Workshop to nurture organic gardening

Gardening is the hot thing for 2009. Internet sites are abuzz with tales of Americans battling the recession by growing their own produce. For instance, CNN.com has a page devoted to pictures of readers’ victory gardens. Michelle Obama recently planted a kitchen garden at the White House. People are planting vegetables — in containers, window boxes, in plots in their lawns — in numbers not seen in decades. A poll conducted by the National Gardening Association shows that 43 million Americans plan to plant a vegetable garden this year. That figure is up 19 percent from 2008.

The twin factors of the locavore movement and the economic downturn have combined to form a perfect storm of gardening interest. For people with a desire to eat locally grown food, gardening is the next logical step. Others who want to continue to eat a healthy diet while stretching their food dollars see a garden as a way to do that. 

Centre County is feeling the heat of gardening fever. Jennifer Stout, Centre Region Parks & Recreation’s coordinator for the community garden space at Tudek Park in State College, has seen a jump in requests for plots. 

“I get calls at least once a week, if not every other day, about it. And I think as we get into the growing season, that volume will increase,” she said. 

But gardening — especially organic gardening which many people seem interested in — isn’t as easy as simply throwing some seeds in the dirt. Master gardener Gene Bazan and CRPR hope to help would-be organic gardeners become successful growers by offering an organic gardening workshop.

The workshop will focus on Bazan’s three principals of organic gardening: building soil quality, creating complex ecosystems and observing nature. He also will share planting schedules and tips. 
 

“We folks who’ve went to college think we know a lot. We think growing food is easy — you just put some seeds in the ground,” he said. “We don’t inform ourselves. We think we can do this. Well, it isn’t easy.”

Bazan has presented at the annual Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture annual conference and grows the majority of his own vegetables at his Lemont home. April 23's workshop will be the second he has conducted for CRPR. The first was held in February.

The inspiration for the partnership came from the community garden plots at Tudek Park. Bazan saw some of the gardens struggling from easily solvable problems and wanted to help. His original idea was to offer the workshop to the people with garden plots in Tudek Park, but when CRPR suggested opening it up to the public, he agreed.

There were 22 or 23 participants at the first workshop. About half of those attending had garden plots at Tudek. CRPR recreation supervisor Molly Hetrick thinks people are showing an interest in the workshop due to a growing interest in healthy diets.

“My personal thought would be that people are trying to eat healthier and eat more organics to avoid some of the chemical fertilizers,” she said.

Stout agreed.

“A lot of gardeners do it for a love of gardening, but they do appreciate that their produce bills are less in the summer. People are also interested in how the vegetables taste and knowing where their food comes from,” she said.

The audience was comprised of first-time gardeners and experienced gardeners who want to learn how to grow plants without chemical fertilizers.

“I think people are being a little more conscience of those things,” Hetrick said.

The presentation is about two hours long followed by a question-and-answer session. Bazan’s presentation also will highlight pictures taken of his garden. Workshop participants are invited to sign up for a tour of Bazan’s garden, which will be conducted later in the growing season when plants are maturing.