The Spring season has brought much hope and gratitude to many people.  The weather has been quite nice with many 70 degree days, perfect outside time for gardening and recreation.  Here at the Martin County Extension Office, we are still in flood cleanup mode as well as garden mode.  Our agents and assistants have been busy getting our gardeners prepared for their gardens as well as helping the community with any questions they may have.  Our greenhouse is overflowing with fresh veggie plants as well as a few flowering plants.  Keeping everything watered and taken care of is an everyday chore that needs to be attended to.  We are not the only ones who have been busy.  Our gardeners have also been busy.  Many have been tilling, plowing, planting, sowing, raking, hoeing and even a little laughing on the side.   Many have made daily trips to pick up the supplies we have been providing them from seed potatoes, equipment, plants, and advice.   They were all excited to pick up their organic fertilizer and eager to use it on their plants in hopes of bearing some great veggies and fruits.  We have been diligently looking for supplies such as canning jars, food dehydrators as well as canners.

This year seems we have some great new participants as well as many previous participants.  Again, we are seeing so much help and advice from seasoned gardeners helping first-time gardeners.  This is what extension is about, reaching out when needed.  We encourage photos of all their endeavors in this program and we always love to see when they get their children and grandchildren involved.  It is great to see gardening passed down to the “younger” generation.

The University of Kentucky has recently lifted a few guidelines for us as far as meeting outside with 6-feet of social distance and maintaining that.  We are hopeful this will allow us to have some small group classes.

For next month’s blog, we hope to be able to share more photos of beautiful gardens and have more updates, in the meantime, we hope you enjoy some photos of our gardeners hard at work and having a great time in the fresh air.