Garden workshops are ideal for DIY enthusiasts to complete projects in peace. Incorporating creative endeavors into the home can often result in severe disruption; having a separate workspace gives you plenty of room to get dirty!
Explore the no-dig gardening technique with a hands-on component that allows participants to build their beds. Unlearn innovative methods of cultivating food, including season extension techniques.
Drought and Ecological Gardening
Gardeners are struggling to maintain the vitality of their plants in today’s summer drought conditions. Many plants that depend on constant moisture, such as hydrangeas and acres, have fallen victim to the scorching heat, while microorganisms that keep soil healthy cannot do their jobs due to insufficient moisture levels in the ground.
Drought-tolerant plants can help your garden survive during periods of water shortage. With the proper care and minimal irrigation needs, drought-tolerant varieties such as bee balm, coneflowers, and black-eyed susans can thrive without extensive irrigation systems – not to mention being attractive additions like sagebrush, ceanothus, and native grasses!
Planting a drought-tolerant garden is an intelligent decision that will save money on water bills and ease any gardening worries you might be experiencing. Planting such gardens is environmentally and socially responsible as our climate shifts.
An effective way to decrease water usage is to change how you view your landscape. A garden should ideally reflect its surrounding natural ecosystem; ecological design focuses on creating mini-habitats from different planting materials with similar environmental conditions; be mindful of choosing plants by shade and sun requirements, soil type, water, and temperature needs, as well as wind speeds when selecting your selections.
MPWD and BAWSCA have presented virtual workshops to introduce you to sustainable landscaping and gardening. You will learn to design a drought-tolerant garden and create meadows and landscapes using natives that conserve water. All classes are FREE; view their schedule on BAWSCA’s website HERE.
Start Your Worm Farm
Worm composting is an efficient and natural way to add organic matter to your soil, providing organic nutrients without using chemical fertilizers. When starting your worm bin, make sure it’s protected from direct sunlight and high winds – the optimal temperature should range between 40 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit for best results; too low temperatures won’t stimulate reproduction, while too hot temperatures could overheat and kill off all of the worms in it.
Build a simple worm compost bin from a recycled plastic bin with an attached liner, or use a garden-type compost tumbler. Be sure that it provides sufficient bedding and food scraps – smaller containers won’t produce as many quality castings, plus larger containers allow you to include fruits or veggies that would not ordinarily fit, such as citrus peels and onions.
Adding new bedding material and food should be handled gently not to disrupt the worms’ environment. Layers of newspaper, coconut coir, or hessian bag over the bedding material help retain moisture and block light from reaching them inside.
Once your worms have settled into their new home, you can begin feeding them. Make sure to bury food scraps beneath their bedding material to prevent flies and other pests from coming. Aim to fill your bin approximately one-third to one-half full with food waste – overfeeding may lead to overeating by the worms, which in turn eat their bedding and each other!
Organic Solutions to Problems in the Garden
Are black spots on roses, whiteflies on tomatoes, or weeds growing in your driveway problematic? Discover natural solutions such as environmental controls, insect and fungus management, and companion planting to combat these issues using organic methods such as environmental controls, insect management, and companion growing to address this problem. This workshop allows participants to bring samples of pests or diseases affecting their garden while working through solutions during class time.
Grow your greens to save money at grocery store prices! This workshop covers planting and cultivating various greens such as kale, collards, chard, spinach, and turnips in garden beds and containers, including year-round production tips.
This workshop is an engaging way to introduce children to gardening. Students will be divided into groups and given scenarios and potential organic solutions for each issue; then, they work collaboratively towards finding one that best matches the situation they were given before finally sharing their results with everyone to see who agrees on what solution.
Organic gardeners aim to control pests to limit any severe damage they can do, which may involve removing affected plants, using natural predators like lacewings and ladybugs as natural defense mechanisms, or organic products such as diatomaceous earth, horticultural oil or natural insecticide sprays. Furthermore, keeping the garden healthy will also help deter pests. Stressed or diseased plants tend to attract more of them.
Making an effort to cultivate your vegetable gardens in your backyard can be highly satisfying and aesthetically pleasing. This popular workshop will cover everything you need to know to create successful container vegetable gardens, including selecting an appropriate container size, soil mixes, watering/fertilizing schedules, and seasonal planting.
Vegetable Gardening
Gardening your vegetables can save money at the grocery store while increasing nutrition intake. While starting a garden may seem intimidating at first glance, it can become a prosperous source of delicious produce every summer with proper planning and care.
To start a vegetable garden successfully, selecting an ideal location is essential. Vegetables need plenty of sunlight; ensure your garden receives at least six hours a day with full sunlight. Furthermore, select an area with loose soil that won’t compact over time; amend rocky or compacted spots with organic material to improve them further if necessary.
Another critical consideration in garden planning is how you will access it to weed and harvest, whether your garden covers a large or small plot of land. Planning your layout so it allows easy movement is key; additionally, situating it near an accessible source of water, such as a garden hose hook-up or rain barrel, can ensure consistent amounts of irrigation are being supplied to plants at regular intervals.
Once you have chosen a location for your garden, the next step should be planning its layout. Decide how many rows or beds you wish to grow, where they will be situated, and which mechanical equipment, such as tillers or weed control, may be helpful. Rows tend to work best for more extensive vegetable gardens since mechanical help can simplify cultivation while improving soil structure and drainage; raised beds allow you to reduce automatic dependence while enhancing both the design and drainage of soil structures.
For those searching for more knowledge on vegetable gardening, the New York Botanical Garden is offering Super Small Space Veggie Gardening online classes this month. This course focuses on optimizing small spaces like rooftops or terraces into viable vegetable gardens – this course starts tonight and continues through May 12th.
Season Extension
Master gardeners offer workshops for those wanting to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs but with limited growing seasons. Season-extending techniques like covering crops with low-cost structures such as plastic tunnels or cloches may allow home gardeners several weeks of harvesting produce and herbs from their home gardens. More advanced approaches like high tunnels (also called hoop houses) have gained attention from commercial market gardeners due to their ability to extend growing seasons while improving crop quality.
Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County offers on-demand webinars and video conferences all year to teach new gardening and agricultural skills – these can be attended from any internet connection anywhere around the globe! Topics may include gardening in containers, managing invasive species, and building soil health.
Master Gardeners frequently present to local gardening clubs and community organizations each year. These presentations, often conducted via Zoom, can provide a fun way to share information on various gardening topics while honing the public speaking abilities of presenters.
Master Gardener volunteers offer numerous seminars at Greenbank Farm’s Master Gardener Educational Garden each year. These free seminars, which run from May to October each year, showcase environmentally responsible gardening practices while encouraging their use in Island County. Topics for 2023 seminars range from soil building and composting, vegetable gardening, insect, disease, and weed control management; plant selection for local conditions; and fruit tree horticulture, among many more – providing attendees an invaluable opportunity to meet fellow gardening enthusiasts while learning from each other! These seminars also serve as an opportunity to meet other enthusiasts while learning from one another about Island County gardening practices!
