Entering my second year as the Grow Appalachia site coordinator, I have found myself much better suited and better prepared for the upcoming spring and summer months. After some experimenting with some different ideas last year, and going through some trial and error, I find myself getting more of a head start than I had last year. I know now that, once February hits, spring it pretty much right around the corner, so I am being as proactive as possible.
We just planted another round of crops in our high tunnels (even with temperatures hovering around 2 degrees this morning, our seeds have just sprouted through!!) For now, we planted mostly hardier crops, including turnips, mustard greens, kale and some lettuce. We will be planting peas this weekend.
We have also had two rounds of plot signs up for the garden this year (see below for a picture of our new raised bed designs) We already have over 5 new families signed up. Plus, there as a press release in the paper yesterday, so I expect more people to sign up today. Almost all of our gardening plots are already taken.
Our workshop schedule is already being laid out, with dates set for DIY rain barrels, composting, aquaponics, canning and gardening 101. We also will be having our FIRST ANNUAL seed swap on Feb 10th!! I expect it to be small for our first one, but people in the community are excited.
Finally- we have already set the date for our first outdoor farmers market for May 3rd, and have began disseminating flyers for it.
I am excited for the spring and look forward to sharing our advancements!!
A birdseye view of the garden illustrates some of the progress we made this summer. To the left are the new arbors, and the right is our third high tunnel. We are waiting for the weather to warm to put the plastic on
AmeriCorps NCCC Volunteers worked to complete many of the raised beds in November
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