Hey all— Maria here in Williamson, WV (Southern, WV). It has been lovely weather here the last couple of weeks and our phone has been ringing off the hook with gardening/ farming questions and request. We have had a bunch of exciting stuff going on over the last months that I wanted to tell you guys about.
Local Updates:
At the end of February we had our fourth annual seed swap. We had more people show up then ever, and had guests from Logan, Pike and Mingo County. We had two folks selling seeds and the rest trading. Most of our gardeners were in attendance 🙂
So far we have rented out most of our plots for the year, and our high tunnels will be rented to Lonnie Bowen and Jason Stacy.
Yesterday we had our first volunteer group of the year from Penn State. They helped get all of our beds ready for the season, with the help of some local volunteers and gardeners! They also moved an old brick pile that we plan to use for walkways (see their assembly line below). They said there was enough brick to build a house:) They had a great time and some of them even got to try their first turnip!
Next up on the agenda this week, we will be having our first of the grow Appalachia workshops: Garden Planning with Lonnie Bowen. Since we have a community garden, I plan to have a layout of each bed, and we will be working with the growers to maximize their growing space. The workshop will focus on square foot gardening as well, since our gardeners are typically growing in small plots (http://squarefootgardening.org/square-foot-gardening-method)
plus, I ate my first green onion of the year!
So lots going on!!
as far as Regional planning goes:
We got our delivery of Mountain Pride fertilizer last month, and our warehouse is stacked full! 22 one-ton pallets in total. Tomorrow we will have our first pick up from McDowell County (HEP)
Next week, we will be exchanging a pallet of fertilizer for a truckload of potatoes with Community Food Initiatives.
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