Are you eager to deepen your knowledge of agriculture and hone your gardening skills? This year we’re happy to reboot our educational urban agriculture workshop series that will equip you, our community members, with all the knowledge and hands-on experience you’ll need to get your gardening growing green!
As you may remember from our recent urban agriculture update, our hope for the coming seasons and ensuing years is to take our urban agriculture education up a notch or two in terms of the impact it has on our communities’ ability to grow its own food.
This workshop series represents the first of many different ways that we will work to meet people’s desires and needs related to agriculture. The workshops will follow the arc of the season and with the work that people will be doing in their own gardens, balconies and community plots. Here’s what we have in store:
Starting your seedlings
March 27th and April 4 – Learn how to start your own seedling indoors before the warm weather comes. This workshop will be part theory and part hands-on. Participants will go home with their own trays of seedlings to get their seasons started.
Note: this workshop will be happening a little later than is ideal due to some organizational constraints. The practical aspects will focus on crops that require a bit less time in the garden or that can tolerate the onset of cold weather in the fall.
Self-watering bins
May 6 – Build your own self-watering bin from scratch so that you can apply the principles to your very own container garden.
Gardening 101
May 26 and 30 – Learn (or get re-acquainted with) the aspects of gardening that you need to consider early on in the growing season.
Gardening 102
June 12 and 14 – Keep your garden healthy and free of pests now that it’s established but most importantly, learn to reap the fruits of your labour! Register here.
Insects: friends and foes
July 19 – In an organic garden, insects and other critters can be a blessing or a curse. Learn to identify some common insects and understand their role they play in your garden.
Seed Saving
September 6 – Dip your toes into the art of plant breeding by learning the art and science of seed saving.
Composting
Dates TBD – Come learn how to master the nutrient cycle in your garden through composting. This workshop will take place in two sessions over a 6 – 8 week period in order to understand the different steps of the process.
Photo: Sandrine Corbeil