Course Details
March 23 - Site Preparation and Map Design
Let's design a garden together! In this class we will talk about the goals of the tea garden we are growing, review our garden design for the Portland Grief House and talk about important things to consider when designing your herb garden at home. We will prepare the site by pruning trees, removing unwanted plants and observing how light and water filter onto the property. We will then discuss ideal condition for seed starting and start our seeds for the garden... including some for you to take home!
May 11 - Irrigation and Planting
After our seedlings grow, we will need to plant them! In this class we will learn to build raised beds, prepare the beds to be planted, talk about soil health and amendments and plant our herbs! We will also discuss various options for irrigation and install one example on site.
July 13th - Getting to know the Plants
In this class we will learn how to identify plants using a loop and Plant ID book. At this site we are growing a variety of plants that will be used for years to come at the Portland Grief House. While all these herbs have benefits for grievers, they also have my other uses. We will learn about the benefits of 10 common garden medicinals and how you can use them at home. We will end this class with a plant spirit meditation.
August 24th - Harvesting and Preservation
The garden will be at it's most abundant starting in August and we will need to preserve the bounty! In this class we will build a small dehydrator. We will then harvest herbs for dehydration, talk about other options of herbal preservation and make a fresh herbal tincture.
October 19th - Closing the Garden and Preparing for Spring
October is generally the time we put our gardens to rest for the winter though some hardier crops will continue to grow. - In our final class we will harvest and process any remaining herbs. We will fall prune plants that will benefit from this come spring. We will remove annual plants and sow a winter cover crop.