From the fields to our own backyards, fall isn't just for harvesting, it's also prime time for planting.

Gardeners across the region are busy getting their beds ready, hoping to beat the frost and enjoy a little more color before winter sets in.

"Carolina Impact's" Jeff Sonier, and videographer Russ Hunsinger show us a local program 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 are very big, but these bushes grow blueberries.

- [Lapri] 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 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 going to increase, increase, increase.

- [Jeff] Steve Capobianco is the owner of Greenhand Gardens.

(earth auger rumbling) One of several partners in Mecklenburg County's Edible Landscapes program, installing their 50th community gardens since 2016, working side by side with volunteers here at the Meadows at Plato Price, a new Charlotte Habitat neighborhood just off Moore's 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 also give 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?

- Yes.

- Set.

- All right, three, two, one.

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

- [Lapri] Grains, 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 plants 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 put 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.

- [Jeff] Do you like gardening?

- [Lapri] I do not.

(Jeff laughing) - [Jeff] And now Lapri is 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.

- [Bill] 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.

(indistinct chattering) (tools whirring) The planting beds laid out just so.

- That way they all have a full-foot walkway in between this bed here, they can access the 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 want to have a much quicker success to bringing new soil in.

- [Jeff] For Edible Landscape, 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 Line 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-thought 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, - 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.

Now, Mecklenburgs 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.