I’m very happy to announce the very first Citizen Gardener class to be held in the North Texas / DFW area will be in Fort Worth on August 13, 2011. The idea to start this class came from our spring Permaculture Design Class. Dick Pierce (the instructor) had mentioned the program and I thought it sounded great and decided to implement in the DFW area. The class provides people who are interested in growing their own food a clear path to success with a minimal time and money investment.
The location for the class is at the Fortress Youth Development Center in east Fort Worth. The class will help them along with their goal of starting a community garden and implementing vegetable gardening into their curriculum for young adults. Right now, they have an empty spot that it not used, but we will construct two raised beds during the class, and eventually, they will fill the area with garden plots!
As a very special treat for the first class, Dick Pierce, noted Permaculture instructor, designer, and consultant will be the lead teacher. He makes classes lots of fun and manages to pack in lots and lots of learning in a short time. An interesting approach to teaching is utilized in the Citizen Gardener classes: First thing is DOING it, everyone helps build the beds, getting all the soil moved around and positioned correctly, planting, mulching, etc. Of course there is some discussion during this time, but it is 100% hands-on! After all of that, we have more formal classroom style learning. People wind up absorbing much more of the knowledge when this format is used.
For more information about this class, visit the main webpage for the DFW Citizen Gardener. Also note that you can sign up for future classes or suggest locations from that page. For discussion about the CG program, visit the Citizen Gardener board on the NTVG forum.
