Learn how to dry and worm compost.
Learn how to properly plant and care for large specimen fruit trees and ornamental plants.
Learn the nuances of caring for established edible and ornamental container gardens.
Stay from 2-4pm for Gardening 101: Everything You Need to Know as a Beginner Gardener taught by Jeff Bridge of Ploughshares Nursery. You will learn how to: choose soil, watering tricks, avoid common mistakes, and the basics of fertilization. Bring your questions and garden conundrums for Jeff to answer after the demonstration. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door.
Take the mystery out of tree pruning with this hands-on workshop! Learn the basics and leave with skills you can start using immediately.
Topics covered include:
- How trees grow
- Why pruning keeps trees healthier
- How trees react to pruning
- Seasonal pruning
- How to prune properly
- Common pruning mistakes
- Identifying a properly pruned true
and more!
The workshop will also include a show-and-tell of different types of wood, branches, branch collars, compartmentalization of decay in trees. Bring your questions and come prepared for a fun interactive learning experience.
Tony Wolcott is a Certified Landscape Horticulturalist, Certified Irrigation Designer, Board Certified Master Arborist, Master Composter, and Bay Friendly Designer. His work experience includes being the urban forester at the Cities of Albany and San Francisco, non-profit work with Friends of the Urban Forest, Our City Forest, and arborist representative with Bartlett Tree Experts. Currently he is professor of Arboriculture within the Horticulture division of the Biology Department at Diablo Valley College.
Sheet mulching is an easy and efficient technique for saving water, recycling resources, suppressing weeds and building healthy soil. Please join Lori Caldwell as she discusses the steps for this process as well as her own tips and tricks for how to sheet mulch. Please bring all your questions!
Lori Caldwell is an Alameda County Master Composter, self taught edible gardener and residential sheet mulch maven. Her mission is to “connect people to the soil and all that it provides”. She has been happily teaching sustainable gardening classes and transforming yards in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2007.
Seed Saving Class
Sunday, November 14, 11am
Healing Gardens (Taylor/Webster) in West Alameda
Class Description: Civilization began when humans began to save and plant seeds. Come and learn about the seeds of common food plants we eat today. We will talk about the history of seeds, explore the different sizes and shapes of seeds and how to grow plants for seed, harvest for viable seeds and collect those seeds, focusing on five seeds that are easily saved by the home gardener. The talk will be followed by a hands-on exercise where participants will collect the seeds from different plant materials and package them up for both themselves and the seed library.
Birgitt BIO: Birgitt Evans has grown her own food on a large scale for the past 30 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 was on the advisory board for 14 years. She has been on the board of Alameda Backyard Growers since its inception and is currently the Treasurer.
Kristen BIO:
Kristen Smeal (she/her) volunteers and serves on the Board of Alameda Backyard Growers. In her role as the Garden Science teacher at St. Philip Neri School in Alameda, she is passionate about teaching children how to grow food and to care for the Earth and each other.
Do you prefer homemade to store bought? Then now is just the time to create a decorative holiday wreath for your home or a gift. You might even want to use some of your own harvested fruit, veggies or herbs!
Welcome to ABG’s fun, outdoor, in-Alameda wreath-making workshop Saturday, November 27 from 1-3 pm. We will use harvested, gathered and purchased items to craft beautiful wreaths of various sizes for your table, wall or door. ABG will provide the instruction, wreath backings, floral wire, hot glue and light refreshments. We ask attendees to gather and bring supplies of your choice including some of the following:
- pine boughs
- pine cones
- grapevines
- magnolia leaves
- gingko leaves
- seed pods
- shells
- feathers
- grasses
- dried fruit/herbs/veggies
- ribbons, bows and trinkets.
The workshop fee is $25, masks will be required and we can only accommodate 20 adults.
Registration is required. Click here to register. Once you register we will let you know the location for this event.
So many of us have citrus trees in our yards, but may not always know how to keep them at their best. Berkeley, like Alameda, is ‘Citrus Heaven’. And this is a chance to not only brush up on citrus-pruning skills (or learn the basics) in a workshop, but also tour a remarkable schoolyard orchard and garden in Berkeley.
Farm2Market Assistant Manager Sarah Miller and fellow Alameda Backyard Growers volunteer Marla Koss will demonstrate citrus pruning on two of the garden’s Meyer lemon trees and assist attendees to go hands-on with pruning. The Edible Schoolyard’s Garden Manager Jess Bloomer will supervise the tour.
For this workshop, please bring the following:
- bypass pruning shears
- gardening/work gloves
- other pruning equipment such as a pruning saw or loppers
Wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes (preferably hiking or work boots). Bring a sun hat and/or sunscreen and a water bottle. Also helpful: eye protection (clear safety goggles/glasses).
This event is for adults only. Registration is required. Please be sure to register with a valid email address that you are able to check. The workshop location will be announced 48 hours prior to the event via email reminder to those who have registered. We know that interest will exceed the space available and will keep a waiting list.
If you register and are unable to attend, we need you to cancel at least 3 days in advance so that we can offer your space to someone else. Please cancel by emailing abg.grow.food@gmail.com.
Here in the SF Bay Area, annual pruning of Apricot and Cherry trees is carried out in July or August rather than in the winter. This protects these varieties from a specific fungal infection that may occur if pruning cuts are made in cold, wet weather. August is also an excellent time to prune back excess, leggy growth on Plum and Pluot trees. Refresh your pruning skills or learn the fundamentals of Summer Stone Fruit Tree pruning. Marla Koss, our pruning teacher extraordinaire, will lead another great, FREE, hands-on, how-to pruning session in Alameda.
Thank you to everyone who attended!