Greetings!

I can’t believe it’s October already.  HOW did this happen???!  We had a frost last week that killed nearly everything in the garden, save for a few plants that were out and others that we covered as they are really productive because overall the weather has been unseasonably warm.  The nice thing about the frost is that at least we don’t have to make any decisions regarding what plants to pull and compost.  As I have said before, we are generally in a very cold area, so we know that it’s not long before we’ll see snow and brutal cold (hopefully…many of us rely on a ski resort after all for our livelihoods!).  It’s tough to put a hard stop on the garden when things are still growing!  Next week we are planting garlic, and the following week we will be putting down winter rye and saying goodbye to the 2016 growing season….but we have great things in store for 2017, so it’s ok!

Thinking about 2017 brings me to what I wanted to talk about: a Try This WV grant that we received this year.  This grant will allow us to build a whole new branch to our community garden and to our Linwood Community Daycare as well.  The purpose of the project is to build a walkway from the library/daycare building to the garden and back.  The walkway is beneficial for many reasons: it provides a way for our community members and kids to exercise, it more easily makes growing food a part of the children’s education, and it provides a safe way for temporary winter employees to get from employee housing to the convenience store (and a green grocer, if things go according to plan).  The second point above is the one that I really wanted to touch on.  I attended the Try This WV early bird session at the Brushy Fork Institute in Berea last month, and someone in the seminar brought up creating an “edible” pathway, which just takes the amazing thing that we were already going to do and dials it to 11.  We are planning to put berry bushes and hazelnut trees all along the path, something we would probably not have thought of on our own…but what a fantastic idea!  (And one we are not ashamed to steal!).  Having the option to snack on delicious morsels makes any form of exercise and education more appealing!  For those of you who are reading this and haven’t attended Brushy Fork, I would highly encourage you to find a way to go.  It was an incredibly relevant, educational and inspirational experience.  Moreover, it was really nice meeting up with other Grow Appalachia folks and learning from them!  Aside from Brushy Fork though, I wanted to share that idea for anyone else who has a sidewalk or exercise path either built or planned as an enhancement that is fairly easy to implement and has the potential for huge impact.

That’s all I’ve got for now…any other cool ideas for a walkway would be much appreciated, so feel free to comment.

Peace,

Kelley