Spring has arrived, but we’ll have to get through Dogwood Winter, Locust Winter, Blackberry Winter, and Linsey-Woolsey Britches Winter yet. Last week we had a cold snap that we called Redbud Winter and our fruit trees barely made it through that. 

But back to our first Grow Appalachia meeting….

DRIVE-IN THEATER AGAIN

We met in the parking lot at the Extension Office in a Drive-in Theater style and everyone had a great time honking their horns on-que when they were excited about something suggested for the upcoming season. Most folks stayed in their cars, but there were some family members that parked next to each other and visited over fast food suppers or snacks for the evening. The atmosphere was festive as they learned about Garden Planning  and looked forward to the onion sets, Super sugar snap peas, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, and Kennebuc potatoes that we were handing out at the end of the evening. We had some issues with the sound, but fixed that quick enough and the radio reception in the cars worked great.

With the Spring Forward Time Change hitting us this month, we’ll be hard pressed to have enough darkness for our next meeting, but we’re going to try again with our big screen up under cover of the pavilion. 

 

TILLING

We’ve held off on scheduling the tilling so the garden spots can dry out a bit more after some terrible flooding in the area, but we’ll begin tilling soon. Folks are itching to get their hands in the dirt and plant some more of these seeds we’ve got for them! I know some of our larger gardeners lost their peas and potatoes after the water sat on them for almost a week. Gardening is rough, but Gardeners are tough! 

FORAGING FUN!

We had a GREAT evening for our Foraging Walk!! Rhonella Chaffin took us around the spillway and then we made our way to P.L.A.N.E.T. (Paintsville Lake, Activity, Nature, and Edible Trail) and enjoyed finding more great plants that we were able to identify by the tags she had attached to them last year. We found things with crazy names like Tangle Gut, Curly Dock, Old Field Bacon, and Ground Hog’s ear, as well as more common ones like Garlic Mustard, Sheep Sorrell, and Chives. Things are just now poking their heads out of the ground, so she’s planning to have another walk in late April with Brenda in Family & Consumer Sciences.

 

DONATED SEEDS

We have a great selection of donated seeds this year for people to pick through for their gardens. We have two large boxes of vegetable seeds, two small boxes of herbs, and 1 large box of flower seeds to dig through. Everything your hearts could desire to plant, grow, and eat. 

SEED STARTING

April 5th is our second garden meeting where we’ll be discussing Seed Starting with Dianna Reed, the 4H Agent at the Johnson County Extension. Dianna will be sharing a demonstration on starting some tomato and pepper seeds and I will be sending home grab bags with all the materials needed to successfully start their own. 

REPORTS

Reports are coming back from folks that have really enjoyed planting their seeds and seeing things flourish in their home gardens. I know I’m looking forward to seeing their gardens first hand soon. Soil Samples are pouring into the office. We hope to get those results back to people in the next few weeks along with their organic fertilizer. It’s developing into a fun growing season.