Jennie and Brent Taylor family will dedicate “mini-farm” on Earth Day

NORTH OGDEN, Utah — After her husband, Major Brent Taylor was killed in Afghanistan in 2018, Jennie Taylor says it was hard to look at the weeds on their 1-1/2 acre property in North Ogden without realizing what she and her seven children had lost.

“That darkness of the initial news of losing my husband and their father and everything else that felt lost with him,” Jennie Taylor told KSL Newsradio. “And now we’re finding new life and new purpose.”

That sense of new purpose comes in part from the transformation of their property into the “mini-farm” that her and her husband had imagined. The Stratton and Brätt landscaping firm took over the project last year. With help from other businesses and neighbors, they’ve relocated trees, created a new irrigation system and built grow boxes, all without charge.  

Jennie Taylor is delighted with the job they’ve done, especially since Stratton and Brätt typically work on much larger projects such as office buildings and temples for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“They know where to put the different elements. They know how to make sure the water’s in the right place, account for the sun,” she said. “And they know how to make it look nice.”

To mark Earth Day, this Thursday, the Taylors and their neighbors plan to dedicate the new mini-farm with a celebration, including catered food, plantings and music. It’s set to begin at 6:00 p.m.

---

VA Center in North Ogden renamed in memory of Major Brent Taylor