How to Manage your Garden from Start to Finish

–Bea Sias Logan County Grow Appalachia (LEAD/Step by Step)

On October 12, 2015, Grow Appalachia in Logan, WV. had a 2 ½ hour workshop on “How to manage your garden from start to finish”. This workshop was conducted by one of our Logan County gardeners. He is a young man, who always has two or three large gardens each year.

Potatoes freshly dug out of Grow Appalachia Participant’s Garden.

This year he was unemployed and he had to produce a lot more vegetables to supply his family. He also sold to Super Markets, individuals, people going to Farmer Markets and still hade enough for his family. Even through the set-backs of weather and flooding, he had great large gardens.

Grow Appalachia Participant’s Garden

He and his Mother canned a lot of good vegetables, she also froze several things. He really didn’t have high prices on his produce, but he sold several thousands of dollars. He had to work hard, he had a family to feed, had to prepare for the winter and also help his parents, because his father became very ill, and had to be hospitalized for several weeks out of state. Thankfully, his father is doing much better.
He explained to the people in attendance at the workshop, how to clean their garden properly after all the vegetables are gone, clean the garden from weeds, till it up, put some Organic Fertilizer on and till it in the ground. He also told us to clean all garden stakes, any kind of wire, cages anything you use in the garden, hoes, rakes, all garden material that you use, clean it with Bleach. This will prevent any kind of Blight germs from being able to return next year. He also suggested to treat the ground with Lime or whatever you prefer to use.

Tomatoes in Participant’s Garden

He then explained how he does his planting. Before he starts, he makes plans, diagrams, collects information on when to plant. He works on this in the winter, has all tools cleaned, and his ground has already been prepared. He suggests, do not plant vegetables in the same place every year.
I wish he could some workshops for the general public, which I am working on that now. He would be very helpful to first time gardeners and would be great to help us recruit more Grow Appalachia families.
The Gardeners loved the workshop he gave, the ideas and helpful hints. They also asked a lot of questions and took lots of notes. He recently got a job, working in the mines and he was happy and so was I. He is still going to have large gardens next year, and I am glad for that.