Celebrating our second season with Grow Appalachia

Our second season of the Grow Your Own program is wrapping up–it really flew by. This year, we worked with 24 families in the whole program, had 168 garden visits, and will have had 12 workshops. It has been incredible to see the connections people have made with each other and the community through gardening and food over the past year. For many in our program, this was their first time growing a garden and experiencing the surprises and learning that comes with it. We are so grateful for the support from Grow Appalachia that allows people in our community to make all of the exciting connections through growing their own food. 

We are looking forward to planting garlic in October and to a luffa processing class at the garden of one of our participants later this month. She has grown luffas for more than 2 years now and is excited to share with others. This year, she planted about 4 luffa seeds, which have yielded her almost 30 luffas! During September and October, we will be finishing up garden visits. At our garden visits, we’ve been talking about future goals, successes from the season, and fall gardening. We’ve been harvesting some of the last of our summer crops during September, like potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers. Some of our summer crops have definitely been phasing out already, like squashes and cucumbers, making room for new fall delights.  

As we enter into the fall, it is nice to take a step back and look at all that happened in the garden over the summer months, to celebrate and deliberate successes and challenges. The fall is a good time to take a step back and reflect on all the work and wonderful things that have already happened in the garden, get a jumpstart on planning for the spring and summer, amend the soil, and clean and take care of tools to get them ready for the next season. This period of reflection also allows for the excitement to build.