More than a sprout and younger than baby greens, microgreens are edible plants that can play a useful role in your garden and diet. Learn best practices for continuous harvests indoors and outdoors, and the many ways microgreens can add color, flavor, and nutrition to your kitchen table.
Tag Archives: urban gardening
Engaging Youth in Urban Agriculture (Workshop for Educators)
This course is designed for adults working with children and includes innovative ways of engaging them in agriculture. It addresses elementary, middle and high school youth activities. All levels include experiential activities that will keep youth engaged and having fun while they are learning about agriculture. Participants are encouraged to bring their own ideas and successful projects from previous work experiences. There is a field trip to a local school garden, and ideas about engaging teens in a farmer’s market will be included.
Cultivating a Food Forest
Forest layers, pattern application, dynamic accumulators, nitrogen fixers, pest confusers and insectary plants are primary considerations when designing a food forest and/or doing a guild build. Putting together a food forest is about functional relationships between plants, how many elements can each species support and draw support from when working in cooperation. Diversity isn’t simply how many different things are in one system, but how many each one thing can support. This course will be an introduction to some of the foundation language, functional relationships and match making of plants. Students should come prepared to open up to whole systems thinking. Students should also wear comfortable clothing for our our field trip into the Clifton Park Food Forest.
Urban Fruit Trees 101
Interested in growing fruit trees in DC? This class will cover all the fruit trees that can be grown in DC and how to maintain them organically. This class will cover pests, diseases, management practices, harvesting techniques, and a short intro to pruning.
Teacher Bio:
Josh Singer is the DPR Community Garden Specialist. He works to build new gardens, establish garden support systems, advocate for food security, and create garden education throughout the District. Josh is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director to Wangari Gardens, a 3 acre garden park. Josh is a certified arborist, master gardener, master composter, Bumba Apiarist, licensed teacher, and has a cerftificate in Permacutlure Design and EcoCity Farms Urban Gardening .
Mushroom Cultivating in the City
Growing your own shiitake mushrooms is a delicious way to make use of your shady spaces. Shiitakes also boost your immune system and are a key component of growing a well-balanced diet yourself. If you’re growing for market, shiitakes are a low maintenance specialty item that is well worth the effort. At this workshop, participants will learn how to plug logs and successfully grow their own shiitakes.
Teacher Bio:
Nazirahk Amen, ND, L.Ac. is a homeopath, naturopathic physician and oriental medicine practitioner for over 15 years in the Washington DC Metro area and resides in Takoma Park, MD. In addition to a busy medical practice, he manages about 5 acres of orchard and vegetable production. He is the owner of Purple Mountain Organics, which offers fine quality tools, growing supplies and sustainable ag services. Dr. Amen is first and foremost a spiritual adherent practicing and refining harmonious living skills for himself and the greater community and is excited to share information and skills gained from this journey
Volunteer Day at Clifton Park Food Forest
Sept 18 10:00am – Noon & 6:00pm – Dusk
Set up for Mushroom inoculation workshop
-logs
-wood chips and sawdust
-cardboard
-carpet
Lend a hand and get to chattin’ with Clifton Park Food Forest designer Eric Kelly at:
Volunteer Days at the Food Forest
***Please notify us by email if you plan to volunteer for an evening time***
Work Gloves, Sun Hat and Water recommended
If you can bring your own hand tools, shovel and rake that’d be a big help!
Have you read the latest in the Food Forest Journal?
Volunteer Groups give us a holler to let us know want to lend a hand!
Directions to Clifton Park Food Forest
Google Maps to the Food Forest
Chickens in the City
Ever wondered about the recent revival of keeping chickens in backyards? Backyard chickens have become a national trend with cities all over the U.S. revising their livestock exclusions to allow small flocks of backyard chickens. Learn some reasons why! In this hands-on course we will take a tour of chickens in an education setting.
We will cover housing, healthy feeding, how to chicken-share, chickens in the educational setting, how to protect your chickens from predation as well as resources for chickens, equipment and supplies.Backyard eggs are a valuable fresh food. Come find out why chickens aren’t just for rural areas anymore!
