Organic Gardening Course at Little City Farm - 6 part series starting Jan 17!

Dates: 6 Wednesday evenings, Jan 17, 24, 31, Feb 14, 21, 28 (NO CLASS on Feb 7)
Time: 6:30-8:30 pm on each evening
Facilitator: Angie Koch, from Fertile Ground Farm
Class Location: Little City Farm, 508 Duke St W, Kitchener

REGISTER HERE NOW!

Are you serious about gaining more knowledge for developing a productive organic garden? Join us this winter for this very exciting 6 part intensive organic gardening course. 10 participants will have the opportunity to take part in this series, which will include 6 guided workshops, with opportunity for each participant to develop and complete an individual garden plan.


These classes will be facilitated by local organic farmer Angie Koch, from Fertile Ground Farm (located just west of Waterloo, near St. Agatha).  Angie has operated a market garden, CSA (community supported agriculture), for the past 10 years.  Her farm has grown to include a number of seasonal staff, interns, volunteers, as well as chickens, herb gardens, pollinator gardens, beehives, seed saving gardens, a greenhouse for seedlings, and more!  Angie is involved in Canadian Organic Growers, and the Ecological Farmers Association, as well as a part-time staff member at Seeds of Diversity.  This is a unique opportunity to learn first-hand from Angie's 10 years of organic farming experience!  Bring your notebook, your garden ideas, and your questions. 

View this short video to see Angie's beautiful organic farm!

Organic Gardening Course Outline:
Week 1: Seed and Seedling Starting - including basic plant botany
Week 2: Garden Planning Part One - succession planting for continuous harvest
Week 3: Garden Planning Part Two - using space effectively
Week 4: Soil Biology & Fertility - using organic methods
Week 5: Pest Management, Seed Saving, and Attracting Beneficial Insects
Week 6: Overflow, Q&A & Individual Garden Plans Wrap-Up - final developing, feedback and completion of individual garden plans

Please note: we need a minimum of 7 participants in order to offer this course.  We will notify you one week prior to the first class, to confirm details and what to bring along.

For more information about this course, and to register visit our course page here.

Around the homestead in mid-June

Bees love kale

We are noticing how much the bees love the yellow kale flowers at this time of year, when there are not so many other flowers yet for foraging.  The kale (which we are letting go to seed from last year) in our grow tunnel bed is in full bloom, and constantly covered with a loud buzzing frenzy of gorgeous bees (many types of bees too, we saw loads of bumbles, a few honey bees, some small native bees, a sweat bee).  And I get to continue my fascination with bees, and trying to capture their energy on camera.

To learn more about bees and urban beekeeping (the top bar method) consider taking our Beekeeping with Intention workshop, Sat June 11.  Register here.

Organic Non-GMO Seeds (Soil & Gardening Books) Now Available at Little City Farm

SEEDS! SEEDS! SEEDS! PURCHASE ORGANIC NON-GMO SEEDS AT LITTLE CITY FARM!

 Seeds have arrived!

We are proud to now be able to offer our local customers a wonderful selection of organic non-GMO seeds. Seeds we carry come from High Mowing, a small family-owned ethical organic seed company. We have a selection of 48+ different seeds, with many heirloom varieties.


Including zucchini, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, turnip, radishes, kale, chard, lettuces, pok choy, beans, peas, spinach, sweet corn, carrots, herbs, flowers.  Feel free to contact us for more details.

Also available limited quantities of:

•  gift seed pack collections (Kids Garden Collection; Bee Garden Collection; Easy Salad Greens Collection); 
• and bags of certified organic starter soil to get your seedlings started at home;
• as well as gardening and permaculture books!

TO PURCHASE SEEDS:
Drop by Little City Farm on Saturdays between 10-1 pm (from February through May, and also at our May 21, 2016 annual seedling sale), or contact Karin directly at: info (at) littlecityfarm.ca.


LEARN MORE: ORGANIC SEED STARTING WORKSHOP - April 2!
To learn more about starting seeds at home consider taking part in our great annual spring workshop on Starting Organic Seedlings coming on Saturday April 2, led by Angie Koch from the popular local Fertile Ground Organic Farm.

Pumpkin harvest!

One of this weekend's projects around here was starting to clean up the garden.  This included the last potato harvest, storage potatoes and fingerling potatoes!  Cleaning up finished zucchini and squash vines, picking the last basil and tomatoes, and harvesting our pumpkins.  The pumpkin project was our daughter's this year.  At the top of her garden list back in January was to grow pumpkins, even if it meant losing space to other things.  She has been waiting patiently all season, watering them, watching them ripen, checking each day in the past few weeks to see if they are ready yet.  She had a nice harvest of 9 pumpkins and felt quite pleased with it!  She had wanted to try "milk feeding" them just like in the book Farmer Boy (Little House on the Prairie series), but that would really only be economical if we had an abundance of milk, which we do not. 

On the cusp

I look around the property here and see that we are on the cusp...this beautiful time of year when the yard is vibrating with new life everywhere.  All the fruit trees and berry bushes are in full bloom and are just moments from fruiting.  The grapes, cherry, apple and pear trees, the gooseberries, currants, and even our little fig tree are bursting with hopeful blossoms - and for us too, this is such a hopeful time of anticipation for the new growing season, and a time of making lists of new projects and plans for the summer. 

This Moment

{This moment} - This moment - an end of week ritual, no words, just a special photo to remember, savour, enjoy.

Early June garden