It’s time again for the Bees N Blooms Garden Workshops! Seven 2.5-hour sessions between January 13 and March 16, 2024 will cover planning your garden, seed starting, soil testing and amending, irrigation setup, and organic techniques for managing insect, weed, and rodent pests. Sign up for just one or all seven! Details follow.
Bees N Blooms Garden Workshop Series
Are you interested in learning more about gardening? Consider participating in one or more of Bees N Blooms Garden Workshops! You’ll tap into our expertise in garden planning and execution, with a focus on regenerative organic agricultural approaches. All classes involve hands-on activities to learn the techniques. Classes are $85 each or all seven for $500. Sign up at the Online Store. Here’s the schedule:
Planning Your Garden
January 13, 2024, 10 AM to 12:30 PM
Cool, rainy January is the best time to sit down and plan your garden for the next year, selecting and ordering vegetable and flower seeds and deciding which crops will grow where in your garden space. This session will introduce you to several ideas you’ll need to consider as you plan, including your goals for your garden, the timing of outdoor plantings and when to start seeds indoors, crop rotation to prevent disease and pests, and where to obtain the seeds you need. We’ll address both vegetables and flowers, with a focus on planting a pollinator-friendly garden. Seth Gowans from Sidekick Flowers will be there to present information about growing flowers for cutting. We’ll also introduce you to a web-based planning application that we have found to be invaluable for planning our garden spaces from year to year. This will be an indoor-only class. Bring a laptop or a tablet if you have one, so you can access the web tool.
Seed Starting
January 27, 2024, 10 AM to 12:30 PM
Early February is the time to get going with seed starting! This session will focus on the techniques and equipment needed for indoor seed starting, conditions needed for optimum germination, and timing of planting. We’ll do some hands-on seed starting in the greenhouse, so come prepared to get a little dirty. Bring your own seeds or help us sow some of our own. We provide a tray with a selection of cell sizes and seed starter mix for planting your seeds.
Soil Testing
February 10, 2024, 10 AM to 12:30 PM
While those seeds are growing, it’s time to test your soil. We’ll start inside to learn about primary, secondary, and trace plant nutrients and take a closeup look at typical soils in Sonoma County using the USDA-NRCS Web Soil Survey. We’ll then go out in the field to do some soil sampling (come prepared to be a bit muddy). Bring a laptop or a tablet if you have one, so you can access the web.
Organic Weed and Insect Management
March 2, 2024, 10 AM to 12:30 PM
March is a key month to get control of your weeds and start thinking about managing insect pests. This session will focus on organic methods for managing weeds and insects. We’ll start inside with an overview and move outdoors for some hands-on activities and observation.
Amending Your Soil (Rescheduled Date!)
March 3, 2024, 1 Pm to 3 PM
This session will focus on using soil test results to create an amendment mix that will provide for optimum growth potential. We’ll start inside where we’ll quickly review the role of specific plant nutrients and learn how to use a web-based soil analysis application that will allow you to prepare a custom amendment mix specific to your garden area. Then we’ll head to the greenhouse to create these custom amendment mixes and learn how to apply them to the soil. Bring a laptop or a tablet if you have one, so you can access the web tool.
Irrigation Setup and Management
March 9, 2024, 10 AM to 12:20 PM
Getting close to planting time now! And the rain is tapering off, so you need to get your garden set up for irrigation! This session will focus on how to set up and maintain an irrigation system that matches your water supply. You’ll learn about pressure and flow and how it relates to how you set up your watering system. We’ll do some hands-on working with irrigation parts, learn about optimizing dripper position for planting, learn how to regulate and measure pressures in your lines, and how to master irrigation timers for optimal watering.
Organic Rodent Management
March 16, 2024, 10 AM to 12:20 PM
It’s mid-spring and the rodents are on the move. Time to get control of the situation! This session will focus on organic methods for managing rodents in and around your garden by prevention and trapping. You’ll get some hands-on practice with trapping techniques and learn about the habits and behaviors of gophers, rats, mice, voles, and moles that you need to know to effectively manage them.
We hope you can join us! If you’d like to sign up for one or more of the sessions, head to our Online store!