This class will be hosted at St. Columba’s School in the Deming Library on the ground floor. The address is 4201 Albemarle St., NW WDC 20016, but there is an entrance in the rear of the building on Butterworth Place NW that is more convenient. Signs will be posted on the day of the class. St Columba’s is only one block west of the Tenley/AU Metro. There is a very small parking lot that is reserved for staff from 5:00 am until 6:00 pm, but can be used AFTER 6:00pm for classes. And there is street parking, too.
Teacher
Kate McLynn is a science teacher in DC schools with a focus in environmental science who grew up with goats, dogs, poultry, horses and wildlife around. She has been hatching chickens for many years as part of a life science program and has been keeping chickens for several years. She is a master gardener, certified beekeeper, beekeeping mentor, and has taught science, gardening, composting, and has worked extensively on developing greenscapes for schools and communities.
Volunteer Day at Clifton Park Food Forest
Sept 4 10:00am – Noon & 6:00pm – Dusk
Set up for Mushroom inoculation workshop
-logs
-wood chips and sawdust
-cardboard
-carpet
Lend a hand and get to chattin’ with Clifton Park Food Forest designer Eric Kelly at:
Volunteer Days at the Food Forest
***Please notify us by email if you plan to volunteer for an evening time***
Work Gloves, Sun Hat and Water recommended
If you can bring your own hand tools, shovel and rake that’d be a big help!
Have you read the latest in the Food Forest Journal?
Volunteer Groups give us a holler to let us know want to lend a hand!
Directions to Clifton Park Food Forest
Google Maps to the Food Forest
Intro to Urban Aquaponics
The class will cover the basics of an aquaponics system, including the fish, plants, bacteria, and system design. The class will also discuss how aquaponics can fit in with a more sustainable food system.
Teacher
Brian Filipowich is the founder and manager of Anacostia Aquaponics, an aquaponics service provider and think tank.
Urban Food – Urban Farmers – Short Films and local Growers
Potluck: 5:30pm
Film: 6:15
Speaker and Q & A to follow
Register with Lacey at lacey[at]foxhavenfarm[dot]org
Gardening With Kids
Have you explored planting an edible organic garden with your kids yet? Come learn some basics on why growing organic is important, what resources are available in DC to grow with your kids and pick up some seeds to get started. Don’t Miss It!! Summer is here so the time is right to get your hands in the dirt and have some fun. Options for all types of living styles will be explored. Certified urban agriculture oficionados and youth camp organizers will share their love for organic food and how to grow it simply in a way that includes your kids as co-learners in a session that highlights the interdependence of us all with Mother Earth. Please dress comfortably and ready to get hands in the dirt. Materials will be provided. Very interactive!
This class will take place at the Casa Iris Intergenerational Garden at 2201 12th street NW at intersection of W street. (Columbia Heights)
Teacher
Angela Adrar Founder of Ecohermanas, a mother of two toddlers and a long time environmental activist and rural farm and food justice organizer with experience in the United States, Africa, and Asia. Through the Ecohermanas Agroecology and wellness initiative, she facilitates intergenerational power-sharing and co-learning sessions on farming, food, environmental justice, fun and good living for all ages. Kevin Cowan is a father and husband, he is also the founder of Knoble Farm and Gardens together with his wife (Angela) they run Dig n’ Fort Totten; a community backyard-farm initiative that helps families and neighbors take control of their food choices and grow their own, uplifting traditional knowledge and inviting youth of all ages. EcoHermanas is a re-imagined global collective of women that play a pivotal role in sharing, weaving, and reconnecting life to Mother Earth. Visit us at Ecohermanas.org
Volunteer Day at Clifton Park Food Forest
August 21 10:00am – Noon & 6:00pm – Dusk
Go fishing! Seriously
Make fish hydrolysate
Kids challenge and obstacle area
Lend a hand and get to chattin’ with Clifton Park Food Forest designer Eric Kelly at:
Volunteer Days at the Food Forest
***Please notify us by email if you plan to volunteer for an evening time***
Work Gloves, Sun Hat and Water recommended
If you can bring your own hand tools, shovel and rake that’d be a big help!
Have you read the latest in the Food Forest Journal?
Volunteer Groups give us a holler to let us know want to lend a hand!
