Here at Red Bird Mission Grow Appalachia has begun making home visits and getting to know some of our new participants better and assisting them in making their garden plans. We were more proactive in our recruiting of new participants this year and focused more on people interested in the market potential of their gardens. We have successfully filled several of our new positions and still have several new families to meet and discuss their future garden plans with.
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   A couple of our returning gardeners have already broke some ground in an effort to get prepared to plant peas by mid-February.  You can really see gardeners begin to get anxious here this time of year and starting to watch for those small windows when it is possible to work the ground and prepare their gardens to be planted, hopefully as early as the weather will permit. With unusually wet springs we often have in our area I find this is, in many cases, what decides which gardens do well and which ones do not. By catching that opportunity to prepare your ground (sometimes even a month early) to be planted gives you the greatest chance of getting your seeds and plants into the soil as early as the temperature will allow. Many times we gardeners will wait until just a week or two before planting time and then try and catch the ground able to be worked and find themselves waiting and waiting and eventually planting crops even a month behind schedule.  I can’t stress enough, when gardening in southeastern Kentucky timing can be everything. I have found myself in this position many times myself. So let’s all start being very mindful of the time of year and the weather and start planning. Let’s get going. Good luck.