Build It Up East TN Garden Program Update

In March, we hosted our first two workshops and a distribution for spring plants and seeds, landscape fabric and pins, tools, and fertilizer. We are getting plants and seeds in the ground earlier which feels so good! I hope our gardeners have full gardens full of successful spring plants before the bugs come out in droves and it gets too hot.

Our backyard gardening program has many different facets this year. We received an NRCS grant allowing us to install raised beds for 10 gardening families as well as 50 pollinator gardens for past or current ARCD participants. So this past month, my partner and I installed 40, 4×8 raised garden beds on gardener’s properties then coordinated soil delivery before our spring distribution on March 25th. All vegetable gardeners have received spring seeds and plants, and have (hopefully) gotten them in the ground by now. We will distribute pollinator plants the second week of April and then those folks will be well on their way to growing native pollinator gardens for all our favorite bugs!

Inspiration for Moving Through A Heavy World

It is an exciting time of year right now for gardening, but I also recognize that we as people are undoubtedly heavy with grief, outrage, and a deep sadness that won’t go away no matter what we do. Despite the daily whiplash of news headings and the heartache of natural disasters, I choose to find joy and comfort in knowing that we are instilling a special kind of resistance by teaching people to come together despite so many forces trying to tear us apart. What is it that brings us all together? Food, and more importantly, growing food. Growing food empowers people. When we empower people, they find joy and confidence and spread that joy and confidence outwards, pushing resistance out into the world. I feel it in my core and I hope others feel it too. Change CAN happen. We can push through anything TOGETHER.

I am pushing out my love to all of those affected by yet another round of flooding, wildfires, and those whose very selves are under attack. I hope everyone who reads this will remember that some things in our world are WRONG and we should always stand up for those that can’t stand up for themselves. Choose love, choose compassion, and choose empathy. And through it all, continue building resistance by growing food. Because it really does change lives.

Until next time,

Rosie McVeigh

Build It Up East TN