Directions to Clifton Park Food Forest
Google Maps to the Food Forest
Sex in the Garden
Below its wholesome surface, gardening can get pretty hot and heavy, and we don’t mean hauling bags of mulch. Come and learn how sex (pollination) makes our food, and how in turn, food can inspire sex (aphrodisiacs). This presentation is R-rated, so adults only are invited to think dirty.
Teacher
After working with a kids gardening project at a local community organization in the late 1990s, Lola Bloom realized that urban gardens are an ever-evolving tool for relationship building and creative expression. Lola did not grow up gardening, and learned most of her skills through mistakes and children’s books. She draws inspiration from nine years of teaching art and kitchen experiments. Lola has a BFA in Art Education from VCU and a Masters of Public Management from University of Maryland.
Backyard Chickens
Ever wondered how you could incorperate chickens into your urban homestead?Well now is your chance to learn all the ins and outs of backyard chicken farming with our educator Dale Johnson. Backyard chickens are a good hobby and a great addition to a garden. A few chickens can form a symbiotic relationship with your garden and family in the following ways. Vegetables and eggs go together in all kinds of recipes. Recycle your table and garden scraps through your layers. They miraculously transform most types of vegetable matter into nutrient-dense, flavorful eggs and the litter gathered from underneath the roost and in the chicken run can add fertilizer value to your compost that will end up on your garden. A garden and layers are a wonderful way to teach your children biology, ecology, economy, sustainability and responsibility. This workshop will cover the basics of raising poultry in a backyard. And the best part of this presentation is that he brings the chickens to you! Dale will bring his chickens and their small coop, show you how to properly handle chickens, and give you tips on keeping your urban chickens happy and healthy all year long. You won’t want to miss this!
Cover Crops for Gardens
Cover crops slow erosion, improve soil health, smother weeds, enhance nutrient and moisture availability, help control pests, and bring a host of other benefits to your garden. This class will address what cover crops to use in your garden, when and how to plant and terminate them, and what benefits you can expect to reap from adding cover crops to your home garden.
Teacher
Dr. Andy Clark has been working with cover crops for almost 30 years, and he has been using cover crops in his community garden for just as long. Ten years of university cover crop research addressed nitrogen and soil water dynamics using grass and legume cover crops. Currently the communications director of a USDA program in sustainable agriculture (www.sare.org), he is the editor of several editions of the SARE book, Managing Cover Crops Profitably.
Urban Garden Season Extension
The Urban Garden Season Extension class will focus on strategies to extend your growing season such as tips for winter gardening, garden calendar planning, low tunnels, hoop houses, cold frames, shade tents, and many more strategies. This class will help you make the most of your garden and its production while preparing you towards the ultimate “4 season” garden.
Teacher Bio: Josh Singer is the DC Parks and Rec(DPR) Community Garden Specialist. He creates new community gardens and urban agricultural projects while developing and managing garden support systems such as a 70 class urban garden workshop series, a city wide compost network, a garden toolshare and a greenhouse cooperative. Josh also is the Co-Founder and Excecutive Director of the 501c3 non profit garden park called Wangari Gardens.
Volunteer Day at Clifton Park Food Forest
August 7 10:00am – Noon & 6:00pm – Dusk
Go fishing! Seriously
Make fish hydrolysate
Kids challenge and obstacle area
Lend a hand and get to chattin’ with Clifton Park Food Forest designer Eric Kelly at:
Volunteer Days at the Food Forest
***Please notify us by email if you plan to volunteer for an evening time***
Work Gloves, Sun Hat and Water recommended
If you can bring your own hand tools, shovel and rake that’d be a big help!
Have you read the latest in the Food Forest Journal?
Volunteer Groups give us a holler to let us know want to lend a hand!
Directions to Clifton Park Food Forest
Google Maps to the Food Forest
Grow It Eat It Open House
- Tomato Tasting! Come taste many types of tomatoes, bring your garden’s tomatoes, and tomato seeds
- Attend classes/talks/workshops
- Programs for children*
- Experts will answer edible gardening questions
- View our garden and attend the demonstrations in the garden
- Plant and Garden Supply Sale!
