Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Where do I get some help?

That was the question I was asking myself after I saw that my original garden plan needed some tweaking.  What I found was Victory Gardens San Diego and their Gardening 101 class.  http://www.victorygardenssandiego.com/  
What was Victory Gardens about?  From their web site...
  • Eating nutritious, locally grown organic food
  • Promoting genuine empowerment, practical knowledge and self-sufficiency
  • Fostering community, skill sharing and information exchange reconnecting people to food history and its traditions
  • Growing food in innovative spaces
  • Encouraging a greater understanding of food systems and their connections to local and global sustainability issues
  • We help anyone seeking an active role in their own food production!
Ok, I was in.  I was referred to a Gardening 101 class at the beautiful Olivewood Gardens.  http://olivewoodgardens.org/.  Olivewood Gardens is a garden and education center located in National City (just south of downtown San Diego) on a 6.85 property.  The site offers garden classes for grade school students on field trips, as well as adult oriented garden courses like the one I attended.  In addition, they have cooking classes featuring local San Diego chefs, with produce straight from the garden! 

In addition to all the good work they do, the environment is beautiful and features a fully restored victorian house that crowns the garden with impeccable style.  Olivewood gardens is a non-profit, with the house, gardens, and property donated to the foundation by the Walton family in 2006 and later gifted to Olivewood Gardens in 2010.
 
The next Gardening 101 is coming up in about a month if you'd like to check it out.  http://olivewoodgardens.org/education/gardening-101-how-to-grow-your-own-food.

So, back to the garden.  The first lesson we took in was all about getting started...Getting a garden started, starts with siting.  More on this next time, but to give you a hint, here are some topics to consider from the Gardening 101 class:

SITING
  1. Sunlight and Shade
  2. Water accessibility
  3. Soil quality and terrain
  4. Existing trees and shrubs
  5. Existing pests/weeds
  6. Accessibility
  7. Community

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