Organic Gardening Class in Columbia City!
Imagine the delights of stepping out into your own yard and picking delicious, organic, sun-ripened tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, salad greens, herbs, and berries. Home-grown organic fruits and vegetables are more delicious and nutritious then store-bought, and growing your own food is good for the planet, good exercise, and a wonderful activity to do with kids.
Would you like to learn the skills you need to grow the fruits and vegetables you like best? I love to garden and am happy to teach you how.
In small, personalized classes, you will learn:
• How to choose the best fruits and vegetable for your own garden, based on what you most want to eat and what grows most easily in this climate.
• How and when to start seeds, buy healthy transplants, and put them out in your garden.
• How to make and use organic fertilizers.
• How to choose the best places in your yard to garden, and the easiest ways to turn your lawn into garden.
• How to deter pests without using pesticides.
• How to turn weeds and kitchen scraps into compost that will help your garden grow.
• How to plan now so that you can grow food all fall and winter.
You’ll get useful handouts, starts of plants, tastes of vegetables you can grow, and even some worms for your compost bin, all as part of the class package.
Each class we’ll do some talking (theory) on my back porch, under cover if it rains, lots of garden observation as spring progresses, and some gardening (practice) in my own large garden. Dress for working in the garden and bring gardening gloves and materials for taking notes.
Recommended textbook is Steve Solomon’s Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, any edition published after 2001.
Class will meet for 4 Sunday afternoons, April 13 through May 4, 3-5 pm, at 5134 South Willow Street, 98118, just south of Columbia City. Cost for the series is $85, with some scholarships available. To reserve your space, please send a $25 deposit to this address, with checks made out to me, Elizabeth Walker. If you get your deposit in by April 5, cost of the series will be reduced to $75.
If you live in my neighborhood and need individual help with growing vegetables and fruits organically, I am also available for garden consultations in your yard, for $60/hour.
I have a yard-sized organic garden and grow most of my own fruits and vegetables, year around. I have a Master’s degree in nutrition and teach nutrition and health at Goddard College. If you have questions, please email me: Elizabeth Walker, ten.ysaekaeps|reklawce#ten.ysaekaeps|reklawce
Happy spring, and happy gardening!