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The Year-Round Gardener on the Eastside
Description
Inspired by our year-long growing season and Tilth Alliance’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, this 40+ hour hybrid intensive course takes place over eight months. Participants will learn together online, as well as in the garden in small, outdoor groups, practicing seasonally appropriate activities like garden design and planning during the winter months and pest and weed management throughout the summer.
Each class will meet twice a month: one Thursday evening on Zoom and one Saturday in person, late January-September, and will include a combination of:
- Lecture-based presentation to learn what you can plant, weed and harvest from your garden in the upcoming weeks
- Hands-on activities to practice and gain mastery of seasonal gardening tasks
- Group discussion to learn from fellow participants and troubleshoot what is happening in your own garden
- Suggestions for harvesting and preparing seasonal fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs to learn new ways to utilize them in your kitchen and home
Learning topics and hands-on activities for the course will include:
- February — garden design, introduction to organic gardening, seed starting indoors, planting bare root fruits
- March — seasonal planning, crop rotation, weed identification and chopping-in winter cover crops
- April — soil testing and soil amendments, planting seeds and starts outside, season extension devices
- May — drip irrigation and smart watering techniques, starting warm season crops and companion planting
- June — harvest tips, food preservation, worm bins and other food waste composting techniques
- July — pest identification and management, making herbal products, planting the fall and winter garden
- August — seed saving, backyard composting and exploring the soil food web
- September — harvest celebration and preparing the garden for winter
This holistic course is appropriate for beginner to intermediate gardeners and anyone looking to commit to a year in the garden learning new skills, integrating previous knowledge into deeper understanding and connecting with a community of fellow gardeners.
On Saturdays, classes will meet outside in small groups of about twelve and we will be following current public health guidelines. You have the option of signing up for a session at one of Tilth Alliance’s Learning Gardens: Good Shepherd Center in North Seattle, Bradner Gardens Park in South Seattle or McAuliffe Park in Kirkland. This registration page is for the location at McAuliffe Park in Kirkland. During these hands-on days, be prepared for outdoor activities and dress for the weather.
Class fee includes a copy of Tilth Alliance’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide and comprehensive class materials. You can expect to be assigned some homework to complete in between classes and a final project to be presented at the end of the course. Read FAQs here.
Thursday sessions are 6-8 p.m. and Saturday sessions are 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Class dates are: Jan. 26, Feb. 11, Feb. 23, Mar. 11, Mar. 23, Apr. 8, Apr. 27, May 13, May 25, June 10, June 22, July 8, July 27, Aug. 12, Aug. 24, Sep. 9.
