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Spring Organic Vegetable Gardening Workshop
Spring Organic Vegetable Gardening Workshop
We are pleased to be offering an extensive organic vegetable gardening workshop this spring. The four part workshop will take place on the second Saturdays of March, April, May and June (March 10, April 14, May 12 and June 9). The workshop will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. each of the days and will include a vegetarian lunch. The price will be $400 ($300 for Barefoot Gardens CSA members) or $350 ($250 for Barefoot gardens CSA members) for those who have paid in full by February 1st. Please contact John (barefootgardens2003@yahoo.com or 309-313-3224) soon if you are interested or have any questions once you have read over the following information. The workshop will be limited to 15 students this year.
About the Workshop - The idea behind the workshop is to give you the timely training and instruction that you will need to create your own home garden. Each month of the growing season requires different knowledge and skills For example, in the early spring, you need to know how to start seedlings, make a seedling mix, prepare the soil of a new or established garden and so on. In later spring, you have to know how to direct seed, transplant, cultivate around and protect young seedlings. The workshop is scheduled to give you the kind of timely training that you need to make your garden a success.
“Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world."
“A person who undertakes to grow a garden at home, by practices that will preserve rather than exploit the economy of the soil, has his mind precisely against what is wrong with us... What I am saying is that if we apply our minds directly and competently to the needs of the earth, then we will have begun to make fundamental and necessary changes in our minds. We will begin to understand and to mistrust and to change our wasteful economy, which markets not just the produce of earth, but also the earth's ability to produce.” Wendel Berry
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“A person who undertakes to grow a garden at home, by practices that will preserve rather than exploit the economy of the soil, has his mind precisely against what is wrong with us... What I am saying is that if we apply our minds directly and competently to the needs of the earth, then we will have begun to make fundamental and necessary changes in our minds. We will begin to understand and to mistrust and to change our wasteful economy, which markets not just the produce of earth, but also the earth's ability to produce.” Wendel Berry
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John's Credentials and Gardening Interests
I fell in love with growing food when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer managing an organic farm in the Dominican Republic twenty years ago. To me, there was something special, real, magical even about going out onto the landscape and gathering what I needed to eat. Ever since, I have read everything I can get my hands on that might inform me about how to raise food in a way that is healthful, sustainable and beautiful. As I have learned over the years, the size and scope of my gardens has grown. At first, I had enough surplus to begin selling at local farmer's markets under the name Barefoot Gardens. Then, ten years ago, we began Barefoot Gardens CSA which we have been running and managing since.
Making the transition from gardening as a serious hobby to gardening professionally has made me a much better gardener. I have learned through experience which techniques are successful and which hand tools are the best for getting the job done. I have also had to learn proper form in movement to get the job done quickly and well with a minimum of movement and energy. Likewise, ten years of trying different vegetable, flower and herb varieties has given me some insight on what varieties work best in our part of the world.
I fell in love with growing food when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer managing an organic farm in the Dominican Republic twenty years ago. To me, there was something special, real, magical even about going out onto the landscape and gathering what I needed to eat. Ever since, I have read everything I can get my hands on that might inform me about how to raise food in a way that is healthful, sustainable and beautiful. As I have learned over the years, the size and scope of my gardens has grown. At first, I had enough surplus to begin selling at local farmer's markets under the name Barefoot Gardens. Then, ten years ago, we began Barefoot Gardens CSA which we have been running and managing since.
Making the transition from gardening as a serious hobby to gardening professionally has made me a much better gardener. I have learned through experience which techniques are successful and which hand tools are the best for getting the job done. I have also had to learn proper form in movement to get the job done quickly and well with a minimum of movement and energy. Likewise, ten years of trying different vegetable, flower and herb varieties has given me some insight on what varieties work best in our part of the world.
Why Home Gardening is Important
I believe strongly in the importance of local food and no food is more local than the food you raise for yourself, your friends and/or your family. As a community, the more we are able to raise our own food, the stronger we will be in terms of health, economy and community. Food Inc. (the conglomerate of multinational corporations that control the majority of our food and agriculture systems) largely controls our government, our food choices and our health. Frankly, it is time to occupy our food.
I know that people want to learn to garden. They long to produce their own food, to work with their hands, to have meaningful work to do outdoors as their grandparents and all previous generations did. However, most of us aren't fortunate enough to have anyone to teach us how. The tradition that most of our families had of teaching the next generation of families to raise their own food has been broken.
Every year, I see dozens of individuals and families in our area excitedly breaking ground and starting their own gardens. However, by mid July most of those gardens have been abandoned. After seeing this pattern year after year, I finally realized that the reason people don't garden or that their gardens fail is not because people are lazy or don't care but rather because they simply don't know how to garden and there is nowhere to go and learn. That is why I decided to start teaching gardening workshops and may eventually transition into the creation of a garden school.
I believe strongly in the importance of local food and no food is more local than the food you raise for yourself, your friends and/or your family. As a community, the more we are able to raise our own food, the stronger we will be in terms of health, economy and community. Food Inc. (the conglomerate of multinational corporations that control the majority of our food and agriculture systems) largely controls our government, our food choices and our health. Frankly, it is time to occupy our food.
I know that people want to learn to garden. They long to produce their own food, to work with their hands, to have meaningful work to do outdoors as their grandparents and all previous generations did. However, most of us aren't fortunate enough to have anyone to teach us how. The tradition that most of our families had of teaching the next generation of families to raise their own food has been broken.
Every year, I see dozens of individuals and families in our area excitedly breaking ground and starting their own gardens. However, by mid July most of those gardens have been abandoned. After seeing this pattern year after year, I finally realized that the reason people don't garden or that their gardens fail is not because people are lazy or don't care but rather because they simply don't know how to garden and there is nowhere to go and learn. That is why I decided to start teaching gardening workshops and may eventually transition into the creation of a garden school.
