HomeGrown Directory

Hope everyone is doing well. This Sat. is our last workshop. It would be very helpful if people can join this Sat. from 10:30am to begin clean up and putting the gardens to bed. If this Sat. is not conducive to your schedule I really need to stress please do your part and at least get the weeds down. The town of Boone gets upset if the community garden is not cleaned up during the winter months. This means anything erected; weeds, stakes, cages, etc. must be removed otherwise the slap on the wrist comes to me and I have had enough of that from the past.

I would like to take this opportunity to update everyone that anyone interested in renewing their space has first dibs. I like to know by the 1st of Jan. who is going to renew. If I do not hear from you in Jan. I will assume your space is free to anyone else interested. I will send out a request in Jan. as a reminder and put adds in the press.

Anyone that likes garlic or flowering bulbs this month is the last to plant them. For garlic you want to plant each clove 1-2inches deep and 6inches apart and then cover with a leaf or straw mulch 2-5inches thick. Then in March you will see the garlic begin to sprout. As for flowering bulbs I will try to get some from Lowe's to give away. Otherwise, buy what you may already like or want.

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Join the Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture for a cooking demonstration and discussion about the challenges and opportunities involved in consuming a seasonal, preferably locally grown diet. Jessica Marlin of Reid’s Catering and Margie Mansure, Extension Agent and Nutritionist will provide new ideas for you to use in your kitchen. Bring a covered dish to share, Wednesday, October 8th at 6:30 p.m. at the Agricultural Conference Center, 242 Poplar Grove Road in Boone. Contact NC Cooperative Extension at 264-3061 for questions.

In 2006, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture embarked on a project that surveyed High Country institutions including schools, hospitals and nursing homes about their food purchasing practices.

BRWIA shared the results of our survey and introduced producers and consumers to each other on June 19, 2008 at the Apple Barn in Valle Crucis.

Here are some photos that were taken that evening.

Please click the image below to start the slideshow.

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Last year, the Watauga County Democratic Party canvassed in a number of areas around Watauga County, and identified a number of needs and concerns, the greatest of which was the need for self-sufficiency and sustainability. Several projects were suggested, but the one that resonated with the largest number of people was the idea of community gardens.
As Watauga county's population has grown and changed, family and subsistence farming has become a vanishing culture. Instead of small gardens dotting the local landscape, food production has become a faceless industry.
A community garden can serve an important role to change that, in both towns and rural areas. It provides a source of high quality food, as most community gardens require organic garden practices. It is a source of low-cost food for low income families and seniors on fixed incomes so they can have access to nutritional meals. It provides a sense of community as people join together to garden. And it helps children form a sense of where their food comes from and feel a connectedness to the land.
To these ends, Community Gardens of the Blue Ridge has committed to and already has possibilities for garden plots in several areas in Watauga County. Gardens in a Habitat for Humanity community and for senior citizens next to the Western Watauga Community Center are already in the works. The gardens would be permanent additions to these locations. We believe that these locations actively express our goals of self-sufficiency and sustainability.
While this project was a Democratic initiative, it has grown far beyond that. Indeed, our core committee is comprised of a wide-ranging spectrum of individuals from diverse religious, political and philosophical backgrounds, ages (students to seniors), and gardening experience (novices to professional gardeners), all working together to nourish bodies, souls and soil.
As with any fledgling project, Community Gardens of the Blue Ridge needs a great deal of help to start out on the right track. While the work of maintaining the gardens will be up to the recipients of the garden plots, our group is charged with providing tools, seeds, plants, wood for raised beds and all the other items that make for a successful garden, and we're asking for your help.
We are open to any suggestions, as well as offers of help.
Sincerely,

Bob Gow

Professional gardener, landscaper

Jasmine ShoShanna

Interim Director

• Garden Sponsorships @ $50, $75, $100
• Hoses
• Spades, forks, rakes, trowels
• Lockable sheds
• Wheel Barrows
• Chicken Wire for compost piles
• Mulch (straw, leaves, cardboard)
• Manure, especially horse, llama, goat & cow manure

Equipment we would like to borrow/ have donated or have you donate time and equipment -

• Tractor
• Roto tillers

• to create self-sufficient people who know how to provide their own food.
• to improve our environment via organic farming techniques.
• to improve our environment via the reduction of the transportation of food to our community.
• to reconnect people to the land.
• to reconnect people with people.
• to revive a vanishing culture.