Hi, All--
Especially Judy Tiger, Garden Resources of Washington, Washington,
DC--regarding her 12/17 listing, "I'm looking for models of gardening
training designed for urban innercity settings, especially for low-income
low literacy learners, covering organic edible gardening as well as
composting and basic ornamental garden design. I'm wondering if there are
any urban master gardening programs designed this way or
other similar education series."
Our Master Gardener program serves ONLY low-income urban gardeners (see
description I sent in re this issue several weeks ago).
We arrange 2-hour workshops on at community gardens and other venues
(battered women and homeless shelters, community centers, etc). The two
types of workshops are 1) Gardening Basics for Fall/Winter or
Spring/Summer, and 2) Fresh From The Garden: Nutritious Vegetables, Simply
Prepared. We encourage the group to schedule one workshop and then the
other, and to have us come back the next season for the alternate garden
topic specifics and another vegetable highlight. They're a great tie-in
together, because sometimes gardeners grow a vegetable purely for the
ornamental value (like multicolored swiss chard), and he/she'll then start
eating it; or a cook will start growing a vegetable because he/she so
enjoyed the several recipes (like beets).
The trick with these workshop presentations is connecting with the
audience's senses--the hands-on, visual demonstration, verbal discussion,
and 1) with gardening, the visit to the gardeners' individual plots, and 2)
with cooks, the tastings.
In their training classes, MGs are given the seasonal gardening and
nutritional/preparation writeups with expanded discussion topics and points
to be sure to discuss.
We format our workshop presentations thusly:
GARDENING BASICS FOR FALL/WINTER OR SPRING/SUMMER
1. 15 minutes--set up table display of
a. Program information--description of various programs, mission statement,
helpline contact, website
b. Horticultural information--monthly/seasonal tips from our website,
compost resources, seed/seedling planting guide, beneficial insects poster,
"Trace Elements in Soil" article, and "Recycling 'Useless' Household
Throwaways Into 'New' Garden Tools" from our website,
c. University of California publications--catalog and the 6 most-helpful
books,
d. Community garden start-up guide from our website,
e. School-garden start-up guide from our website,
f. Our "Children's Gardens: A Field Guide for Teachers, Parents, and
Volunteers",
g. Trays of seeds to sow at that season (some 150,000 packets are donated
to us annually from seed companies specifically to distribute to low-income
and school gardeners).
2. 15 minutes--MGs walk through the garden to observe what examples can be
included in the topic discussions to follow
3. 40 minutes--Intro + 5 minute mini-presentations with examples from
garden observation (phrase "bad" stuff as challenges and suggesting
possible alternative approaches)
a. MGs welcome gardeners, express admiration of garden, and introduce
program as resource and specific items on display table
b. Soil Preparation emphasizing health of the soil
c. Composting as the magic ingredient
d. Sowing seeds
e. Transplanting seedlings
f. Watering techniques emphasizing deep, infrequent watering to train roots
to grow deeply
g. Pests--weeds, insects, diseases--monitoring and organic approaches
h. Harvesting encouraging experimentation of timing to determine personal
choice of "perfect" moment
4. 30 minutes or more--informal walk around the garden with the gardeners,
pointing out highlights from talks
FRESH FROM THE GARDEN--NUTRITIOUS VEGETABLES, SIMPLY PREPARED
1. 15 minutes--set up table display of
a. Program information--description of various programs, mission statement,
helpline contact, website
b. Nutritional information--vegetables with most nutritive value like
beets, leafy greens, etc
c. Recipes--booklet of favorites, and flyers on specific vegetable/group to
be demonstrated that day
d. Trays of seeds to sow at that season
2. 60 minutes--Welcome gardeners, demonstrate several recipes while
discussing nutrition basics, serve for individual tastings, reinforce
everyone's surprise that that nutritious vegetable/group can be prepared so
simply in so many delicious ways.
3. 15 minutes--discuss basics of growing the highlighted vegetable/group
Hope these points give you some great ideas how to develop your own! See
our website for the materials mentioned. Or, email me and I'll send them
to you as attachments. "Trace Elements" is not yet on the website.
Ciao for now.
Yvonne Savio
Common Ground Garden Program Manager
University of California Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County
4800 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles 90022
Phone: 323-260-3407
Fax: 323-881-0067
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: celosangeles.ucdavis.edu (click on "Common Ground Garden
Program")
Master Gardener Email Gardening Helpline: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Master Gardener Phone Gardening Helpline: 323-260-3238
Volunteers of the Common Ground Garden Program help low-income and
limited-resource county residents to grow and eat more nutritious
vegetables and fruits. Programs include Master Gardener volunteers
(seasonal gardening presentations) and Fresh From The Garden volunteers
(simple nutrition and food safety presentations). We work primarily with
community gardens, school gardens, seniors, and homeless and battered
women's shelters.
______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's
services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org
To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:
https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
