It’s hard to believe that the growing season is already coming to an end; it seems like just yesterday we handed out seeds and plants for our gardeners. We’ve included youth and teens in our garden program this year, we went to two meetings per month to be more accessible given people’s obligations and schedules, and despite weather challenges, it’s been a good year.

 

It has been an interesting summer, with our area in a moderate drought situation. It has impacted some gardeners whose gardens have struggled with minimal water, but other gardeners have gardens that still seem to be thriving: one gardener just posted he picked 18 dozen ears of corn that his wife was getting set to can.

All of our gardeners have been pretty busy preserving food for use over the winter, whether it’s by canning, freezing, or in some cases using a dehydrator. Hundreds if not thousands of jars of veggies now sit on pantry shelves, waiting to be used come winter.

 

With things finally cooling down and rain finally moistening the ground, our gardeners are being encouraged to do a second planting of cool hardy crops like peas and carrots, and even green beans as those can produce up to Thanksgiving as long as we don’t get a hard freeze; and kale and collards can continue to grow through the winter if protected even by a layer of leaves during really cold stretches. With our final meeting in September, we’ll encourage people to consider container gardening indoors to continue getting things like Tommy Toes and even green beans on a limited basis over the winter.