Looking for a great family activity? Join expert scientist and gardener, Peter Kindfield for an 7(possibly 8) week series on gardening, from soil to harvest. You will get your hands dirty and have fun in the process.

This class will be offered for free, but we do ask for a suggested donation of $25 total for the entire series. This will partially cover materials cost and teacher fees.

We don’t want to exclude anyone for financial reasons, so please come even if you aren’t able to make a donation.

We encourage you to come to all the classes, but we understand busy schedules.
Come to any class your family can make. Please RSVP to:
bgreenamyer@gmail.com
or Julia Goldfarb-Sousa at
julia.idycommunitygarden@gmail.com
or here on the website.

This will be a fun and exciting, educational opportunity for the entire family.
See you at the garden!

Below is a list of class dates and class descriptions. If you aren’t able to make it to all of them, that’s okay! Come to the ones you are able to!

SUNDAY, MARCH 8 -Assessing the Physical Structure of Soil

Activities: Taking soil samples, exploring soil with our senses, exploring soil with toothpicks, sifting soil, soil shakes and soil sausage test

Concepts: Soil composition, soil particles (sand, silt and clay)

Materials: Trowels, newspaper, soil sifters, toothpicks, clear plastic bottles

SUNDAY, MARCH 15 – Assessing the Chemistry and Biology of Soil

Activities: Looking at last week’s shakes, NPK and pH tests and looking for life in soil (Berlese funnels?)

Concepts: Soil economy, soil material cycles, soil food-web; life mines, stores and recycles soil nutrients, fertilizers disrupt (at best) or destroy (at worst) the soil food web

Materials: Soil test kits, lights, 2-liter soda bottles, mesh laundry bag, duct tape, rubbing alcohol, magnifying lens

SUNDAY, APRIL 19 – Setting up a Vermicomposting Bin

Activities: Playing with worms, manual shredding of paper; adding paper, scraps, water and worms to bin

Concepts: Decomposition, vermicompost food-web, compost ecology

Materials: Plastic tub, lots of newspaper, worms, few handfuls of kitchen scraps

SUNDAY, APRIL 26 – Making Compost Tea

Activities: Putting the brewer together, adding ingredients; Lego decomposition game

Concepts: Decomposition, compost tea food-web, compost tea ecology

Materials: 5-gallon bucket, aquarium pump, tubing, air-stone, pantyhose

SUNDAY< MAY 3 – Sprouting Beans

Activities: Preparing bags for sprouting, designing experiments and Lego photosynthesis activity

Concepts: Photosynthesis, what do plants need to grow

Materials: Plastic sandwich bags, paper towel, sorted Lego sets

SUNDAY, MAY 10 – Preparing a Lasagna Gardening Bed

Activities: Lay down layers

Concepts: No till soil building, adding organic matter, no wait for decomposition and minimizes weeding

Materials: Cardboard, lots of green compost-ables (fresh grass clipping, plant-based kitchen scraps), lots of brown compost-ables (straw or dried grass clippings, leaves, pine needles, lots of finished compost, some top soil

SATURDAY, MAY 16 – Transplanting Bean Seedlings and Making Tepee Climbing Supports

Activities: Make supports, plant seedlings and place supports over seedlings

Concepts: Nitrogen fixation and the wondrous relationships formed by bean plants

Materials: Bamboo stakes

DATE TBD – Harvesting: The Health Benefits of Whole Foods [maybe drop because of timing]

Activities: Harvesting beans

Concepts: What is a whole food lifestyle, the benefits of whole foods, wholism versus analytic-reductionism