Hands-On Vegetable Seed Starting Workshop
Presenters: Kristen Smeal and Birgitt Evans
Saturday, March 9th, 2 – 3:30PM at the Community Room at the Alameda Free Library, 1550 Oak Street, Alameda
Starting vegetables from seed can save money and will give you access to thousands of vegetable varieties not available as transplants. In this hands-on workshop, we will begin with a brief discussion about seeds, reviewing which seeds are best planted directly in the ground and which should be started in containers for transplant into pots or the ground. Then we will move on to the basics of starting seeds, including the importance of cleanliness, seed starting mixes, what containers you can use, how many seeds to plant and how deeply, feeding and watering of seedlings and providing light and heat for your seedlings.
We will then break into groups for a demonstration of how to plant seeds and participants will plant up several 6-packs with seeds to take home.
No registration is necessary. However, space is limited and people will be let in on a first come, first served basis.
Kristen Smeal is a Master Gardener and Garden Science teacher at St. Philip Neri in Alameda.
Birgitt Evans has grown her own food on a large scale for the past 40 years and created a successful garden and nursery business. She is passionate about growing and raising food and seeks to encourage and educate others so they can also share the benefits of fresh, healthy, homegrown food. She grows vegetables in four different Alameda County gardens and starts 90% of her plants from seed. She has been an Alameda County Master Gardener since 1999 and served on the board of Alameda Backyard Growers for 10 years.
Presenters: by Nathan Thompson and Candis Haley
A suggested $5 donation will be contributed to the Gill Tract Farm.
Nathan Thompson is a community herbalist, energy healer and a Gill Tract Veteran Farmer based in Kensington, CA. Originally from Minnesota, he has studied and used the medicinal herbs of both the Midwest and California for more than 20 years. In 2018 he completed a 2-year clinical Herbalist Certificate from the Berkeley Herbal Center. He loves tending herbs, tending community, and inspiring others to fall in love with our beautiful plant allies.
Candis Haley has been putting her bare hands in soil ever since growing up on a farm in the Midwest. She became a Master Gardener in Ohio in 1996 and in California in 2014. She earned an additional Permaculture Design Certificate in 2005. Candis has been an avid organic gardener/farmer since the 1970’s. Fortunately, due to her profession, she has been able to garden / farm in rural Ohio and in the Urban Bay Area.
The presentation “Seasonal Medicinal Herbs” will feature 3 herbs per season and will encompass: the planting, growing, harvesting and healing properties of each plant. Each participant will receive a bag of herbs for their tea time pleasure.
The seasonal herbs covered will include: California Poppy, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Tulsi/Holy Basil, Elderberry, Motherwort, Gindelia, Mullein, Elecampagne, Rosemary, Calendula and Nettles.
The Gill Tract Farm is a “collaborative community project between the University of California Berkeley and the local community. It is focused on issues of food justice and urban farming.”
You can learn much more about the history of this unique farm online.
Please note:
Families are welcome and everyone may stay after 12 noon to volunteer at the Farm and/or to see how its volunteers prepare for their public Sunday Market. Please wear comfortable shoes and bring gloves and other tools if you have them. Also, feel free to bring a picnic lunch and water. Street parking and restrooms are available.
As you know, 2023 was another big year for ABG’s five Free Seed Libraries. With the help of our volunteers, we packed and gave out about 15,000 packets of seeds to gardeners all across the island. From the feedback many people had fun and learned from growing the seeds.
In February, we held our first seed packing party of 2024 which supplied all the seeds for spring 2024 planting. Now it is time to pack up the seeds for summer planting. We will be hosting our next Seed Packing Party on March 24th from noon – 2PM at a covered garden location on the East End.
The Seed Packing Parties give ABG volunteers the opportunity to socialize while doing something meaningful for a finite amount of time. This party will allow us to stock the libraries through August. Volunteers are welcome to take seeds to plant at the end of the party.
We will have beverages and light snacks.
Please join us to keep the Alameda Free Seed Libraries going through the summer of 2024. Reply to this email to let us know if you will be able to attend.
Come and find the ABG booth on April 20, 2024 from 12Noon - 3PM for our Annual Plant Sale!
Alameda Backyard Growers volunteers had so much fun offering our selection of organic tomato, veggie, flower and herb starts at ARPD’s Spring Shindig in 2023, we’re doing it again! Join us, rain or shine, along with a field full of vendors, bouncy houses and other activities at the Alameda Point Gym & Field, 1101 W. Redline Avenue on Saturday, April 20th, 2023.
As always, we grow tomato starts that we know from our own experience do well in Alameda. We’ll also offer cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, winter squash, peppers, basil and sage. Our selection of neonicotinoid-free flower starts will attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators to your garden; this year we’ll be offering starts of scabiosa (pincushion flower), tithonia, cosmos, marigolds, nasturtiums, sunflowers and more.
A coloring book table will keep kids busy (or give them a quiet moment after the bouncy houses!) while you peruse the plant starts and get caught up in typical gardening conversations.
Please bring a container to carry your treasures home.
Let's celebrate another winter of plentiful rain (and Sierra snowpack!) and gardening – for ourselves and our families, for the sake of Mother Earth, or just for the sheer pleasure of it all!
Tora Rocha, co-founder of Pollinator Posse and formerly Parks Supervisor for the City of Oakland, will lead a tour of the various pollinator habitats at the Gardens of Lake Merritt and help us learn how to keep a healthy ecosystem thriving in our own gardens.
The Pollinator Garden is located next to the Bonsai Garden, just northwest by a few steps. On Google Maps, it’s labeled “Bee Hotel Garden.”
There is a fee for parking.
This event is hosted by the Master Gardeners of Alameda County.
Join us for a tour and work party with our partner, the Alameda Food Bank!
Since 2011, to feed our neighbors and reduce food waste, Alameda Backyard Growers has encouraged local fruit tree owners to request that our volunteers pick their excess fruit. In those 13 years, ABG volunteers have gleaned and delivered more than 66,000 pounds of fresh fruit to the Alameda Food Bank. This ongoing, mutual collaboration between these two not-for-profits remains strong to this day. Together, we still reduce food insecurity and food waste. If you’ve never had the chance to visit the Alameda Food Bank or volunteer for them, here is your chance to do just that.
We will learn how the AFB operates, who is eligible to receive food there, how to volunteer, etc. We’ll do miscellaneous chores including cleaning shelves, restocking food, sorting food, etc.
Wear warm, comfortable clothes and closed-toed shoes.
Restrooms, drinking water, camaraderie are available.
Space is limited to 20, so sign up here!
After this work project event, you are welcome to remain at Alameda Point to socialize with your fellow volunteers at the nearby Firebrand Bread, Almanac Beer Co., etc. on West Tower Avenue.
Jordan Taylor, the General Manager at Ploughshares, will guide us on a tour of the nursery and then present on how to care for our growing tomato seedlings. Ploughshares Nursery is one of three social enterprises whose profits go toward Alameda Point Collaborative’s mission to end homelessness by supporting homeless individuals with housing and supportive programming.
Watch for registration and more information closer to the date.
Ploughshares Nursery