MOUNT PLEASANT — The backyard fence opens into an edible wonderland teeming with colors, bright as an exploded paint box.
In one corner crouches an enormous bush covered in long magenta blossoms shaped like a beckoning witch’s fingers. Those are amaranth blossoms, which contain tiny, protein-rich seeds that can be cooked like a cereal.
Bees and butterfly flutter over bronze marigolds, which can offer a vibrant splash of color to a salad or be dried and used as a spice in tea.
Ben Sinderman rubs a red amaranth plant to separate the grain while walking through the garden he’s been helping to build in the backyard of Beth French and Patrick Nienaber, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Mount Pleasant.
Gavin McIntyre/Staff
Strawberry and blackberry bushes hug the ground while limes, oranges, grapefruits, lemons, papayas, figs, peaches and plums dangle from trees that offer shade on a steamy, scorching Charleston day. You can stroll past sun-soaked basil, dill, mint, rosemary, oregano and citrusy bee balm.
It’s really a miniature farm. But Ben Sinderman — who grew up working on his grandfather’s farm — designed it to look like an enchanted garden.
He owns Permanent Yield, a Charleston landscaping firm that creates gardens full of nutrient-dense fruits, veggies, herbs and medicinals. Most of his clients are affluent and have big back yards. Sinderman says this one is 7,260 square feet. But he wants to reach out to lower-income folks who want more nutritious, better-tasting produce — even if the only land they can farm is a few dirt-filled pots on an apartment balcony.
A South Carolina native mint species grows in the backyard of Beth French and Patrick Nienaber, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Mount Pleasant.
Gavin McIntyre/Staff
Sinderman’s recruiting volunteers and donors for a fruit tree giveaway as part of his Food For Every Yard initiative.
Participants can choose whether to donate a pomegranate, dwarf mulberry or fig tree. Anyone who donates $500 gives the lucky recipient one tree, soil, mulch and what Sinderman calls four “support plants”: native mint, yarrow, spiderwort and asters.
Bees are drawn to the South Carolina native mint species growing in the backyard of Beth French and Patrick Nienaber, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Mount Pleasant.
Gavin McIntyre/Staff
Sinderman insists that he never uses Miracle-Gro. Instead, he adds blood meal, fish meal and bone meal, plus support plants that make gardens and humans healthier. Yarrow speeds up compost, for example. It’s also consumed to reduce inflammation, aid digestion and ease menstrual cramps. Native mint prevents soil erosion and when its silvery green leaves and delicate ivory flowers are boiled, it’s a Vitamin C-rich tea.