Our program has grown so much this year in many ways, and we have been so privileged to be a part of the Grow Appalachia community over the last 3 years. 

Our participants’ summer plants keep getting bigger and producing and they have been able to take advantage of that production on an individual level and share that bounty with others in our community. Our gardeners have grown their own individual knowledge and have cultivated a community enthusiasm around gardening. As a coordinator, July, August, & September are some of my favorite times of the season as we see the participants in the program really start to take stock of all of their hard work, how much they’ve learned, and see their confidence bloom as they enjoy their harvests. Those full circle moments come from a culmination of all of their planting, patience, maintenance, and excitement. 

We asked some of our first year participants to share their stories from this season–many of which demonstrate those full circle moments of seeing their garden from start to finish. Several of their stories are below:

“Two kiddos joined me in the garden. One dodged the bean beetle pairs party (and didn’t notice their yellow eggs and larva underneath the leaves) to harvest green beans. The other swerved in and around the very prickly, very overgrown cucumber vines to find his treasures. After curiously listening to a garden neighbor describe her process of turning ghost peppers into powder, they also helped me prune, stake, and uncover buried tiny gold tomatoes and waited patiently as I added more basil, sage, and zinnias to our take-home bucket. It was dark when we left. Although they asked if they could still have popsicles, and I said yes, I believe they’d have accepted the other answer, content with a memory of the fun they had exploring, being productive, and enjoying delicious, fresh food.

I am so excited to plant all I have learned from the Grow Your Own Program of Grow Oak Ridge into my front yard next Spring! My family and I have had at least one ingredient from our garden in EVERY dinner, and many lunches or breakfasts, for weeks. “Doing food prep ourselves always makes the meal taste better,” I’ve said to our kids since they were old enough to stand on stools to cut with butter knives. GROWING the food we prep and cook is even more satisfying and delicious. I encourage everyone to give it a go. Start small and surprise yourselves!”

“I thought this would be an uphill battle, I wasn’t looking to have hardly any crops to harvest. Anything at all would be an experience and a success. I only signed up because our then preschooler was interested. It was her garden and I was just making it happen. The beginning work was labor intensive, but the effort was completely worth it. Spending time in the garden to harvest, or water, or even weed has been the highlight of my spring and summer. It’s our garden now.”

“My daughter has been a help to me at our plot. Excited to see her Bell Peppers grow produce. But one day she was helping me water our garden and Thyme Share’s and she saw that it had white powder all over it. I told her I would ask about it, but to leave it be. just help water. She was so adamant that their plants were dirty and she needed to clean them off. took me a few mins to convince her it was probably something to do with bugs or a fertilizer. When I asked later that week during a WorkDay….they said yes….it was Diatomaceous earth (DE), for the bugs. LOL!”

“My kids and the neighbor’s kids became the squash bug checkers. They are the perfect level for looking under all the leaves and helping me find eggs or the dreaded army of baby squash bugs hiding underneath. I know we extended our harvest by our daily checks!”

“At the beginning I was extremely apprehensive to get started. And therefore I took a more conservative approach for most plants and smaller crop sizes. However carrots defeated me almost immediately upon starting. I had smothered them with my straw perhaps and it made me feel like I was not cut out for growing and wanted to quit. But as the season went on and other plants started to take off my confidence grew. From this I discovered that I can handle larger crops and manage multiple plants better than I expected. So with the upcoming season coming I plan to be braver and try new and larger crop sizes of things.”

“When Katie came to help me set my stakes, she told me I should redo my garden perimeter which meant taking up 9 of the 7 ft metal posts. This was because I was going to need more area and a walkway. I was a bit hesitant and sore for several days, but it made all the difference. I was really glad for the advice and the program and all of Katie’s knowledge and hard work!

I needed to go out west several times this year and was surprised that when I got back everything was still alive and growing well. After the broccoli head was removed I left the plant in place and after being gone almost two weeks I came back to a lacy broccoli plant that had become a trap crop for the other veggies and was surprised how little pest pressure there was for me this year. 🐞🐛🐜🦟🕷️

With the deer netting around Mimi’s Meadow, the deer come right to the outside of the garden on the east side and will lay down right against the netting like they are protecting it. They keep other animals from bothering the garden and seem fine eating other things around. 😀”

Inspired by the words and actions of our Grow Your Own community, we are so excited for what is to come. Grow Oak Ridge was recently awarded the Project Diabetes Grant, which is funded under a grant contract with the state of Tennessee. Through this grant, we are making some much needed improvements to the Grow & Learn Community Garden, where 12 of our program gardeners have been this year, such as a new shed, framing in garden beds, adding better water access, and building out a 3 bay compost system–all of which we here at Grow Oak Ridge and the gardeners in the community garden are looking forward to. We are also partnering with Engineers with Out Borders through the University of Tennessee to build out our compost system.

Oh, and did I mention? This year, Grow Oak Ridge is also celebrating its 10 year anniversary! 

As our gardener’s produce bounty is in full swing and the program is winding down, this Saturday, we are having our Potluck. Gardeners will be bringing themselves, their families, some of their favorite garden dishes and sharing stories of successes and challenges from this season!