COMPANION PLANTING WORKSHOP: FOR YOUR SPRING GARDEN
This February 29, 2020 join us in planning out your Spring garden! Austin Permaculture Guild’s Co-Director Taelor Monroe will be teaching an in-depth workshop on how to companion plant and design out your spring garden.
Have you been getting really excited about planting a garden for yourself but don’t know where to start? Do you want to make your current garden more sustainable? Do you want to keep those pesky pests away without using chemicals? Then this is the workshop for you!
This workshop will be an all day event, going deep into details of companion planting, plant selection, plant placement, integrated pest management, how to prevent weeds, feeding the biology in the soil, maintenance, and how to build a garden bed.
The practice of companion planting uses the selection of specific plants organized in such a way that they are in symbiotic relationship with one another. Instead of planting the same plant over and over again in rows, which attract pests and reduces the nutrient density of the growing vegetable, a polyculture of intermixed plants types is planted. This style of planting not only reduces pests but also provides beneficial support plants that increase the strength and nutrient density of the plants in your garden. For instance, legumes are planted to provide nitrogen to the surrounding plants and alliums are planted on the outside of each bed to deter pests and weeds from coming in.
In integrated pest management, specific plants are selected to deter pests from entering your garden. Often times the best plants are very aromatic plants with strong smells to confuse pests. Within these companion planted systems, the plants are stronger than in mono-cropped gardens increasing their integral pest deterrents. Weak plants attract bad bugs.
The soil and microbial life at the plants’ roots also determine the health of each plant. If you have healthy soil biology, then you will also deter blights, harmful pathogens, and fungal infections growing on your plants. Even a home gardener can spend a terrible amount of time and money trying to kill off these pathogens and pests to keep their plants alive. A better practice is one that is preventative, less time consuming, and free!
Come out to this dynamic, holistic garden management design workshop, to build a better spring garden! There will be a focus on the design of Spring Companion Planting but these methods can be applied to any season.
SCHEDULE:
9:30am-12:30pm: Classroom Instruction on Companion Planting & Plant Families
12:30-1:30pm: Lunch Time
1:30-3:00pm: Plant Selection, Plant Placement, Integrated Pest Management, Preventing Weeds, Soil Biology
3:00-5:00pm: Outdoor Hands-on Planting of a Companion Planted Garden Bed
Students building a new garden at WLLC: PDC 2018
COST: $85,
Early Bird Discount until January 20: $75
Click the PayPal Button below to pay your tuition and Register
/>This workshop is located at Casa de Miel (CDM), at 16901 Albert Voelker Rd, Elgin, TX 78621. Casa De Miel unites people with nature’s creations through experiences that pollinate mindfulness and a soulful connection to one’s self, one’s community and the earth. This is the first eco-therapy center in Texas. On site CDM hired Michael Wolfer of Symbiosis Regenerative Systems to install an orchard, pollinator gardens, 65,000 gallon rainwater catchment system, pond, and chicken coop. It is a wonderful living example of permaculture design and practice in building community.
Filled up swale with Horse barn in the background at CDM