Even though we are almost midway into October, the temps here in Eastern Kentucky are still bringing on some hot weather.  While some of our gardeners did grow Fall gardens, we haven’t heard much from others.  Many have been requesting ground cover and we have been doing a lot of soil samples for preparation for the Spring 2022 growing season.   Getting the soil ready for Spring is a much-needed thing.  Just typing that makes me think where the time has gone.  I still cannot fathom we are this many months into the pandemic as well as another end to our Grow Appalachia season as well.  Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Our agriculture agent has submitted our proposal for next year for the Grow Appalachia Grant for 2022 and we are hoping to be awarded this in hopes of being able to help more people learn about gardening as well as food preservation.  We will begin placing seed orders and supplies for our greenhouse as it takes some time to prepare for this as well as the orders need to be in early to guarantee delivery as well as being able to even get several items we need.  The pandemic still is placing struggles on items to be delivered and received.  Since we grow all of our plants for our gardeners, we also have to ensure they are planted early enough to for them to have plants.  Having this greenhouse has been a great asset for our Grow Appalachia Grant Program.  We are hoping we will be able to have more in-person meetings during next years’ program.  We feel as though we have done a very good job keeping our clientele informed through many means during this pandemic, and if it continues, we will continue to be innovative with our ideas.  Our extension office was faced with many challenges this year aside from the pandemic and we met them and managed to surpass them.  We aim to do the same and do better next year.  So long until next growing season in Kentucky!