MicroHerding Invertebrates
Learn to deal with aquatic, subterranean, terrestrial, and flying invertebrates for composting, pest management, and food for fish, animals, and humans! The course goes through presentations and demonstrations, and is set up to go through a natural cycle starting with our two ancient aquatic invertebrates brine shrimp, and triops, moving on to our subterranean red wiggler worms, followed by crickets, mealworms, waxworms, superworms, BSF larvae, hornworms, their beetles, moths, and flies! Participants will get hands on time setting up small habitats to take home with their choice of crickets, mealworms or red wiggler worms. The course will end with a demonstration on cooking with edible insects, anyone who desires may participate in an Entomophagy (The eating of Insects) Space is limited to 15**
Date: July 31, 4-9 pm Cost: $40
Location: Charm City Farms Brick Barn Instructors: William Padilla-Brown
**Notice of cancellation must be given 48-hrs in advance of any of our workshops or events in order to request a refund. Cancellations are subject to a $5 restocking fee.**
About the Instructor
William Padilla-Brown is a social entrepreneur, certified permaculture designer, and multidisciplinary citizen scientist. He has run a non-profit in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania for the past 3 years called Community Compassion, focusing on radical sustainability. He has educated children and adults on topics varying from mushroom cultivation to nutrition via. various workshops and programs. William dropped out of high school at age 16 and has since been pursuing a non-traditional independent approach to his higher education actively promoting alternative education options. William also runs a biology lab/observatory, and mushroom microfarm, MycoSymbiotics, LLC
Intro to Composting with Bokashi
Join us for a workshop at Common Good City Farm to learn about Bokashi composting at a urban farm level. Bokashi composting is an anaerobic fermentation composting method that is 100% critter proof, has no greenhouse gases emitted like hot bacterial composting, and holds onto to 100% of its fertility unlike hot bacterial composting. DC Parks and Rec has launched its pilot community Bokashi program at Common Good City Farm.
http://commongoodcityfarm.org/
Teacher Bio:
Christian spent the last few years as Farm Manager at ECO City Farms, a few miles outside DC in Prince George’s County, MD. On this 1-acre urban farm (or “big garden”), the farm used organic methods, compost, and season extension tools to provide fresh vegetables, fruits, and sprouts to our 25-person CSA and farmers market. More importantly, as a non-profit educational organization, is the mission to help urban communities use agriculture to positively develop their communities.
Agroecology Urban Gardening Workshop
Agroecology is the study of ecological processes that operate in agricultural production systems. Join Blain as he talks about how important agroecology is to solve the world’s multiple crises, how it is more than just a way to grow food, but is actually a way to organize and a way to live and build movements. He also talks about the special role that youth have, as the new generation responsible for ensuring agroecology is not forgotten as agribusiness dominates the planet.
Teacher
Blain is a small-scale peasant farmer in Preston, Maryland and part of the International Youth Articulation of La Via Campesina (LVC). Blain became involved in La Via Campesina in 2010 through his work with the Rural Coalition. Additionally, Blain is a board member of the Southeast African American Farmers Organic Network (SAFFON) and an agroecological technician for the Farmworkers Association of Florida.
Storm Water Management Strategies
Learn about the history and current storm water management strategies in DC and learn about the DC Department of Environment and Energy (DOEE) stormwater management programs that you could assess today.
Teacher Bio:
Lee Cain has been working at the Anacostia Watershed Society for 8 years and his passion for his work stems from the deep roots of his relationship with the Chesapeake Bay and it’s watershed. He has led the AWS education team, developing new and innovative programs to restore tidal wetlands, chaired the DCEEC School Garden committee, Co-founded the Bancroft community garden, and Co-founded the National Capitol Region Watershed Stewards Academy, helping many people plant rain-gardens, permeable paver projects and install cisterns. He is now developing a recreation department within the Anacostia Watershed Society and would be happy to take you out to show you cool places and things to do on the River.
Lauren Linville works on the RiverSmart Homes program for the Department of Energy and Environment. Her background is in environmental policy, communications, and development. When not preoccupied with all things environmental, Lauren can be found exploring around town, volunteering with local civic and business groups along the North Capitol Corridor, and trying to improve her limited culinary skills.
