Gather. Modern Grange Events

Workshop

American Garden School: Successful Soils & Irrigation

SHED welcomes back the talented teachers of the American Garden School for a class about the most important aspect of gardening: soil! Healthy soil creates healthy plants, yet what is healthy soil and how do we create it? In this three hour class led by Kate Frey and Christa Moné, you’ll learn the practical, simple secrets to success with soil. The class will focus on the fundamentals of soil building and designing the right irrigation system, covering the best types of compost and mulch for each garden situation and plant type, and the approaches to soil development and irrigation for different plant categories such as vegetables, containers, perennials, shrubs, and trees.

Soil topics include:
– defining your soil
-till & no-till systems
-amending & mulching

Irrigation topics include:
– defining components of a system
– choosing the best type of irrigation
– timers & scheduling

Kate Frey, co-founder of The American Garden School, makes gardens focused on nature.  She redesigned and managed the famous organic edible gardens at Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland for twenty years. Her gardens won two gold medals and one silver-gilt medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in London where she twice met Queen Elizabeth. Her work has taken her to Japan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, where she managed a Prince’s organic farm. In California she has designed and managed prestigious and important gardens such as The Melissa garden in Healdsburg and Lynmar Winery in Sebastopol. Kate taught Sustainable Landscaping at Sonoma State University Extended Education and now is a consultant, designer, educator and writer with an organic and ecological focus with many different groups and gardens. Her book, Bee-friendly Gardening, co-written with Professor Gretchen LeBuhn, was published February, 2016. She writes two columns for the Press Democrat newspaper.

Christa Moné, co-founder of The American Garden School, is an estate landscape manager and garden designer in Sonoma County. Much of her gardening experience stems from her time in southern France helping maintain a 250 acre estate, and farming in upstate New York. Christa has always been fascinated with combining aesthetic and functionality in outdoor spaces and creating systems to ensure a beautiful and effective garden. Her interests range from irrigation systems, orchard care, crop production, and seasonal gardens to perennial landscape care, animal husbandry, and greenhouse propagation. Seeing a need to elevate the discussion on traditional landscaping to improve effectiveness in maintenance and health, Christa is on a mission to talk about management systems, encourage new methodologies, and engage the community on our outdoor spaces. You can find more information on Christa and her work at her website: www.christamone.com