Grow Appalachia: PROJECT WORTH OUTREACH HOLDS PARTICIPANT'S MEETING

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

Project Worth Outreach held it's latest participant's meeting on Monday, October 1. We had several people attend this meeting. We discussed cover crops and end of the gardening season activities. Most everyone in attendance still had a few vegetables in the ground and are preparing to harvest these vegetables and close out their garden for the year.

Our special speaker, Jerry Redden, was one of our gardeners and he discussed his garden with the group. If you recall, Jerry had made a blog post for us on his garden titled " My Deep Mulch Organic Garden". This post was made on August 3, 2012. It is a very interesting read. I would encourage you to check it out if you happened to have missed it. During his presentation, he mentioned that he read a book that led him to raise this type of garden. The title of the book is "No-Work Garden Book" by Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence. He mentioned that the 5 things that got his attention in this book were: (1) No more tilling! The tiller was the last thing that I needed to eliminate before I would be using nothing but human powered tools in my garden. Also it is very important to have an abundance of earthworms in a good garden --- it’s a bad day for the earthworms when a tiller is used. (2) Less weeds! When an 8 inch layer of spoiled hay is spread on the garden very few weeds work their way through and the ones that do are easy to pull. (3) Little or no watering is needed! The thick layer of mulch keeps the ground moist. (4) Your garden gets richer! The mulch decomposes into your soil and produces rich loamy soil as the years pass. (5) Less work! That is why the title is NO-WORK GARDEN BOOK. He also stated that the two plants that he enjoyed the most were Poke and Lambs Quarters. Young shoots of Poke early in the spring are delicious and can be cooked several ways. About mid summer the poke berries make a beautiful colored wine that I like when it is very young. Poke has been said to increase one’s strength and help build a strong immune system. I think poke is a most handsome plant, especially when it is hanging full of berries. Lambs Quarter, in most peoples opinion, is not a plant but a weed! When my onions were about 8 inches high this spring, I recognized that little plants of lamb’s quarter were coming up. I decided to let a few of them grow to maturity. Their presence didn’t hurt the onion crop --- may have helped it. Lambs Quarter greens are delicious. They have more vitamins than spinach and taste a bunch better. Imagine this --- they grow like weeds. Both of these plants volunteered to take root in my garden. Jerry's presentation was very interesting and informative. We thank Jerry for taking the time to prepare and give this presentation.

Our next Grow Appalachia Gardening Participant's meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 22 at 6 PM at Project Worth Outreach. This will be our final meeting of the year and it will be followed with a pot luck meal with dishes prepared by our gardening participants from vegetables grown in their garden this year. I personally can't wait for that event.

That's about all for today. Please find photos of a few of our gardeners below and I hope everyone has a great week.

Project Worth / Grow Appalachia Garden Participants