FarmiGardeners Veg Out

Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

What better way to learn how to grow your own vegetables and herbs than by working hands-on alongside our gardening coaches in the Jefferson County Master Gardener Association Teaching Garden at Farmington throughout the gardening season? Learn to grow by growing!

Farmigardeners Veg Out! is a fun, relaxed and comprehensive, season-long series of lecture and hands-on gardening activities taught by Jefferson County Master Gardeners.

We will show you how to grow produce throughout the season in raised beds, in the ground, in strawbales, in chicken-wire planters, and in containers. You will learn about all the different crops you can grow and when seasonally to plant and harvest. You will know the best ways to garden sustainably and handle pest and disease problems quickly and in the healthiest way possible. We will cover lots of other topics too, such as methods for growing produce vertically, staking techniques, and much more.

Instruction sessions include monthly ‘This Month In The Garden’ Walk & Talks, lecture/hands-on work sessions, and a ‘graduation’ celebration. Most sessions will begin in the Carriage House or Summer Kitchen with a brief PowerPoint lecture.

To learn, participants will work in all the vegetable growing areas in our Teaching Garden, as well as in their own focaccia cuisine bed, and will share in the garden’s yield. In a cooking class, a local chef will demonstrate making focaccia by grinding wheat (grown in our garden) and using vegetables grown in the cuisine bed.

Participants will keep a gardening journal. The Master Gardener coach will show examples of journals and make suggestions for the type of information to record.

Join us to have fun growing veg and learn while you are doing it!

Here’s a sample of topics to be covered:

• Growth scenarios (in-the-ground, raised beds, straw-bale gardening, containers)
• Cool season Crops
• Warm season crops
• Seeds vs. transplants
• Sourcing seeds and plants
• Planting methods
• Importance of pollinators
• Growing specific vegetables and herbs (for example, corn, lettuce types of onions, etc.)
• Weeds and weed control
• Good bugs and pests
• Plant diseases and how to control them
• Succession planting
• Companion Planting
• …and much more!