Hello everyone. This is Alex Sanders, Grow Appalachia Garden Site Supervisor at Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this beautiful weather we are having. Temperatures are in the upper fifties and lower sixties with sunshine and quite a bit of wind but we will take it over the cold weather we have experienced recently.
We have been working hard to increase the number of garden families that are in our Grow Appalachia Gardening family. As of today we have several garden families returning from last year. We have 9 garden families that have graduated from the program and have agreed to stay associated with the Grow Appalachia Garden Program as mentors. These mentors attend all of the participant’s meetings and assist with all of our new gardeners when called upon to do so , share their experiences and receive no resources from the program.. Most tell us they do this because it is their way of giving back and furthermore they enjoy being a part of Grow Appalachia Gardening. For this we thank them because they are a valuable asset that we could not afford without their volunteerism which is priceless. Also, we have already signed up 22 new garden families this year and are attempting to sign up a few more. I thoroughly love working with and learning from our experienced gardeners but I really enjoy recruiting new gardeners and experiencing the joy and enthusiasm displayed by our new gardeners each and every year. This never gets old. Our new garden families this year consist of 32 male, 28 female, 12 ages 1-15, 9 ages 16-25, 13 ages 26-40, 11 ages 41-60 and 7 ages 61-80. These new garden family members ask a lot of questions, smile a lot and are very eager to get started. This happens every year and I believe their enthusiasm is contagious.
Our fertilizer has been ordered and received. Our seed order has been placed and is due to be delivered any day. Some of our gardeners have already planted a few of the early vegetables and the rest are itching to get started. Our tiller is ready to go as soon as the ground dries up a bit. Our hand tools are buckets are read to be put to use whenever needed. Most of our gardeners have turned in their soil samples to me and I have delivered them to the Menifee Count Extension Office and I am eagerly awaiting the results.
It seems we are ready for the ground to dry and get on with the business of starting our gardens. Ready…Set…Go. Have a great week and Happy Gardening.
Great post, Alex! Love seeing graduated families sticking around to help out! Sounds like you all are ready to go.