Education is the heart of what we do at E.A.T. South. Every month in 2023, even when it was way too hot, we hosted at least one free garden-focused workshop open to the entire community. Along with our annual offerings of Seed Starting, Organic Gardening, Mushroom Logs, and Fall & Winter Gardening, we added new workshops focused on vegetable gardening in containers, native plants, and seed saving.

MidSouth RC&D Council sponsored workshops on drip irrigation and compost/ worm bins as part of their Urban Agriculture in Alabama initiative. Thanks to their support, worms are happily eating food waste in more than twenty-five households, more gardens are installing water-conserving drip irrigation systems, urban farmers and gardeners learned about how to access conservation programs through the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The dye plants went to the Coliseum Branch Library for an art class.

This was our second year growing and learning in the dye garden, and thanks to funding from the Support the Arts License Tag Grant (buy a tag!), E.A.T. South hosted workshops focused on growing dye gardens, making prints with dye plants, and using indigo. The dye garden traveled into the community through art classes at Montgomery City-County Libraries, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and teacher conferences and workshops. We are so grateful to Tara Cady Sartorius for dreaming up the dye garden, learning about dye plants & processes, and teaching the classes.

Master Gardener Glenn Huovinen taught this year’s Growing Vegetables in Containers workshop.

Over the summer and after school, E.A.T. South’s youth programs connect young people from Montgomery’s Community Centers to the farm, and, occasionally, the farm goes to the centers. This year, we partnered with Chisholm, Highland Gardens, King Hill, and Houston Hill Community Centers during the summer and Chisholm, Highland Gardens and Regency Park over the fall.

We also began a new partnership with E.C.H.O. (Empowering Communities, Helping Ourselves). Their after school program adopted a garden bed and over the summer, grew tomatoes, and enjoyed the slip-n-slide on the hottest days.

We’re busy planning for 2024 and dreaming of new plants and programs. What would you like to do at the farm?

E.A.T. South is Garden Education for All