Saturday, April 11, a group of volunteers from Americorps NCCC gave a huge boost to St. John’s Grow Appalachia Community Garden.  The group has been working at Cumberland Falls State Park on a variety of projects, including pulling invasive species like burning bush.

Today, they came to set up cedar poles for two grape arbors as part of our garden.  In addition, they started to cut the sod from the garden plots, so we can till the soil and begin planting.  While all of this has been mapped out on paper, now you can see how it’s all going to look.  And it was a great day to be working outdoors.

Thanks to June Sullivan, who provided pizza for lunch. Thanks to Steve Gilbert and Ward Brown for organizing the project!

Enjoy the photos of the day.

Getting started…

Digging, digging and more digging…

Getting the cedar posts firmly in the ground AND digging the next hole…

This friendly neighborhood dog enjoyed watching the activity and playing with the volunteers.

The garden beds are beginning to emerge

cutting sod and digging more holes…

Cutting the sod is hard work, but there is terrific soil underneath!

We piled the sod in the center where we’re planning a circular herb bed. The string shows the outline of a garden bed

The wonderful crew. They’ll spend 10 months traveling around the country helping out in a variety of ways. THANKS for your service!

Poles for 2 grape arbors, garden beds laid out and some ready for planting!

The cedar poles are firmly in the ground and ready for the top frame to hold the grapes

This is the pile of sod from 4 of the 10 beds.