Grow Oak Ridge has been busy these past 2 months as we have been welcoming in the warm season. We are past our last frost date, so tomato and pepper planting will soon be underway! 

On March 18th, we had our Garden Planting meeting, where we distributed cool season crops and seeds. During the month of March our gardeners were spreading and incorporating compost and soil amendments. We were super happy to partner with Willow Ridge for our compost program this year. Gardeners with a truck or trailer were able to go to Willow Ridge to pick up 1 scoop of mushroom compost or fill 7 5 Gallon buckets of mushroom compost, or buy into the compost program for $25 to help offset the cost of delivery. The compost they spread on their garden beds added a lot of organic material back into the heavy clay soil that East TN is known for. 

A new workshop we hosted this year, Ask an Organic Farmer Q&A and Soil Health with Tracy from the organic farm Enlightenment Acres, was a huge hit! Tracy shared his garden philosophies and gardening tips for specific crops. On his farm, Tracy practices regenerative agriculture to create a biodynamic environment that mimics nature, with the understanding that taking care of soil critters will help your garden. He practices agriculture to ensure that soil microbes are doing well, in order to make plants do well too. He shared many ideas on soil building, no till practices, amending heavy clay soils, and how to decrease the weed seed bank in the soil through the use of tarps to smother weeds and adding a thick layer of compost to bury weed seeds. It was inspiring to me to see how the gardeners in the program were already thinking about implementing the future of their gardens with some of his ideas in mind, their soils, and how much of an impact that the conversation with Tracy had on how they are going to continue to approach their gardens. 

New to Grow Oak Ridge this year is the assistance in installing a garden at the Oak Ridge Schools Preschool. We are working with a passionate group of teachers and staff members at the preschool, who are growing food to demonstrate gardening to the preschoolers. The faculty and staff are joining us at the Grow Your Own program workshops to learn how to garden and to plan for the years to come. The children are getting hands-on experience in harvesting from the garden and watching their food grow. The photos below show the kiddos harvesting from the garden and the meal that the teachers prepared with their fresh produce!

On April 22nd, we had our Garden Maintenance workshop and were joined by our Anderson County Extension Agent, Seth Whitehouse, who spoke on insect and plant disease management. At this workshop, we distributed pest control concentrates, warm season plants, and seeds to all the gardeners in the program. First year participants also received a hula hoe.  

During April and May, we have also been distributing specialty equipment materials that gardeners have requested, like the distribution of deer fencing materials, seed starting equipment, or specialty hand tools. 

The past two months have been filled with many delights and challenges. As an organization, we have been challenged by some of the federal cuts by the current administration. The Federal Agency, Americorps, gave notice of termination of grant funding to agencies across the state on April 29th. Several of the employees at Grow Oak Ridge are funded at least in part by the Americorps program, so this in part will be affecting our capacity to run some of our other programs. However, we are remaining optimistic through the support of our community and the compassion that surrounds our organization and programs. 

In celebrating garden delights, we are so thankful for the tremendous volunteer support from the community during our Grow & Learn Community Garden workdays. April garden visits are always such an anticipatory time of the year as we set up T-Posts and trellis netting, the gardeners are really starting to see their plans come together and picture what is to come. There is harvest on the way, spring crops and garlic. We are also so grateful for the support of Grow Appalachia to continue this program and their help in serving families and gardeners in Oak Ridge. Speaking with gardeners during garden visits and at workshops is rejuvenating and inspires excitement that builds excitement for us too!