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Dig it!: Seven-year-old supplies produce to Ringgold friends and neighbors

By: Kathy Gilbert
(Contact)

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Some guys love to farm.

But they don’t usually start planting and picking beans, squash and watermelon when they’re toddlers.

Michael “Mathis” Coley, a Ringgold, Ga., 7-year-old and second-grader at Brainerd Baptist School, is a veteran vegetable gardener.

“When I was 3, I came out (to the front yard) and said, ‘Can we plant a garden?’ My dad said, ‘Yes,’” Mathis said.

Since then, Mathis has cultivated a yearly crop of tomatoes, okra, corn, beans and squash.

He trades zucchini for Baskin-Robbins ice cream, shares squash with neighbors and sells beans to the ladies at the local Social Security office.

“It is absolutely delicious, and he is incredibly generous with his produce,” said next-door neighbor and homemaker Lisa Shaffer. “I know his father helps him, but it’s always been Mathis’ inspiration.”

In fact, his son Mathis does 90 percent of the garden work, said Mark Coley, a Ringgold mechanic.

Every year, Mathis decides what to grow and how big the patch should be. This year, the garden measures about 12 feet by 25 feet.

He tends the seeds, watering when needed. He sprinkles Sevin dust to fight bugs and picks the produce in two blue buckets. He prepares and freezes extra vegetables for winter meals.

This year, Mathis planted the beans to climb up the corn, an idea borrowed from the Cherokee that the family agree was a good one.

During a late July heat spell, zucchini and squash failed to thrive. Tomatoes began to sizzle. Large spikes of okra needed constant picking.

So far this year, Mathis has earned about $100 selling vegetables, said his mother, homemaker Bridgett Payne-Coley.

The first 10 percent is given to religious charity projects, Mrs. Coley said. Some of the rest will be put by for future gas and seed. The bulk will buy a ticket to a Franklin, Tenn., horse show.

“It’s a big horse show,” Mathis said, smiling.

Among children and even among adults who garden, Mathis’ energy and zeal for plants stands out.

“He says ‘OK, Dad, it’s time. Let’s plant this, plant that. He’s very motivated for his age and a really sweet kid,” Mrs. Shaffer said.

Mathis — the Coleys’ oldest child — also has helped a grandfather paint a rental house and another tend his flower garden.

Even at age 3, Mathis showed this characteristic “grit,” his mother said.

He brought home his first horse, and early the next morning he got up, made breakfast, brushed his teeth, put on warm clothes and began mucking the stalls.

“We couldn’t find him anywhere, then finally (my husband) Mark said, ‘It’s OK, I see a head bobbing in the barn,’” Mrs. Coley said.

Two years ago, retired truck driver and neighbor William Roy Murphy also felt the Mathis energy. For no fee, Mr. Murphy now uses his tractor to till Mathis’ garden each spring.

Mr. Murphy grew up farming in Alabama and maintains a large garden today.

“Ninety percent of people think you get food at the Bi-Lo (grocery store). They don’t realize it’s raised,” Mr. Murphy said. “But when Mathis grows up, he’ll have the knowledge to take care of himself.”

But Mathis isn’t thinking yet about growing up. He’s just making plans for next year’s garden.

“Bigger,” he said, when asked about the 2009 garden. “Bigger.”

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