The 15-by-30-foot raised, two-tiered plot bordered by landscape timbers produces tomatoes, zucchini, snap peas, celery, bush beans, pole beans, beets and squash. Cucumbers are plucked from a vine that winds up into the Bradford pear tree.

A year after Birley and his wife, Linda, established their small but healthy vegetable garden, the return was so plentiful that it helped the Rock Hill couple slice their grocery bill in half.

"This came out of a necessity, because I lost my job," explained Linda Birley, 58, a former nanny. "And our food budget went from $100 a week to $35 to $55."

Resourceful living has always been a goal of the Birleys, who are members of the Mormon church, which promotes self-sufficiency. Linda grinds wheat to make flour and bakes bread, as she did when they were raising their five children. And they buy many groceries in bulk.

She learned about canning as a child from her mother, and transformed a large walk-in closet into a pantry lined with about 500 jars of home-canned goods, mostly from the garden.

"I can everything I can get my hands on," Linda said, chuckling. "They say you can't can celery. Well, I did it, and I've had jars up for a year."

Kip Beam, a Clemson extension agent for Chester and Lancaster counties, said vegetable gardeners can do a lot in a small area. Peppers, okra, squash and tomatoes -- the king of the vegetable garden -- are among the crops that can produce well within a very limited space.

The only vegetable that is difficult to grow in a small space is corn, Beam said, because it needs to be planted in a square or circle to encourage pollination. Without a yard, vegetables also can be grown from containers.

Dave, 70, a computer programmer for Wild West Inc. in Rock Hill, and Linda had tried growing vegetable gardens before, but they had never had much luck.

Last summer, Dave established his raised garden with 10 cubic yards of topsoil. He added five more cubic yards of topsoil this year to make a second tier in the middle.

Raised beds warm up faster in the spring, so growing can begin earlier, according to Clemson University's online Home and Garden Information Center. Raised bed gardens also can save space, prevent soil compacting and produce better-quality vegetables, according to the center.

As they were getting started, the Birleys got some advice from a more experienced gardener, a friend and fellow church member, 98-year-old Furman Tindal, who lives at Spring Arbor in Rock Hill. After some trial and error, Dave suggests purchasing healthy garden plants, rather than starting from seed, and then just watering and weeding regularly.

From Tindal, Birley also learned to slowly feed his tomato plants by cutting off the top of a plastic milk jug, filling it with a Miracle-Gro and water mixture and placing it at the base of each plant. The mixture drains out of the jug and into the soil through an eighth-inch hole in the bottom of each jug.

Last summer, the couple's eight tomato plants produced seven bushels, and Linda canned 100 quarts of tomatoes. This year, the Birleys expect more from 11 tomato plants.

"We do not pretend to be gardeners," confessed Dave, though by neighbors' standards, he's certainly considered one. "I go in to weed and my neighbor says, 'Don't get too deep in. We might not see you for days.'"

Jennifer Becknell • 329-4077