Introduction to Sustainable Gardening
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You will learn the quickest way to start a sustainable garden that will feed your family indefinitely year round with the lowest cost and the least amount of work. This is not a normal garden course. This course is designed specifically for those who want to thrive after peak oil — not just survive.
Here are the questions that will get answered during the course:
SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS
- How do you select seeds for sustainability?
- What do you need to know about special kinds of seeds: open pollinated, hybrid, determinate, non-determinate?
- Which vegetables should you plant as seeds or seedlings?
- How deep should you plant seeds?
- How do you save and store seeds?
VEGETABLE CHOICE
- What are cool weather and warm weather crops?
- How long do vegetable plants live?
- How do you select companion plants?
GARDENS
- How do you make the land you have the right spot to grow food?
- What are the creative and unusual places to plant effective gardens?
- How do you make garden beds?
- How do you prepare the soil?
- How do you get water to your garden?
- How do you quickly make a sheet mulch garden?
SUSTAINABLE GARDENS
- How do you encourage your Soil Food Web for long-term nutrition?
- How do you feed the garden sustainably?
- How do you make perfect compost?
…AND MORE
- How do you tell when vegetables are ready to harvest?
- How do you store your vegetables for longest life?
- How do you deal with critters?
YOUR OWN GARDEN BRINGS PEACE OF MIND
Having food in the house that you grew plus the knowledge that you can grow more brings some certainty to uncertain times. Some other benefits you’ll get from the course are:
- Learn the most valuable things quickly
- Learn how to grow food without petroleum or petroleum-based products
- Save time and money by doing it right the first time
- Involve your whole family
INSTRUCTOR
Cathé Fish
Master Gardener, Permaculturist and Educator
Cathé Fish has been a successful gardener since 1971 when she planted her first kitchen garden in Oakland CA. In 1987, she became a Permaculture Sustainabilty Designer and Teacher. Cathé has been an active Master Gardener through the Cooperative Extension Service since 1988. She was a newspaper gardening editor for years.
Cathé has taught hundreds of classes and workshops, in the USA and internationally. She teaches gardening in Master Gardener Workshops, at the County Fair, and in her many classes. Cathé doesn’t just talk about it, she does it, too. She has created and implemented edible landscapes and sustainable permaculture designs on properties from suburban back and front yards to 40 acre farms. She is a fanatic about growing plants.
Cathé has been an inspiring pioneer in sustainable permaculture education in the US. She was the founder and original editor of the Drylands Permaculture newsletter which later became the Permaculture Drylands Journal.
Since 1980, she has been a member of the Arizona Solar Action Team traveling around the state of Arizona conducting Passive Solar Greenhouse Workshops. She has taught her Passive Solar Greenhouse slideshow at Arizona State Master Gardener Conferences, as well as many Master Gardener and Permaculture classes.
She is a member of the California Native Plant Society, NAFEX North American Fruit Explorers, California Rare Fruit Growers and Bioneers.
She also lived for 25 years in the high desert town of Bisbee, Arizona where she planted a ¼ acre of food gardens and a food forest. She says, “Wherever you live, build sheet mulch gardens to grow vegetables, and make water catchments so you can plant fruit trees.”
Cathé currently gets her electricity from the sun, drinks water from her solar water distiller, and cooks her garden vegetables in her many different types of solar cookers and solar ovens.
WHEN AND WHERE
March 26, 2011 at 2pm North American Pacific Time (Convert to other time zones.)
This is a 2-hour long online course so you will need an Internet connection.
You will want a good long distance plan or calling card or you can use a service such as Skype.com.
PRICE
The registration price is $39.