Volunteer Day at Clifton Park Food Forest
July 24 10:00am – Noon
Make insect, bird, bat and amphibian homes
Insect inventory
Green mulch layer
Lend a hand and get to chattin’ with Clifton Park Food Forest designer Eric Kelly at:
Volunteer Days at the Food Forest
***Please notify us by email if you plan to volunteer for an evening time***
Work Gloves, Sun Hat and Water recommended
If you can bring your own hand tools, shovel and rake that’d be a big help!
Have you read the latest in the Food Forest Journal?
Volunteer Groups give us a holler to let us know want to lend a hand!
Directions to Clifton Park Food Forest
Google Maps to the Food Forest
Harvesting and Cooking from the Garden
Learn about how to correctly harvest and the different ways to cook a variety of vegetables from the garden through lecture and hands on cooking demos.
Teacher
As the Brain Food Garden Manager, Lyssa Houser is excited to grow the Brainfood Youth Garden as an extension of Brainfood’s food-based youth development programming. Lyssa’s background in food education includes experience developing and implementing intergenerational gardening programming as the Garden and Cooking Educator for the DC Department of Parks and Recreation. She also has experience leading garden education efforts through her work as the Director of Education for Wangari Gardens, where she teaches public workshops, supervises the planning and maintenance of the public gardens, and leads solar-cooked community lunches. She has also worked with Common Good City Farm, Old City Farm and Guild, Solar Household Energy, Inc, and Love & Carrots
Vertical Gardening
Learn a unique “low-tech” way to maximize your urban growing space with one one of the simplest and most unique growing methods in the world.
Teacher Bio:
Benjamin Friton In 2010 he co-founded Can YA Love, an organization specializing in supporting orphanages, schools, and youth & women’s groups in densely populated areas around the world by setting up customized agricultural systems that provide continuous support to their mission. He is currently focusing his efforts as a soil-ecologist, educator and designer at Forested, a ten-acre food forest in just 6 miles East of DC.
Volunteer Day at Clifton Park Food Forest
July 10 10:00am – Noon
Make insect, bird, bat and amphibian homes
Insect inventory
Green mulch layer
Lend a hand and get to chattin’ with Clifton Park Food Forest designer Eric Kelly at:
Volunteer Days at the Food Forest
***Please notify us by email if you plan to volunteer for an evening time***
Work Gloves, Sun Hat and Water recommended
If you can bring your own hand tools, shovel and rake that’d be a big help!
Have you read the latest in the Food Forest Journal?
Volunteer Groups give us a holler to let us know want to lend a hand!
Directions to Clifton Park Food Forest
Google Maps to the Food Forest
LowTech Mushrooms
Learn how you can start growing mushrooms with materials you probably already have around the house. Starting with a presentation on the life cycle of mushrooms we will work on cultivating an understanding of our fungal friends as we go through hands on demonstrations from taking spore prints, and easy clones, to starting spores, or commercial culture, on a small amount of material to be expanded onto bunker spawn totes for starting outdoor patches, or straw and logs for fruiting indoors and outside! We will have models of small scale fruiting chambers for growing fresh mushrooms in or outside the home! Participants will leave with starter cakes with their choice of oyster, shiitake, wine cap, nameko, lions mane, and or reishi mushrooms plus straw logs of pink oyster mushrooms!
Date: July 2 from 4-9 pm Cost: $40
Location: Charm City Farms Brick Barn Instructors: William Padilla-Brown
**Notice of cancellation must be given 48-hrs in advance of any of our workshops or events in order to request a refund. Cancellations are subject to a $5 restocking fee.**
About the Instructor
William Padilla-Brown is a social entrepreneur, certified permaculture designer, and multidisciplinary citizen scientist. He has run a non-profit in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania for the past 3 years called Community Compassion, focusing on radical sustainability. He has educated children and adults on topics varying from mushroom cultivation to nutrition via. various workshops and programs. William dropped out of high school at age 16 and has since been pursuing a non-traditional independent approach to his higher education actively promoting alternative education options. William also runs a biology lab/observatory, and mushroom microfarm, MycoSymbiotics, LLC
Community Garden Management and Best Practices
This class will focus on a variety of best practices from starting, managing and improving a community garden. We’ll focus on ways to inclusively outreach neighborhoods, different ways to cooperatively manage gardens, explore example bylaws, discuss ways to deal with theft and vandalism and much more.
