We are trying our hand at social media promotion. I have made a facebook page for our garden project. I’m trying to reach the younger people in the community and provide a space for communication and volunteer event announcements. I also plan to set up a group on facebook for people to share their gardening tips and ask each other questions. Here is the link to our page: https://www.facebook.com/GrowAppalachiaLottsCreekGardenProgram. Please like us!

A couple of garden updates:

Things in our school garden are coming together. the worm bin is almost complete, we have a compost bin going, and short season potatoes and short season sweet potatoes are planted. Some of the potatoes are planted in three experimental towers. The tower structure itself is a piece of fencing or cage wire tied together at the ends to make a cylindrical shape and are used like a barrel. We plan to let the potatoes grow 1 foot and then bury 6 inches until the top of the fencing structure is reached. One set of potatoes and one set of sweet potatoes are planted in above ground fencing structures but these are filled with dirt already. The potatoes and sweet potatoes are planted at the top. the rest of our sweet potatoes are planted in mounded up rows. The exposed dirt on all our potatoes and sweet potatoes is covered with straw to hold in moisture while the plants take off.

Some beans are starting to appear on our trellis netting and we plan set out more beans for a later harvest. we also have a lot of volunteer purslane growing that I’m not weeding out. It’s tasty and makes for good ground cover. We currently have a lot of weeds, so I’m plotting a volunteer day for weeding and bean planting.