December 16, 2011

No-till methods in the garden

It may be December, but the Dryden Community Garden continues to have great classes! This one will be next Tuesday, the 20th, at the Dryden Community Cafe from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.

What and Who:
This month's topic: No-till garden methods. Grow your own without plows, rototillers, or any heavy tools. You can have a garden without even using a shovel. We'll cover the basics of several methods of no-till home gardening including French Intensive, a German method where you begin with a mound of yard debris, planting directly in straw bales, raised beds, double dug beds, square foot (more of a design than a no-till way), lasagna gardening, sheet mulching... and maybe more if others have ideas to share!

Kerra Quinn will be leading this class and discussion. As always, Grow Your Own! classes are for everyone to share, so come with your no-till knowledge and be a teacher, too! I spent 8 years having to cram as much food as possible into a relatively small space where the "soil" I had to start with was nothing but red clay and limestone, with only a shovel and a rake (and my favorite gardening tool is still a sharp stick, go figure). This blessed me with the need to read a lot of books and try a lot of different things and talk to a lot of neighbors and wise old farmers. With a long 10 month growing season every year for 8 years I got a lot of practice.

Why:
To teach and learn and meet new people, to build connections in the community, to have organic air-popped popcorn with nutritional yeast and sea salt (or plain, or bring your own topping), to have locally grown and/or wild harvested herbal teas, to get out on a Tuesday night, to be part of the great, beautiful, wonderful thing that is our community and our food.

And:
All ages are welcome, there are toys and books for little ones.
Donations are gratefully accepted to help us cover the cost of materials, snacks, and advertising.

Posted by simon at December 16, 2011 11:01 AM in
Note on photos