Grow Your Groceries: Getting Started with Organic Gardening (Online 4-Week Webinar Series)

Gardening is truly a way to "go green" and provide positive benefits to you and the planet:

• Growing your own food - or at least a supplement to your groceries - is an easy way to reduce the amount of harmful chemicals you consume and prevent carbon emissions produced by eating locally instead. 
• Once harvested, food loses 30% of nutrients within 3 days. Maximize your food’s nutrients by growing and harvesting fresh from your own backyard. 
• Gardening is a great form of exercise and stress relief. 
• Increase your vitamin D with time spent outdoors. It has even been proven that direct exposure to soil and plants can boost your immune system! 
• Plants also act as highly effective air cleaners, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to enrich their soil. 

Join Solana Center Educator Jennifer for this 4-week virtual webinar-series to learn the basics of organic gardening specifically in San Diego County through weekly interactive lectures. If you’re interested in growing with a community we will offer an option to join our private Facebook group to allow for sharing your personal garden updates with the group! This course will be an engaging program for all ages - we’ll be providing weekly activities for younger gardeners to join in the fun along with our weekly course resources and reading. 

Course Syllabus

• WEEK 1: Intro to Organic Gardening, Permaculture, and Soil - Learn the difference between dirt, soil, and compost, using cover crops, and how to make living soil for healthy plants.
• WEEK 2: Planning your garden design, container gardens and bed preparation - Learn techniques to best assess your site and select what to plant where, regardless of the size of your growing space! 
• WEEK 3: Plant selection and seed starting - Dive into the best types of plants to grow based on the season and climate and how to start them from seed.
• WEEK 4: Irrigation and harvesting - Learn proper watering techniques and tips to keep your garden flourishing all year round.

When

Live lectures will be held virtually on Fridays from 10 - 11 AM, occurring Sep. 11, Sep. 18, Sep. 25, and Oct. 2*

*We will also provide an online manual and additional resources which can be done in your own time. 

Location

Weekly virtual Zoom webinar sessions. Links to join the webinars will be sent in weekly emails before each session.

About the Instructor:

Jennifer Galey is a Solana Center educator, who is our lead on all things relating to soil – from growing healthy plants to creating nutrient-rich compost. Jennifer coordinated the display gardens and exhibits for the SD County Fair Infield Farm, part of the Plant-Grow-Eat Program for school children during the Fair for 14 years, and has taught Master Composter and Gardening 101 classes for Solana Center for 7 years.

Made possible through generous support from: