It’s May, planting season, and Strong Roots is BOOMING! Per usual, in what I believe now to be a sort of tradition, we got a late start and realized that we would need to continue recruiting as we built our 2026 program.  Our first workshop in March was attended by a small but mighty group of gardeners, excited to get started with their own backyard plots. With many participant spots to fill, Tammy jumped into action, recruiting partners to, then, recruit families to fill our roster, post haste.  By April, the fruits of our labor were evident.  We had all spots filled and over 20 in attendance at our ‘Planting Your Garden’ workshop.  We were featured in a video highlighting the workshop on Facebook (@SavetheChildrenKY). The gardening information, provided by Michael Barnes (Berea College) is valuable enough to stand on it’s own two feet, however, the free resources and materials, in addition to what is provided by the grant, really shines. During every workshop, Tammy makes every effort to bring a full inventory of gardening related materials for parents and children, often partnering with the Christian Appalachian Project, to make this a reality every month.  Participants receive hundreds of dollars in resources, between our generous partnership with Grow App and other community partners. As quoted by our Master Gardener “How could anyone say no to this program?”.

 

Now that we have workshops under control, participant spots filled, and materials purchased, we have been hard at work getting garden beds implemented in folks’ backyards.  For a variety of reasons (rentals, soil health, etc) we have seen that many people prefer raised beds.  So we are trying to provide as large of a gardening plot as possible in consideration of their property limitations. Nonetheless, individual gardens have been created and plants have been purchased.  We also have community gardens at the extension office, Housing Authority of Williamsburg, Canadatown Community Church and Corbin First Baptist Church that are being tended by community members that either belong to the organization, or families that do not have access to green space of their own.  The extension office garden, in particular is being used as a demonstration garden for our monthly workshops.

 

As we move through the season, our goals are to maintain the level of success that we’ve attained, or exceed it, in the future.  We’re much more intentional this year and have a wizened look about us when we discuss planning, budgeting and staffing.  Spending down our budget is also a goal that we, surprisingly, always have to work extra hard to achieve.  We are showered with in-kind donations for items that we originally allot funding for (example, we were recently gifted a tiller that’s worth over $1k by Lowes) and sometimes struggle to keep our budget on track throughout the grant cycle.  But this year, with our gained knowledge, we know that we will come out on top.

 

Special thanks to all of our collaborative partners who have supported us thus far, Grow Appalachia, and all of our gardening staff.  We appreciate you and couldn’t do this without you! (Quite literally)