Teacher
Josh Singer, as the DC Parks and Recreation (DPR) Community Garden Specialist, builds community gardens, urban farms and develops urban Ag. support systems such as an urban garden education series with over 100 urban Ag. classes a year, a garden toolshare, a 4 greenhouse seedling cooperative, and a community compost cooperative network serving over a 1000 active composters. Josh also is the co-founder and executive director of the 501c3 non-profit 3-acre garden park called Wangari Gardens, the founder of the DC Food Recovery Working Group and a co-founder of the DUGnetwork, DC’s Urban Ag and Food Security cooperative Network
Intro to Permaculture and Forest Gardens
Learn how people can produce what they need from a garden that resembles a forest. In an era when people have strained the world’s ecosystems to meet their needs, a forest garden provides a critical combination of benefits for people and planet — cleaning water, building soil, and providing a bounty of food and supplies. Come learn about some of the plants and practices of this exciting way of gardening and eating.
Teacher Bio:
Lincoln Smith runs Forested, a forest garden company in Bowie, MD (www.forested.us). He helps landowners in the eastern US create successful forest gardens through consultation and through training at the 10-acre Forested demonstration garden. He is working on making and marketing acorn foods through collaboration with Korean acorn food producers. Lincoln spent five years designing and managing high-end residential landscape projects and pushing sustainability at Graham Landscape Architecture in Annapolis. He holds a Master of Arts in Landscape Design from the Conway School, a Permaculture Design Certificate from Wayne Weiseman, and earned LEED certification in 2008.
Rooftop Gardening 101
Learn the basics of growing edibles on a roof from local rooftop farming experts.
Teachers
Founded in 2014, Up Top Acres was started by Kristof, Kathleen and Jeff, 3 DC natives who met while attending DC Public Schools. After graduating college, the team returned to DC with the goal to make the city they grew up in a better place for their friends and family who call DC home.
Art in The Garden Urban Workshop
Learn a variety of ways to make art in an urban garden.
Teacher
Aleem Woods
Medicinal Mushrooms
This 1-day class is a deep exploration into the world of mushrooms and mushroom medicine. Through lecture and demonstration, we’ll explore the life cycle of fungi, and the basic biology and ecology of mushrooms to understand why mushrooms are medicinal for us and how growing conditions affect their medicinal and nutritional content.
We’ll then explore the amazing medicinal qualities that come from mushrooms, especially local wild species, and how to prepare them.
Participants will taste some amazing medicinal mushroom teas and learn easy ways to use mushrooms for immune health. Participants will also walk away with samples of locally harvested medicinal mushroom tea.
This class covers three main topics:
*The lifecycle and basic biology of mushrooms
*An introduction to the amazing medicine from medicinal mushrooms
*The ability of mushrooms to degrade toxic man-made waste in nature
Date: June 19, 9am- 1pm Cost: $40
Location: The Johnston Square Brick Barn, Baltimore 21202 Instructor: Jared Urchek
**Notice of cancellation must be given 48-hrs in advance of any of our workshops or events in order to request a refund. Cancellations are subject to a $5 restocking fee. **
About the Instructor:
Jared Urchek, L.Ac, CZB, is a Five-Element acupuncturist, certified Zero Balancer, and a cultivator of gourmet & medicinal mushrooms. He is enthralled by the beauty and the healing power of Nature. Growing up in the woods of northeast Ohio, he found the woods to be comforting, healing, and inspiring even as a youngster. Learning about the wonders of the fungal Kingdom through a permaculture class started a lifelong passion for the cultivation and use of gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. Jared is also profoundly inspired by Chinese medicine and its ability to help people heal on all levels – body, mind, and spirit. Imagine his surprise in learning that all the great medicinal and gourmet mushrooms were also potent Chinese medicinal herbs? Jared offers private and group acupuncture sessions, a growing line of medicinal mushroom products, and various classes and workshops to spread the healing knowledge of these vital traditions.
