Local Harvest Organic No-till Gardening Course

Learn the essentials of vegetable gardening with a special focus on composting, succession planting and winter gardening.

This workshop is intended for beginning and more advanced home gardeners looking to gain food self-sufficiency. By applying some basic gardening principles you’ll learn how to grow more food on less space without an aching back so that you can eat from your garden every day of the year.

Your instructor is Dan, market gardener at Local Harvest. Dan will help you gain confidence in the garden. He’s passionate about organic growing and gives a practical, no-nonsense approach for gardening that maximizes your garden’s productivity.

Andrew Couzens, a local composting expert at Terraflora Organics will also join us. Andrew will provide us with a soil overview and the best composting practices including vermicomposting so you can build phenomenal soil health, the foundation of great gardening.

Here are the main topics we'll cover:

building soil fertility through composting
the no-till, mulching gardener
planning for a continuous harvest
dealing with pests
including perennial edibles and flowers in your garden
growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and cucumbers
eating year round: fall and winter gardening

This course will be offered virtually given the ongoing restriction of in-person gatherings here in BC. All recordings of the course will happen at Local Harvest providing real life examples and demonstrations.

This virtual course will cover the basic principles of no-till gardening and will help you gain confidence in the garden as you work towards greater food self-sufficiency.

Course content will be covered in TEN 15 MINUTE MODULES each dealing with one BIG IDEA or ENDURING UNDERSTANDING. We cover a lot of material but don't worry; you'll be able to re-watch it at a later date.

We'll continue to reach out to our course participants throughout the growing season to discuss a variety of topics showing the 10 BIG IDEAS in action and in real-time.

Throughout the course we emphasize regenerative, permaculture and biomimicry gardening strategies to help you convert your garden and yard into a flourishing, biodiverse space that'll attract both native species and the neighbors.

Building great soil is a central theme. Here you'll learn about different composting methods including thermophilic, vermicomposting, and bokashi methods. We'll focus on mulching with different materials and starting a garden on an existing lawn. We're not going to make this too scientific, but basic soil biology and understanding the soil food web will help you make wise decisions as you create carbon, microbe and mineral rich soils.

We'll share our ideas on how to plan for success in your garden dealing with topics such as succession planting, incorporating biodiversity for effective pest control and useful record keeping strategies. I'll give you a crop plan with planting dates covering the ten easiest vegetables everyone should grow. Here we'll also touch on the most important flowers to grow, setting up an irrigation system and fall and winter gardening.

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THE MODULES WILL BE RELEASED AFTER MARCH 20, 2021 AND YOU'LL BE ABLE TO RE-WATCH THEM ANYTIME BEFORE OCTOBER 2021.

WE ARE PLANNING TO HAVE 4 WEBINAR QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS EARLY IN THE SEASON TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES YOU MIGHT BE EXPERIENCING OR QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE.

ONCE A MONTH FROM APRIL TO OCTOBER WE'LL OFFER VIDEO VIGNETTES FOCUSING ON TOPICS SUCH AS TOMATO CARE, BREWING COMPOST TEA, GROWING AND PRUNING FRUIT TREES, SEASON EXTENSION AND WINTER GARDENING.

Before the course begins, an access code with instructions on how to access the modules and enter the classroom will be emailed to you.

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This course is geared for gardeners from beginner to "expert", container growers to market gardeners and for people who want to learn more about regenerative agriculture.

Course cost is $247. All proceeds are directly used to fund farming operations here at Local Harvest and to build great soil as we work to grow a food secure community where every citizen has access to healthy food.

To register visit https://localharvestgardening.com

Questions can be directed to Dan at [email protected]