Come to the Lafayette Community Garden to learn how you can add a little whimsy to your yard at our SMALL ENCHANTED WORLDS: DRAGON, GNOME AND FAIRY GARDENS workshop. On June 21 from 2:00 to 5:00pm, artist Suja Pritchard will guide you in making an “enchanted world” container garden for visiting dragons, gnomes, and fairies, with a house, path and fence!
Ever wondered how you could improve your soil? If you have, you can learn how to cook up a batch of homemade compost on your own.
On June 7 from 1:00 to 2:30PM, Contra Costa County Waste Authority presents Composting 101 at the Lafayette Community Garden.
Linda Mizes returns to the garden to share her expertise on home composting. Learn how easy it is to enrich your soil and reduce your waste while letting nature do the work. You’ll leave with all the information you need to start a simple home composting system, as well as how to use the compost in your garden. Methods of simple vermiculture (worm composting) will also be covered and you’ll learn ways to use worm castings and tea.
This workshop is FREE to adults (ages 18 and older/families welcome), but reservation is required! For questions or to register by phone, call (925) 906-1801 x306. To register online, visit www.wastediversion.org.
Join Hollie Lucas-Alcalay of Hollie’s Homegrown at the Lafayette Community Garden on April 26 for an afternoon of tea. The owner of Hollie’s Homegrown in Moraga has made her own herb farm into a thriving business and will share with us her expertise and passion for herbs. From 1:00pm to 4:00pm, you, too, can learn how to grow, harvest, store and make teas using what is growing in your own garden.
Sample and savor herbal teas made from local herbs and take home a sampling 4-pack of seedlings to help you get started.
Growing Herbs For Teas is a special fundraising event and $40 donation/materials fee is requested. So, gather your friends, dress up or down, but, most of all, come and enjoy tea (and biscuits) fresh from the Lafayette Community Garden.
Click here to register.
Vermicomposting (Worms!) & Bin Building Workshop
Saturday, April 5th, 10-12pm
Heather Farm Community Center, Walnut Creek
Instructor: Linda Mizes
Registration Form must be submitted by March 28th: http://www.wastediversion.org/app_pages/view/1723
$20.00 Registration Fee
20 household max capacity
CCCSWA Residents Only: Walnut Creek, Orinda, Lafayette, Moraga, Danville, Alamo, Blackhawk and Diablo.
Are you tired of mowing and edging your lawn, or for paying to have that done for you? Wouldn’t it be great to save money on your water bill? Wish you could quit with the herbicides? Would you like to have a beautiful, water-conserving garden that attracts wildlife? If so, “Mow no Mo!” is the workshop for you.
$30. Limit 30 participants.
Saturday, March 29, 10:00 – 3:00 Lafayette
In this hands-on workshop you’ll get information on how to remove your lawn, select native plants, and design a water-conserving, pesticide-free garden that attracts wildlife. Most importantly, you’ll have the hands-on experience of sheet-mulching a lawn, and you’ll depart confident that you can do this at home.
We’ll meet at a Lafayette garden that currently has a lawn, but won’t when we are through with it! If you have them, bring a labeled long-handled shovel and rake, and gardening gloves, as we will be sheet mulching—cutting back turf, shoveling compost, laying cardboard, and spreading woodchips. We’ll work here until everyone has had a chance to try everything.
Bring a lunch to enjoy while you get your sheet-mulching questions answered. We’ll talk about how to select native plants and where to purchase them, provide you with a list of sheet-mulching resources, and let you know how you can get rebates from your local water district for removing your lawn. You’ll leave this workshop ready to sheet-mulch your own lawn away! To register go here.
It’s almost spring and we are starting a new season of classes at the garden to educate, inspire and entertain you while you learn more ways to celebrate nature!
Sunday March 30 – 3:00 to 4:30pm
Big Gardens In Small Spaces: Container Gardening
Please join us for the first class of 2014 with Lori Caldwell, certified Master Gardner Composter and a favorite teacher at the Community Garden. If you have small space or want to grow your own food without being overwhelmed by a big garden, this is the class for you. Topics such as types of containers, maintaining soil fertility, best plants for container gardens, watering and crop rotation will be covered. It’s a great way to start a garden or add on to maximize your existing garden possibilities. We have scheduled this class for March so you’ll be able to get your containers ready for spring planting.
We’ll meet rain or shine at the Lafayette Community Garden on Mt Diablo Boulevard across from the Lafayette Reservoir. A $5 donation per person to support our education programs is appreciated but not required. Register for our classes here.
Check out these videos produced by Growing a Greener World. You might start with the one on Community Gardening. Or check out one of their shows on Rooftop Farming in Brooklyn: lots of interesting ideas on increasing production in limited space.
Growing a Greener World® is an award-winning TV show appearing on national Public Television that features organic gardening, green living and farm-to-table cooking. Each episode focuses on compelling and inspirational people making a positive impact on the planet through gardening and shares DIY information that we can all use at home. Currently in it’s fourth season, this gardening series covers everything from edible gardening, urban homesteading and hobby farming to seasonal cooking, canning and preserving the harvest.
We had another strong turnout for the last of our four education classes in the winter/spring cycle. Pamela Winther, Lafayette resident, Landscape Architect and Adjunct Professor at DVC taught us all about butterfly gardens and the beauty and delight they bring. We learned the best plants to grow, what conditions they need to flourish and more.
But before Pam taught the adults, kids had some more butterfly magic courtesy of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center. They each made their own butterfly and left with their own milkweed plant to put in the garden.
The new summer class schedule will be posted shortly. In the meantime, enjoy the slide show.
[slideshow]It’s true. If you want to know more about DRiWATER time-release watering, just ask Casey. He’s the expert.
[slideshow]
