The
Impact
of
Climate Change
YUNYI DAI / NEXTGENRADIO
Cristela Jones speaks with Clarence Prevo, who is the head gardener of Heavenly Gardens in San Antonio, and he has made it his mission to teach his community how to grow their own food and save themselves from the effects of climate change. Harsher winters and hotter summers are especially impacting low-income, Black and brown communities that have little to no shade, vegetation or education on sustainable food sources.
Growing faith by gardening: How extreme temperatures are affecting a San Antonio veteran’s garden
Clarence Prevo talks about gardening in San Antonio
Click here for audio transcript
Clarance Prevo:
Okra, you familiar with Okra?
(okra chomping).
Chomp on it. That mucus is good for you, healthy for you.
My first name is Clarence. My last name is Prevo and I’m originally from Alabama. Being born in Alabama on a farm, I was a sharecropper and some of my garden skills. I started learning them there as a child.
This is what you see here collard greens so… they’re basically a cool weather crop.
And by the way, I am 81 years old, going on 82 looking for 120.
Well this garden is called heavenly gardens because that was in my vision, I was thinking along the lines of the garden of eden…and uh you see it and be in it and think of heaven.
(Walking around the farm)
I got this vision to utilize to plant something, to start teaching people how to grow their own food, you know. So it’s just been… if you want to say it’s been in my blood or my DNA. So I actually wouldn’t rather be doing anything else than what I’m doing now in the garden, you know.
The whole purpose is to serve the community. That’s my purpose.
I guess you could say that was part of part of my vision of God directed me where I needed to be
This is my retirement home, so to speak.
Cucumber vine there
I figured another five years this would be a different place. You know, in terms of what we have accomplished, in terms of what we’ve planted based on of course, the weather, nature and that kind of thing. So right now it’s real hot and that affecting what we plant and how it grows, you know
More potatoes, more potatoes.
I know San Antonio is hot, but I hadn’t experienced this type of heat, you know, in my gardening in the past. I don’t have any tomatoes, normally they would last a bit longer, but with the extreme heat, it just was just too much. We’re not getting that kind of penetrating rain that we need.
Some of those tomatoes you see have died…
In terms of climate change affecting me and this garden some of the things that would have normally survived didn’t survive the cold. I had been growing some kale, collard greens, and they were growing very, very well, very tall. But then the cold came and it killed them.
You know but you fight through that. You keep moving, you know, you can’t be defeated by that. So, hey, just gotta have that fight. Can’t give up.
Future generations…you know, just to start preparing now for the future, because things may not get any better in terms of climate is concerned. So you just can’t live for today. You got a better future. I mean, we are living here, but what about our kids? What kind of life, what kind of world you want to live in.
As long as you live, you should continue to grow. Grow something, grow you. You know, things are growing life. Life is in the garden. So if you want peace, you want life, start a garden.
Clarence Prevo, 81, poses for a photo in his “Heavenly Garden” at Redeeming Grace Church in San Antonio on Monday, Sep. 5, 2022. Prevo’s been a gardener all his life and has seen how extreme temperatures are affecting his garden.
CRISTELA JONES / NEXTGENRADIO
Clarence Prevo begins nearly every day by walking through his garden and talking to his plants. He asks for “the Lord’s blessing” and prays for a bountiful harvest.
“He is the creator of all this,” said Prevo, 81. “Without Him, I wouldn’t be. Without Him, this wouldn’t be.”
He tends to newly-sprouted red okra before watering flowers he has planted inside ice chests nearby. Eggplants, collard greens and red peppers overflow in raised wooden beds lining rows of Prevo’s Heavenly Garden in San Antonio, tucked behind Redeeming Grace church.
“This is where I belong: in the garden,” said Prevo. “This is my retirement home.”
The fragrance of mint and rosemary bushes fill the air, right by the plot where Prevo used to have dozens of tomatoes and watermelons before they got sunburnt by the year’s extreme summer temperatures and little rainfall. As summers get hotter and winters get colder, it’s becoming more difficult for Prevo to maintain his 2-acre sea of green — but that hasn’t stopped him from trying.
“San Antonio is hot, but I hadn’t experienced this type of heat in my gardening in the past,” Prevo said. “But you fight through that — you keep moving, you know, you can’t be defeated by that.”
San Antonio has seen 50 days of 100-plus-degree weather this year so far, 28 of which were in July and broke a record for the hottest month to date in the Alamo City, according to the National Weather Service. By 2040, temperatures are expected to increase 4 degrees Farenheit in the city, and residents will experience 3 fewer inches of rain every year. Higher temperatures and droughts are causing plants to bloom earlier and die faster.
