Traditionally, we focus on community gardens to support and teach people how to grow food. But this year, we decided to do something different here at the Civic Garden Center. We started our Backyard Garden Program with the help of Grow Appalachia. Because we are in a more urban space, we had some unexpected barriers that we had to address, which we didn’t anticipate would make such a big impact on our efforts. The area that we initially wanted to focus on had a few barriers. The lack of space and sun exposure made it difficult to find faces and places for a successful garden. So we expanded our search. With the help of social media and other community collaborations, we found some pretty enthusiastic beginner and experienced gardeners.

During some site visits, we learned that the determination and the willingness to grow their own food was one of the most important things to them and this made them perfect for our program. And it’s paying off! We have been able to install raised garden beds, elevated raised garden beds for those with mobility issues, and was able to extend an existing garden throughout the beginning of the growing season.

Starting later in the year was definitely not something we were used to, but we were able to accomplish sowing seeds, teaching workshops and transplanting plants. Our harvest started off small, but is definitely growing with our new backyard gardeners.