The Boyd County Master Gardeners are developing an educational vegetable garden that will be used to not only demonstrate how to raise common garden vegetables but the bulk of this garden education will be devoted on how to rebuild soil that has been depleted of organic matter, good soil structure and nutrients.  They are starting with a plot that is reclaimed strip mine land that for the past 30+ years has just been a fallow field.  They have set up a research committee to develop educational signs for the area describing what surface strip mining is and how its affects are felt for many years after the mining has stopped and then they will be working on the process to build this land back up to a viable production area while keeping a record of all their inputs so that they can develop educational signs of this process.  Their hope is to have a working outdoor classroom for not only their organization but for the local schools as well to teach the students how important it is to take care of the soil.  Many of the Master Gardeners have reported that they were not familiar with the impacts that strip mining had on the soil would continue for so many years once the mining had ceased.