Toolshed Tips: Garden Education Opportunities

By Libby Weiland

Your July Tip: Providing educational opportunities at your garden can build gardeners’ confidence and skills, and deepen their interest in gardening, ultimately increasing the likelihood that they’ll stick with gardening throughout the season. If the idea of adding “organize workshop” to your list of things to do this summer seems daunting, here are some ideas for getting the valuable benefits of educational opportunities with a small amount time, energy, and resources:

Putney Community Garden Pest Workshop/Workparty

• Call an expert: The UVM Master Gardener Helpline is an incredible free resource available to Vermonters. UVM Extension Master Gardeners are available to answer gardener questions and concerns—by phone Monday-Friday, and through an online request system.
• Garden-side support: Seek out a local expert—someone who’s either a part of the garden or from the greater community—to make a regular commitment to be available for questions at the garden. UVM Master Gardeners are also a great resource for this type of commitment, due to their requirement to fulfill community service hours. Make the commitment regular—something that gardeners can grow to expect—and on a day and time when gardeners are usually already at their gardens. Post the schedule on your bulletin board or other communication routes.
• Buddy system: Much of the knowledge, skills, and experience you need may already be available right in your own garden community. Garden mentor programs match experienced gardeners who are looking to share their knowledge with less experienced gardeners. Survey gardeners on skill level and interest in sharing or learning (this can be a part of your garden application if you have one); then make matches based on skill level and areas of interest/growth. Once mentors and mentees have connected mentees can check-in as questions pop up, mentors check-in regularly throughout the season with prompting questions or tips, or some combination or varied arrangement. If you work with youth or seniors, consider matching knowledgeable senior gardeners or farmers with young beginner gardeners—the benefits of these relationships reach far beyond increased gardening skills!
• Skill share: Beyond gardening, what other skills do people in your garden community have to offer? Carpenters, cooks, artists and others can help make projects happen at your garden and share their skills and knowledge with fellow gardeners in the process. For example, hold a work party to build a garden shed and pair experienced carpenters with novices. End result: new garden shed and increased carpentry skills! Most people love to share their passions.
• Combine forces: I already shared this idea a couple of months ago, but it’s so great I can’t resist repeating. Hold a hands-on lesson in the garden as a part of your regular garden work party. One great example: A garden insect workshop where participants are instructed to go looking for bugs. Each time a new insect (eggs, larvae, or adult) is found the group gathers around a local insect expert to learn about it and then are sent back to find more; killing any pests found (in soapy water jar)—a.k.a. pest work party! (Kudos to Putney Community Garden for this idea!) Try this same idea with weeds, diseases, and other plant care to be addressed on work days.
• Share a tip: Whenever possible, face-to-face education is the way to go. But when time, energy, and schedules don’t align, consider providing remote tips for gardeners. These look like educational signs (e.g. how to use and maintain a compost pile), seasonal tips (e.g. planting and harvest timelines, month by month care) sent over email or posted on a garden bulletin board, or seasonally relevant gardening articles shared by email, bulletin board, garden mailbox, or on a shared communication site such as a group Facebook page or Google Groups.