Clarence Prevo, who is endearingly known as “Papa Prevo” by his community, examines an eggplant in his garden on Sep. 5, 2022 in San Antonio. Eggplants were one of the few plants that survived in his garden despite the 2021 Winter Storm and record-breaking heat in July 2022.
CRISTELA JONES / NEXTGENRADIO
Prevo, who is endearingly known as “Papa Prevo” by his community, has spent the last five years transforming the back lot of Redeeming Grace into a lush football-field sized garden full of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers. Combining his devotion to his faith and passion for gardening, Prevo said his mission is to teach people how to grow their own food and the health benefits behind doing so.
Prevo grew up as a sharecropper on an Alabama farm, which is where his love for gardening first sprouted. There, he and his family grew cotton, corn and collard greens. At 15, he moved to Florida and joined the Air Force and was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. In the military, Prevo was introduced to a new food system which inspired him to take on gardening at the base.
“I didn’t know anything about kale; I didn’t know anything about broccoli, cauliflower. We didn’t have anything like that,” Prevo said.
Heavenly Garden is behind Redeeming Grace Church in San Antonio on Monday, Sep. 5, 2022. Clarence Prevo chose to start a garden there after retiring from the military and choosing to combine his faith with his love for gardening
CRISTELA JONES / NEXTGENRADIO
Before retiring from the military, Prevo wanted to open up another garden at a church in Fort Sam, but instead decided to follow a member of Redeeming Grace who would later become his wife. He said, “God directed him to where he needed to be.”
When Prevo first began Heavenly Garden in the city’s east side in 2017, he struggled to cultivate the rough, dry soil — which he said is because of such scolding heat.
“It was hot and dry, so I had to get outside help,” Prevo said.
So, he got a tractor and used it to plow through the ground and spread wood chips onto the base of the garden.
Prevo also repurposed dozens of donated recycled containers, such as ice chests, trash bins and shipping crates to use as raised beds for his plants. He said this method helped keep his plants alive and growing.
During the 2021 winter storm, temperatures plummeted to 13 degrees Fahrenheit as snow, sleet and freezing rain blanketed Texas for a week. Prevo said his garden iced over and he lost a number of plants to the below freezing temperatures.
“Some of the things that would have normally survived didn’t survive the cold,” Prevo recalled. “I had been growing some kale, collard greens, and they were growing very well, very tall and matter of fact, some of the plants had gotten about eight feet tall. But then the cold came and it killed them.”
Extreme heat has also been a growing issue, he said. In July’s heat wave, the garden’s typically heat-resistant tomatoes died faster and peppers grew smaller. His watermelons and cantaloupes became sunburnt and he was forced to harvest them before they could be eaten. These setbacks caused a delay in his future fall harvests for pumpkins and squash.
Prevo is now planting more cold crops like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower because they are prone to surviving in cold weather. He also sells low-cost produce to people who want to stay away from a traditional grocery store and eat fresh food from his garden.
“I don’t utilize any chemicals, any pesticides, that type of stuff, you know, because I want to be healthy,” Prevo said.
Clarence Prevo tends to his red pepper plants at his “Heavenly Garden” in San Antonio on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022. Prevo first began Heavenly Garden on the city’s east side in 2017 to teach people how to grow their own food.
CRISTELA JONES / NEXTGENRADIO
He wants more people to visit the garden and learn about the benefits of sustainable nourishment and healthy living. Every month, students from across the city come to help Prevo and his public relations assistant, Twyla Varnado plant new seeds of change throughout the garden.
He said future generations should start preparing now for the effects of climate change, because “things may not get any better.”
With presentations on various plants and their health benefits to students and community members, he hopes to empower the next generation of climate fighters to not only be prepared for what lies ahead, but to also appreciate the beauty of nature and the importance of growth.
“As long as you live, you should continue to grow. Grow something and grow you,” Prevo said. “Life is in the garden. So if you want peace, you want life, start a garden. When’s the last time you stopped and smelled the roses?”
Raised wooden beds line the rows newly-planted red okra in Clarence Prevo’s Heavenly Garden in San Antonio on Monday, Sep. 5, 2022. Prevo also repurposed dozens of donated recycled containers, such as ice chests, trash bins and shipping crates to use as raised beds for his plants.
CRISTELA JONES / NEXTGENRADIO