Introduction to Gardening

Students don't need to have prior experience or knowledge of gardening. This class is for beginners to start thinking about all the factors in creating a healthy, happy garden!

In this gardening class, we will talk about the basics of gardening: 
I will do my best to keep group classes sectioned into similar ages as well as learning goals.  I want to tailor the class to the specific learner(s) plans, experience, and learning desires. For example, we can focus more on the science of plants rather than gardening techniques if learner is not planning to garden yet this year. 


Here is a sample of how a typical class succession can go, depending on learner goals:

Week one: What do plants need to grow? We will talk about what plants need and how to provide them with what they need. We will talk about fertilizer as well as how to make our own at home with just old table scraps! We will plant our seed(s) in our pots, water it, find a good sunny window to put it by, and make a plan to take care of it!

Week two:  Companion planting and Garden planning! Learners will be encouraged to remember key points learned last class about what plants need to grow. Next we will talk about companion planting: which plants are good friends and can be planted next to one another and which cannot. We will  talk about things like insect control with flowers as helpful companions for drawing in helpful (and cute!) predator bugs like Mantis! We will also observe our sprouted seeds!

Week three:  Trellising and pruning! Learners will be encouraged to remember key points learned last class about what plants are friends. We will talk about techniques for caring for our plants when they get bigger. We will talk about trellising plants that need it and how to prune. We will focus on the specific plants they plan to have in their own garden. We will observe our growing buds in our planters!

Week four and beyond:  Review of all! We will go into more details of all the above topics as well as soil health, building healthy soil, watering methods, using perennial plants, attracting pollinators, and monoculture versus polyculture. We will go over everything and make sure learners understand what they will need to do to take care of their plant or garden! We will also cover any important tips and tricks they should know when caring for their plants. Specifics depends on type of plant(s) they are growing or plan to grow! We will play trivia games to test knowledge throughout!