Why do I feel like I have written this EXACT title in years past???  I will have to go back and check!  Despite all the wonky weather check out this comparison:

The first was 4 years ago today, and the second was taken a few weeks ago…before there was MORE snow in the forecast.  We are ready and armed with low tunnels to protect our plantings and hopefully this weather won’t last.

This year sees a bunch of new participants, and not only has our class / meeting turnout been great so far but it’s really fun to see the folks who aren’t new helping the ones who are.

It’s hard to believe that one of our seed starting classes was over a month ago!

Otherwise, we have some neat news.  One of our participants bought a local restaurant and put a “Linwood Garden Salad” on the menu!  In my opinion this makes us famous!  Also, we hope that it will spread the word about the Grow Appalachia program and all of the good things that we have going on here in the area.

The other new thing that we are engaging in is a community herb garden.  For several years we have planted community garlic instead of having individuals plant their own (in the community garden).  It seems that there is always an overabundance of basil, parsley and cilantro, so this year we are putting all of the herbs into an area where all of the participants can take care of them and use them as well.  Ideally, we would like to have an herb class where we talk about using herbs for cooking/flavor and also medicinally.  Participants can still plant herbs in their plot, of course, but we thought this would be a good alternative.

That’s all our news for now!  Stay tuned for more once our growing season *actually* gets underway!

Peace,

Kelley