Gather. Modern Grange Events

Workshop

Kitchen Garden Series with the American Garden School: Course II

This is the second of three courses in an intensive series from American Garden School instructors Kate Frey and Christa Moné. Each one is a remarkable opportunity to learn practical and tested methods for creating successful organic gardens with two experienced garden designers. Using examples and their many years of experience, Kate and Christa will guide students through the principles and systems necessary to create gardens that are remarkably beautiful, healthy, productive and efficient to care for. The fast-paced classes will be packed full of practical information for a variety of situations. Each class concludes with a reception of drinks and small bites prepared in the SHED kitchen. Join us for one or all three!

Feb 4 – Irrigation and Extending the Season

For many, irrigation is a confusing subject with too many possible choices. Systems end up with a variety of intermingled components that deliver water at different rates and generate gardens that do not thrive. This class will highlight how to develop standardized irrigation systems for the edible garden that are easy to install and maintain. The last part of the class will go over how to extend the season and protect crops from frost and bird damage with simple row cover systems.

The class will cover:

• Site analysis for irrigation design, hydrozoning, simple irrigation systems
• Designing in efficiency
• Troubleshooting, fixing existing problems, maintenance of systems, adjusting irrigation, and irrigation controllers

This class will be followed by the final course in the Kitchen Garden Series:

February 18th – Creating Healthy, Productive, and Beautiful Gardens in All Seasons

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