Workshops

VGN offers garden workshops on varying topics throughout the season.  The best way to keep in touch and hear about workshops as soon as they are announced is by following us on Instagram (@vtgardens) and by signing up for our monthly newsletter (scroll down to the footer of this webpage to join our mailing list).

If you are interested in nutrition education workshops, check out our Mobile Classroom webpage to learn about scheduling a visit from our Veducator van.

A new partnership between Vermont Garden Network and City of Winooski is bringing to fruition the much-anticipated inauguration of a greenhouse in March 2025! Through this 10-week long intensive we will welcome an inaugural cohort of gardeners sharing access to the heated greenhouse and participating in the first of a series of workshops focused on climate resiliency for garden-scale growers.

The Early Bird Gardening Intensive will be a practice in community-scale agriculture by sharing access to a heated greenhouse and a teaching garden. Participants will engage in hands-on learning to gain experience in all aspects of seed starting and early spring gardening. Themes we will be exploring throughout the 10 weeks include: garden-scale techniques, climate resiliency, seedkeeping and season extension.

Seed Starting in a Greenhouse topics include:

  • Managing temperature & ventilation in a heated greenhouse
  • Benefits and disadvantages of using plastic trays vs soil blocks
  • Seeding dates, succession sowings and establishing a planting calendar
  • Best practices for watering, fertilizing, potting up and hardening off 
  • Growing microgreens for a nutrient-dense late winter harvest 
  • Specialty crops such as ginger & turmeric
  • Seed starting indoors: tools and techniques for adapting to a home-scale growlight set up
  • Each participant will have their own table space for their personal seed starting!

Spring Sowing in a Garden topics include:

  • Early spring low-till garden bed prep 
  • Cold tolerant crops to grow before the last frost
  • Protected cultivation with row covers and low tunnels
  • Managing common spring pests

Instructors: The intensive will be co-facilitated by Angela deBettencourt (VGN Garden Education Manager) and Carolina Lukac (VGN Co-Executive Director). Angela brings six years in vegetable growing at the farm scale where she gained experience in greenhouse growing. For the past four years, she has taught VGN’s six-month gardening course, the Thriving Garden Course,  sharing her expertise with others. Passionate about increasing access to growing spaces, Angela is excited to be part of this new project, which offers gardeners the opportunity to learn how to grow plants that are meaningful to them. Carolina managed a production greenhouse on a rooftop in her hometown of Mexico City, she currently facilitates educational programming for the New Farms for New Americans community greenhouse at the Intervale, and every winter she seeds over 2,000 individual plants in her basement seed starting setup. She is passionate about growing culturally meaningful and locally adapted crops, gardening like a farmer and seedkeeping.

Participants receive:

  • 150 hours of hands-on instruction 
  • Table space, soil, trays and seeds for your personal seed starting needs
    • Each participant is assigned table space for 7 trays (e.g. sufficient space to grow 120 tomatoes in 4-inch pots or 500 lettuces in 72-cell trays or any quantity of vegetables, herbs and flowers you can fit!)

Expectations:

  • Participants attend 10 weekly classes on Tuesdays from 5-6:30pm
  • Participants sign up for an additional weekly rotation to visit the greenhouse for 30-45 minutes to support ongoing needs such as watering and monitoring temperature
  • Participants will be asked to join a WhatsApp group chat to facilitate group communication and information sharing 

Fee: $450
Scholarship and payment plan options available.

Registration: click on the link below to fill out the form.  Registration deadline is March 1.

Registration Form


Scholarships:

  • Limited scholarships are available, with priority given to Winooski residents, BIPOC and New American community members.
  • Scholarship recipients are asked to contribute $150, with the remaining $300 covered by VGN’s Scholarship Fund.
  • If you are interested in being considered for a scholarship, please fill in the Scholarship Request Form. We recommend that you also fill in a Registration form so that we can save your space (you’ll see an option to register without submitting a payment if you are looking for a scholarship).
  • Scholarship request deadline: February 15
  • Scholarships announced: March 1 

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need prior gardening experience in order to participate?
No, we are welcoming individuals with all gardening backgrounds. That said, seed starting and season extension tend to be more “advanced” gardening topics, in the sense that many gardeners never grow their own starts or build a low tunnel in early April and they still grow a garden. In a world with so many seed varieties available for growers and a changing climate to adapt to, we think all individuals interested in growing food should learn the skills we’ll be sharing in this Intensive.

Is the curriculum relevant for gardeners who start their seeds at home, under grow lights?
Most certainly, yes!  Whether in a basement or in a greenhouse, seeds have the same requirements for germination. We will dedicate one entire class to adapting principles and practices we learn in the greenhouse to indoor seed starting setups. We often hear from gardeners questioning when to start their seeds, or seeking advice on very “leggy” starts. This Intensive will provide valuable skills and knowledge for all growers, in all settings.

What seeds will we learn to grow and what seeds will we have access to?
The 10-week long curriculum is designed with all plant varieties in mind – from slow growing onions that we seed as soon as possible to zucchini with sensitive roots that we’ll seed during the last week of class. You’ll learn about soaking, nicking and scarifying seeds with hard seed coats. We’ll have hundreds of seed packets for you to choose from, including many varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Please note that growing cannabis will not be permitted in the greenhouse.

I don’t have my own garden and I won’t need to grow my own plants. What would happen to my assigned table space in the greenhouse?
We understand, and we imagine that a few participants will be in a similar situation. We want to be sure that all participants do commit to growing a variety of seeds and tend to plants as part of the hands-on learning experience, so we might ask you to start seeds for VGN food access programs. If you are looking for gardening space, we suggest that you consider joining one of the collective gardens managed by VGN. In much the same spirit, we’ll be sharing access to land, resources and mentorship in the greenhouse, relying on a collective spirit for all participants to manage the greenhouse.

What about renting table space? I don’t want to participate in the Intensive, but I would like to grow my own starts.
Sorry, we will not be renting out table space to the general public. We acknowledge that there is a high demand for accessing greenhouse space in Chittenden County, however we are focusing on educational programming as part of VGN’s mission-aligned work. Only registered participants in the Early Bird Gardening Intensive will have access to table space.

More questions?  Please contact carolina@vtgardens.org

Skip to content