Out here in Wayne County, we’ve all been busy – our gardeners are gathering trellis netting, starting seeds, and preparing their beds for the growing season, and ACCESS WV team members have been working on an exciting new development in the town of Wayne. Through support provided by Try This WV and in collaboration with GRo Fellowship, we have been given the opportunity of growing the Town of Wayne Community Garden.

The garden will be planted at the Town of Wayne Park, which sees many youth baseball leagues and playground seekers throughout the warm summer months. We are excited to use this space to invite community members interested in gardening, exploring, and eating! Monthly workshops and activities will be held during the summer for kids in the garden through the new program we have lovingly called, Grow Kids Wayne County. Together, we will get to plant seedlings, water and care for them, pick the harvests, and taste the fruits of our labor.

In addition to this program, one of our collaborators will be bringing GRo Fellowship to the Wayne community. GRo seeks to serve vulnerable populations through nature-based therapy like gardening to heal trauma and addiction, while developing emotional and mental resilience.

We’ve been amazed at the outpouring of help and encouragement from the community. One of Twelvepole Trading Post’s vendors gathered her neighbors in an organized effort to receive funding for this project; the mayor offered to move raised beds from our other locations to the park and set up an irrigation system for us; Marshall University Sustainability Department donated three of their dwarf fruit trees to be planted here, and started seedlings for us back in February.

We are hoping to move beds this week and get some cool weather crops in the ground shortly. As for now, we have fruit trees spreading their roots by the creek at the park, and a drawing of our garden layout to share. We are excited and thankful to get to see what grows here!