Grow With Us
Organic gardening education from seed to harvest. Learn how to grow, eat, and preserve food from your own backyard!
Our Programs
Since 2012, Build It Up has offered gardening education and installed over 150 new gardens in East TN. We offer support to backyard gardeners, market gardeners, and school and community gardens. Learn more about what we do by clicking below!
Backyard Gardeners Program
We take 30-40 families through a year of organic gardening education and support. Families recieve plants, seeds, tools, fertilizer and more to help grow healthy, fresh food right in their own backyards!
Market Gardeners Program
We encourage entreprenuership through agriculture and support market gardeners up to a half acre in size. We have a growers coop that sells to restaurants and a multi-farm CSA.
Consulting
Our gardening experts would love to help you design a backyard, community or school garden! We also do food forests, perennial fruit & nut trees, and native edible plants.
Over 150 Families Served
Wish your kids knew where their food comes from? Gardening provides so many opportunities for kids (and adults!) to learn about food, nature, and the joys of dirt under your fingernails! Learn more about our Backyard Gardens Program:
Grow Organic
We teach how to grow organically and in harmony with our ecosystem. Our workshops focus on gardening in ways that prevent pest and disease issues naturally without relying on chemical fertilizers and sprays.
Pounds of Food Grown
%
Organic
Families
Our Partners
Appalachian RC&D
BIU is a fiscally sponsored project of Appalachian RC&D. Learn more about their other great programs in the region!
Grow Appalachia
We are one of 21 Grow Appalachia partner sites. Click to learn more about GA and our sister programs.
Latest from the Blog
We try to feature blogs from each of our families 2-3 times a month. Read all about their gardening adventures this season:
Gardener Story: Mary Kate Williams
Gardener Story: Mary Kate Williams Greetings Green Thumbed friends, and those who aspire to be. My name is Mary Kate Williams and my family and I are first year gardeners and excited to be accepted into the Build It Up program. I have to admit, gardening abilities and...
Gardener Story: Brandi Eveland-Sayers
Gardener Story: Brandi Eveland-Sayers Hi BIU friends. This is my first year as a participant in this amazing program. My kids and I are enjoying the quick changes happening in the garden. Tomatoes are the most exciting right now as we like to pick a few Sun Golds each...
Gardener Story: Carolyn Andrews
Gardener Story: Carolyn AndrewsThis year has been an exciting gardening year for me. Up until this first year of my participation in Build It Up, I had grown a variety of vegetables in my backyard garden space—but my efforts were basically uninformed. I needed to...