Hattie’s Garden offers gardening classes each spring. The focus is always on organic principles and growing your own vegetables. The class suits every level, from the new gardener to experienced the gardener. No matter what your skill set, you will come away with plenty of new information and knowledge. If you have never tried to grow vegetables and would like to give it a try, join us for the next class and learn.
Class Content
This class emphasizes practical, hands-on vegetable growing, aiming to help you create, expand, or enhance a vegetable garden in whatever space you have available.
Vegetable gardening is not difficult. Anyone can garden. The classes are designed to suit both those who already have experience and those who have none.
Your garden can range from container plantings to a small or large plot in your yard. We’ll cover organic gardening principles, soil preparation, seeding and transplanting, and garden maintenance, including weeding, mulching, pest and disease control, harvesting, and succession planting. By early June, you should be enjoying fresh vegetables from your own garden.
During the class, you will learn specific information on how to prepare your soil, including information on locally available and inexpensive resources. You will learn how to plant both seeds and transplants. You will try various tools to see what works best for you and get advise on ergonomic techniques.
Each class comprises two sessions, with the second session held two weeks after the first. During that break, you will be busy with a bit of homework as well as some planning for your garden.
You’ll develop your gardening plan for the season and explore the basics of organic gardening. The focus is on getting you growing food quickly and discovering how simple it can be to start. We’ll also cover soil science concepts, review soil test results, and provide hands-on instruction on tools, bed preparation, seeding techniques, weeding, and more.
Discussions will be focused on the life of a plant, when and how to harvest, when it is time to replant an area and how you might do that. While Hattie does a deep dive into soil science, things are explained in a way that everyone can understand. For those who want more, plenty of resources will be provided for you.
The class will address many of your questions such as:
- How do I prepare my garden?
- What do I need to do to the soil to keep it healthy?
- When should I plant things in the spring?
- What about weeding and pests?
- How much can I grow?
- What are cool weather vs. warm weather crops?
- How late in the season can I plant certain vegetables?
- When should I start new vegetables for my “fall garden”?
- How can I put my garden (and containers) “to bed” in the fall to make sure they will be ready for a new growing season with a minimum of preparation?
- How can I plant vegetables so you have a continuous supply of the things you like to eat and not have everything ready all at once?
Above all, the focus is on organic vegetable gardening and on eating a significant amount of produce we can grow ourselves in a very small space, including containers.
If you are interested in learning more about the class please email Hattie.