If I can tear myself away from baby for a few hours, I may show up to one or both of these very awesome garden-related events coming up soon. Get your notebooks ready, green thumbs! Two good opportunities coming our way:
Number one, Eliot Coleman is coming on Sunday to Hereford College for a lecture and workshop. In our household, Coleman is, well, a household name. He’s the author of Four-Season Harvest, the book that got us interested in winter gardening, using cold frames and low tunnels. And he’s just a gardener extraordinaire, always showing up in the seed catalog demonstrating use of a broadfork, or getting his picture taken with great overflowing baskets of perfect-looking produce. Come to think of it, I kind of hate the guy. Kidding! It would be awesome to meet him and soak up some of his Maine-forged wisdom.
Coleman will lecture in Runk Dining Hall from 1 to 2:30pm this Sunday, February 13, then give a demo from 3 to 4pm at Hereford’s mini-farm. It’s all free.
And speaking of mini-farms, the Local Food Hub is having a workshop on SPIN farming. That stands for "small plot intensive" farming. Proponents of the method say that a half-acre of land can yield $50,000 of produce a year! Wow! I say, just squeezing more veggies onto our land is a good enough reason to attend the one-day workshop, March 12 at the Local Food Hub’s Educational Farm in Scottsville.
The SPIN method comes from Canada, and its biggest advantage is surely that it can be adapted to urban, rural, and in-between homesites. The workshop runs 8am to 4pm and costs $100. Register by e-mailing info@localfoodhub.org or calling 286-2176.
Looks to me like garden season is right around the corner. Anyone know of other don’t-miss events?
