VIDALIA — In the sweltering heat at the Vidalia Community Garden, Anthony Rachal does the job his wife Mary doesn’t — picking okra.

Anthony’s tough skin has built up a lifetime worth of immunity to the tiny spines of okra’s furry leaves.

For Mary though, just a mere graze of the leaf passes on an itch that feels as if she just rolled down a hill of freshly cut grass.

So Mary sticks to caring for the squash and beans at the community garden at Vidalia’s Municipal Complex.

For the Rachals, gardening has become life.

“It’s (the garden) how we’ve been surviving,” Anthony said. “We only buy what we can’t grow.”

The couple had always kept a garden. But after Mary was diagnosed with lung cancer four years ago, Mary decided she needed a complete overhaul of her lifestyle.

“To beat cancer, you have to eat the right things, cook the right way, and get tremendous help from others,” she said.

Mary went to her husband, and they decided they needed to upgrade their gardening operation.

“I chopped up a lot of my yard and started making gardens in it,” he said.

“Now with the opening of the (Vidalia Community) garden, we have the biggest lot.”

Four years removed from her diagnosis, Mary is completely cancer free. She credits a belief in God, a switch in diet and altogether life changes, as well as help from doctors.

Even with the clean bill of health the Rachals continue to get their hands dirty because they deeply believe in the benefits.

“People need to do more gardening,” said Mary, “We need to eat more fresh food.”

“I used to be on five blood pressure medications a day, now I take none.”