Workshop: Designing the Perfect Vegetable Garden

This is a vegetable garden-landscape design-construction workshop. Learn how to site your vegetable beds for maximum efficacy by taking into consideration factors such as climate, season, and sun exposure. You will learn numerous approaches to bed design, including methods that use straw wattles, recycled concrete, lumber, and cinderblocks.

You will also receive valuable information on what to fill your newly constructed beds with and how to do it properly. Not all soil is alike. We've got supplier recommendations for you that will save you money and give you maximum results due to superior soil fertility.

Topics also covered in class:

Starting out: Learn how to create a lovely vegetable garden on any surface, from an existing lawn to concrete.

Bed sizes: Proper sizing is important, from their height to their width. You want maximum workability and comfort to you, the gardener.

Paths: Considerations of path materials, cost, and efficiency.

Holding in your soil: From various types of lumber, to many other hardscape materials, learn what you can do and how to save money doing it. We will build a simple garden bed during class, showing you how to select lumber, cut the boards, and screw them together. We will also be installing the bed on a slight slope, showing you how this is done properly.

Filling your new beds: Top soil varies in vitality and usability. Learn how to get a deal from our most-preferred providers and the best start for your new plants.

Other important elements: Where are you going to put your hobby greenhouse? Compost pile? Worm bin? Do you have space for a small chicken coop or beehive? Where is the best place to put these important structures?

All these questions and more are explored in detail at this exciting workshop. Even if you've got an existing garden, it's not too late to tweak it into perfection!

This class is taught by farmer Cynthia Sandberg co-founder of the World Tomato Society.