About the Location:
The “Brick Barn” is a brick garage turned classroom space on Charm City Farms’ newest Permaculture farm space, a triple vacant, city-owned lot in the Johnston Square area of Baltimore. The Brick Barn serves as a classroom space for Permaculture Design Certificate courses, a workshop, and a community gathering space, with future plans to include produce processing and to serve as a local goods trading post.
The address to the barn is 1310 Hillman St, Baltimore, MD 21202, directly across from Green Mount Cemetery.
Edibles in Containers
Registration required: http://offices.ext.vt.edu/arlington/programs/anr/offerings/registration/VCE_Arlington_ANR_Program_Registration.html
K. St. Farm Garden Design/Drip Irrigation Workshop
We will take a walking tour of the K St. Farm and discuss garden design elements as they relate to overall garden production and experiences. During the second half of the class students will familiarize themselves with drip irrigation parts and best practices.
Teacher Bio: Kate Lee is the Garden Director for DC Greens. She studied Horticulture at the University of Georgia and has worked at a variety of non-profit gardens and school gardens in Washington, DC.
Thrifty Small Space Gardening for the Urban Homestead
Don’t have a lot of space for a traditional in-ground garden but want to grow your own fresh vegetables? Do you see the prices of containers at gardening stores and have sticker shock? Fear not! At this workshop, we will show you how you can grow plenty of healthy produce for you and your family in even the smallest of spaces for a fraction of the cost. Come and learn how to start a 100sq foot garden and considerations you need to make when gardening only in containers. Get your creative juices flowing as we help show you how ANYTHING can be used as a container and start growing!
Creating Critter Proof Cages for your Garden
Learn how to create a critter proof cage for your garden to prevent critters, vandalism and theft from getting to your garden. We’ll learn by actually creating several critter proof cages. You’ll also receive an intro to powertools and carpentry as well. No skills reqiured.
Teacher
Josh Singer, as the DC Parks and Recreation (DPR) Community Garden Specialist, builds community gardens, urban farms and develops urban Ag. support systems such as an urban garden education series with over 100 urban Ag. classes a year, a garden toolshare, a 4 greenhouse seedling cooperative, and a community compost cooperative network serving over a 1000 active composters. Josh also is the co-founder and executive director of the 501c3 non-profit 3-acre garden park called Wangari Gardens, the founder of the DC Food Recovery Working Group and a co-founder of the DUGnetwork, DC’s Urban Ag and Food Security cooperative Network.
9th Annual DC Plant Swap
(Rain or shine: Rain location is the Headhouse-look for signs)
Beautify your garden with free plants provided by other local gardeners – and do the same for them! Here’s how it works:
Several days/weeks before the Swap: Pot up your plants (do not pot up the day before). Label each one, ideally with common and Latin name, growing conditions, special care, flower color, etc.
Bring: Your labeled plants and (optional) refreshments to share.
Don’t bring: Common orange daylilies and any invasive species – use this list to screen your plant offerings. Hybrid daylilies are welcome, but the common orange ones usually end up in the compost pile.
When you arrive: Unload your plants and sort by the categories provided.
After the Swap: Socialize and visit the Arboretum’s collections.
No plants to share? Come anyway! Bring refreshments, socialize with other gardeners, and enjoy the Arboretum’s gardens.
Co-sponsored by the Washington Gardener Magazine and the U.S. National Arboretum. Free, no registration required.
Edible Annuals Garden Workshop
Spend an evening going through a gardener’s tour of the Marion Street Intergenerational Garden, a communal edible garden tucked away in Shaw. Check out examples of no-dig gardening, in-ground and raised beds and learn lots of tricks for growing some great summer crops (including vegetables, herbs and native plants.) Come ready with questions and gardening gloves!
Teacher Bio:
Over a decade ago Rebecca was asked if she would like to do a small gardening project with a group of kids in a local community center. From that point on she grew to see urban gardening as a way to combine her interests in art, community participation and everything green. In 2009, Rebecca incorporated City Blossoms with partner Lola Bloom. Since then, City Blossoms has become a leader in kid and community-focused urban agriculture in the area, supporting over 40 green spaces, designing teaching tools and training for organizations such as the Nature Conservancy and FoodCorps, and compiling a bilingual early childhood curriculum, Our First Harvest/Nuestra Primera Cosecha. Rebecca has a BA from Fordham University, an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art.
