Red Bird Mission’s First Grow Appalachia Meeting Of The Year

We held our first Grow Appalachia Meeting here at Red Bird Mission on February 27th.  I was so excited by the turnout we had for this meeting and from the enthusiasm among the group. We had an attendance totaling  58 people in which about 50 were Grow Appalachia participants.  This was a training workshop on garden planning and design and gave participants the opportunity to turn in their soil sample and to draw a diagram of their garden and plan a lay out that would give them the best results.

Red Bird Mission’s Grow Appalachia Meeting

We gave a presentation on garden planning and design and gave attendees handouts taken from the Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky publication we had downloaded containing  information on several different aspects of garden design and planning such as planting dates, companion planting, succession planning, information on amending soil according to soil samples etc.

Red Bird Mission’s Grow Appalachia Meeting

Red Bird Mission’s Grow Appalachia Meeting

After the training session had finished we asked participants to draw a diagram of their garden, enabling us to better assist everyone in reaching their goals. We then went out to God’s Warehouse where we store our seed’s and gave families several different types and varieties of seeds including some heirloom pea seed we had purchased from a local gardener. This is where we really notice the excitement in the group and seen a great deal of discussion among them.

Red Bird Mission’s Grow Appalachia Meeting

Red Bird Mission’s Grow Appalachia Meeting

After getting their seeds we took attendees back into our meeting room for our closing statements and handed out a few door prizes that were sure to get them thinking about their harvest and the potential of their garden’s this year.

Red Bird Mission’s Grow Appalachia Meeting

Red Bird Mission’s Grow Appalachia Meeting

I am looking forward to working with this group and doing everything possible to aid them in reaching their gardening goals for the upcoming season’s.