HAPPENINGS AT PROJECT WORTH OUTREACH

Hello everyone. This is Alex Sanders from Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky.  I hope everyone is well this week.

I have spent several days visiting garden sites to see what everyone is doing. We have several gardeners with some fall vegetables but most of our gardeners have began the process of closing down their gardens and getting them ready for the upcoming winter season. Myself, we still have green peppers and fall green beans in the ground. We hope to harvest these before the first hard frost of the year. In addition, we are in the process of transforming our garden from raised garden to in-ground for next spring. One of our gardeners had a lot of success in raising a mounds garden and we were so impressed that we were movitated to go that route next year. We have very much enjoyed our gardening experience this year with Grow Appalachia and hope to do it again next year. We have learned a lot about gardening and made many mistakes that we will learn from.  It has given us more food than we expected.  We have learned to can food and have eaten a lot healthier this year.  I usually get a summer cold in August but this year I did not.  I cannot tell you the last time I didn't get a summer cold and I attribute this to eating healthier this summer.  The other benefits from participating in the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Gardening Program this year was that I found the time spent working in the garden was therapeutic, my family spent a lot of quality time together and therefore, we became closer and more familar with each other, and it was fun to see vegetables go from seed to storage.

Our next Grow Appalachia participant's meeting is schedule for October 1 and that is when our participants will turn in their journal for review and the best journal will win a first place prize. We have set up a panel of independant judges to review and name the winner. I am looking forward to reviewing these journals. It should be an interesting experience. Also, at this meeting we will discuss the successes and problems that have been encountered this year as well as gauge the interest of of participants in participating in the Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Gardening Program next year if we get funded. The other item on the agenda for this meeting will be requesting the participants to fill out a survey on their Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Outreach Gardening Program experience. Finally, our last Grow Appalachia / Project Worth Gardening Program meeting for this year is scheduled for October 22. This will be our wrap up meeting followed by a pot lunch meal with the dishes being prepared with items that our participants grew in their garden this year.

Well, that's about all I have for today. I hope everyone has a great week