Intro to Canning: How to Preserve Tomatoes, Pickles, Jams & Jellies
There’s nothing better than opening up a jar of home-preserved
tomatoes or jam on a dark winter night, and remembering the warmth and
bounty of summer! This class will cover basic canning for the
beginner, using simple, inexpensive equipment. We’ll learn the boiling
water bath method, which can be used to safely preserve fruits
(including jams and jellies), tomatoes, and pickles. This is a
hands-on class so come prepared to get cookin’!
Garden Plant Botany
Description
This workshop will cover the basics of plant identification. Participants will learn which flower characteristics are important for using a botanical key and how to recognize the most common plant families in the DC area.
Teacher Bio
Holly Poole-Kavana is an herbalist practicing in Washington DC. In 2010 she founded Little Red Bird Botanicals, offering herbal consultations, an herbal medicine CSA, and workshops on growing and using medicinal herbs. She also works as a health educator and birth assistant.
Skill Class: Forest Garden Design & Care
Explore forest gardening in depth and learn the tools and methods to help you succeed.
Cost: $100
Description: In this class, we focus on the plants, relationships and design of forest gardens. Topics will include:
- Polyculture or Guild design at the backyard and small farm scale
- Forest garden soil management
- Nitrogen-fixing plants
- Forest garden site analysis
- Forest garden establishment and maintenance techniques
- Forest garden insectaries and pest management
- Growing and tasting of seasonal forest garden fruit, nuts, herbs, greens, mushrooms and more
- Community strategy and impact of forest gardens
The day includes tours of the forest garden, design materials and exercises, coaching sessions, discussions and networking. Our singular goal is to help our students succeed in their forest garden projects.
Lead Instructor: Lincoln Smith
Location: Forested in Bowie, MD. Be sure to read how to get into the site here. Google Maps by itself will not get you here.
Qualifications: Participants should feel comfortable being outside in any weather. Participants under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Sturdy footwear is required as well as appropriate outdoor clothing. Please bring a pair of work gloves if you have them.
Food: Snacks and drinks will be provided, but please bring lunch.
Registration: Pay below or email Lincoln to let us know you’re coming.
Work Trade: Cash is prefered to help us continue to develop the forest garden, but we accept 10 hours of volunteer work, or the $100 class fee, or any combination or the two. Email Lincoln to inquire about a work trade.
Groups: Bring friends and save! Select a number below for group discount price. Email Lincoln if you’d like to bring more than 4 people.
Native Bees and Natural Habitat Creation
Description
Introduction to local, native pollinators found in the area and discuss how to establish and promote effective pollinator habitat. After the talk about pollinators and pollinators gardens, we will be making bamboo native bee nests.
Teacher Bio:
Olivia Bernauer is a Master’s student in the vanEngelsdorp bee lab at the University of Maryland studying the floral preferences of native pollinators. To do this, she works with citizen scientists to identify and observe pollinators on specific plants. Eventually, she will use the observations to create planting recommendations for local pollinator gardens. Olivia did her undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin where her work with pollinators began. She conducted research on bumble bees and their response to fungicide.
Garden Pests and Disease
Through powerpoint and discussion, we will look at “pests” a little differently than most gardeners do: they are telling us that we are doing something wrong! Let’s dig deeper into truly organic and sustainable agriculture and learn to listen to what the “pests” and ecosystem are telling us. Sprays, whether organic or homemade, are not long-term solutions and can have undesirable side effects. We will start learning to identify all sorts of insects in the garden and learn how they work in order to better design our gardens to achieve balance amongst the wildlife, and still put food on our table! Finally, we will conclude with a visual review of common diseases too and what one can be done to prevent and manage them.
Teacher Bio:
Christian spent the last few years as Farm Manager at ECO City Farms, a few miles outside DC in Prince George’s County, MD. On this 1-acre urban farm (or “big garden”), the farm used organic methods, compost, and season extension tools to provide fresh vegetables, fruits, and sprouts to our 25-person CSA and farmers market. More importantly, as a non-profit educational organization, is the mission to help urban communities use agriculture to positively develop their communities.
