apart, so that he can maneuver the tractor between the rows, Shirley said.
“He drives Kabotas,” she said. “He has three different tractors for each implement.”
The implements include the mowing tool, the tiller and the cultivator, she explained.
“Shirley helps change the implements,” Lewis said, nodding at his wife.
For someone considering planting a garden, Lewis advises them to start with a soil test.
“Decide what you want to plant and don’t start too big,” he said. “Plant only what you can care for.”
Then, with a chuckle and smile, he added, “And watch plenty of HGTV.”
Shirley Urick is a native of Sumter County. Her father was the late Virgil Holman, the man who planted 300 tomato plants at age 94, not too long before he died about 10 years ago.
“They called him the ‘Tomato King,’” she said.
Lewis is originally from Michigan, and he and his wife moved to Sumter County shortly after the flood of 1994, she said.
She’s a retired reading specialist and he’s a retired engineer. They have been married for about 50 years, and have three children and nine grandchildren.
They attend Calvary Episcopal Church, and Lewis is a Mason and a Shriner.
“He also likes to cook,” Shirley said.
When they are not planting their gardens, the Uricks enjoy traveling, and Shirley said she likes to sew and read in her free time.

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