Grow Oak Ridge is off to a budding start with the Grow Your Own program this year and is so excited to be back with Grow Appalachia for our 3rd season! 

We are joined by 43 Gardeners in the program, 12 of which are located in the Grow & Learn Community Garden: Veggie Vortex, Gregormley Gardens, MD Garden, Giver Tree, Red’s Journey, Weed’em and Reap, Jelly & Jam, BLOOM WHERE YOU’RE PLANTED, Chanda’s Plant Patch, Mamaw shells seeds and such ❤️, The Patch, SunnyDae’s Garden, Mimi’s Meadow, Atomic Garden of Eatin’, Momma’s Memory Garden, The Gratitude Garden, Grow Moore, The Roman Plot, Little Green Patch, The Fresh Market  (in memory of Elisabeth Blaise Martin), Preshong’s Patch, Mull Garden, The Bunker Mini Farm, All That is Gold Does Not Glitter, Sykes Garden,🌻The Sunflower Garden 🌻 , Happy Home, Garden on the Hill, Plot-to-Plate: Our Tiny Garden, Gibson Garden, Hazel Hill, Henwood, Annabeth’s Garden, Lenzi’s Veggies, Grateful Hands Veggies and Flowers, Poppy’s Patch, the Veggie Patch, and the garden at the Oak Ridge Preschool. 

All gardens are being supported by Education through Grow Appalachia and 24 are receiving tools and supplies funded by Grow Appalachia. 2 gardens are being supported with supplies by East Tennessee Foundation and 4 by the Y-12 Gives Foundation. 

We started off January with our Program Introduction workshop, where we talked about the expectations and format of the program. In February, we hosted Garden Planning and Advanced Garden planning. 

Many of our gardeners in Oak Ridge are working in 5’x20’ beds, as there is limited yard space and many yards in tree cover, so finding spots that will receive 6-8 hours of sunlight is sometimes a challenge. Within that, we have been talking about ways to maximize growing space and crop production. 

At our Garden Planning workshops and during garden visits, we covered site selection, climate, soil, soil testing, cool season and warm season vegetables, plant families, and how to make a garden map. In Advanced Gardening, we also talked about a variety of methods for maximizing garden space, such as relay cropping, intercropping, companion planning, harvest & sow, and succession planting. 

Garden Mapping can sometimes be overwhelming, so we have been encouraging gardeners to look at garden mapping like a plant party–setting a planting date, finding an ideal location, inviting guests that they like to eat, making a seating arrangement for garden guests, and providing refreshments in the form of water and nutrients.

We kicked off March with a Grow & Learn Community Garden workday on March 1st. The community turnout for the workday was inspiring with several folks in the Grow Your Own program, Anderson County Master Gardeners, and the public in attendance. At that workday, it was a hands-on experience in site preparation as 10 new garden beds had been added to that space. We spread compost and laid wood chip paths. We are so grateful for the incredible turnout at that first workday party, with over 40 volunteers in attendance helping the garden get ready for the season. It was inspiring to see the excitement as people’s garden beds took form and the intuitive flow as people got in the groove of recognizing and implementing garden tasks. 

All of our backyard gardens have been tilled and soil tested, so gardeners will be working on adding and incorporating compost and soil amendments into their garden beds during the rest of March to get ready for late spring planting. They have sent in their gardens maps and are receiving and incorporating planning feedback. 

As we welcome spring, more planting and excitement to come!