Spring is arriving, and with it comes a new season of growth for our family gardening community. This year, our group is putting an even stronger focus on developing our family garden plots so that members can see ideas come to life right in the garden. Through demonstrations and hands-on installations, we’ll be exploring ways to make our gardens more productive and easier to maintain. Topics will include installing ground cover to help with weed control and soil health, building and using trellises, and learning how to train climbing plants like beans, cucumbers, and peas for better yields and healthier plants.

Seeds are already in the ground, with more seeds and plants on order as we prepare for the months ahead. Our workshops are designed to guide gardeners through the entire season. In April, Planning Your Garden workshop will assist participants with receive cool-weather crop materials, basic garden planning and planning for seed saving while learning how to design a garden that fits their space and goals. The optional Organic Pest and Disease Control workshop will kick off the season. In May, just before our last frost date, we’ll gather for Planting Your Garden, providing vegetable plants and basic garden supplies to help families get started as well as discussing Healthy Heart cooking at each workshop during the year, concentrating on in season crop recipes.

As the season progresses, our June Maintaining Your Garden workshop will focus on caring for plants, managing pests naturally, and keeping gardens thriving through the heat of summer. By July, our attention will turn to harvest time with our Food Preservation workshop. Because many members have expressed strong interest, we’ll be placing special emphasis on practical demonstrations of canning and dehydrating so families can safely preserve the food they grow.

Beyond the garden beds, our community continues to grow as well. Our private Facebook group and chat for members are becoming more active each week as the hours of daylight increase, offering a place to ask questions, share progress, and celebrate successes. We’re also launching a public Owsley Grows Facebook page beyond our private chat and private group where our members chat, ask and answer questions and share their gardens and food preservation photos. We are in the process of adding a website with email access and a place for newsletters as well. We will continue to grow our member-led mini sessions from their areas of expertise that have caught the interest of the group at workshops this year.
If you have followed me over the years with this blog, you know I love Easter flowers and this spring poem “Daffodowndilly” by A.A. Miline, so I will close with a few lines:
She turned to the sunlight
and shook her yellow head,
and whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”