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Spring garden workshops for successful kitchen gardens

Spring is here and gardens are beginning to wake up from the cold winter months - it's time to start thinking about establishing your garden to ensure bountiful crops over the warmer months. Gardening expert Pete Huff shared his knowledge on the basics of starting a veggie garden and propagating for successful crops in two public workshops at the Kitchen Garden Learning Centre over the weekend.

The first workshop, ‘Starting your vegetable garden', was full of information essential for the budding green thumb to establish a successful kitchen garden. Pete began with a brief overview of how to use permaculture principles to establish the best location for your garden (in the space available), including some simple tips on how to design your garden according to your very specific needs. The group spent time in the gardens of Collingwood College and the Learning Centre while discussing the merits of different types of garden beds and the importance of good soil preparation. Planning really is the key to a successful veggie garden, no matter the size!

The second workshop covered all you need to know about raising plants from seed and caring for them in the best way. We covered the basics of choosing the right soil and containers for transplanting seedlings into beds and how to care for plants to create optimal conditions for growth and fruiting. Pete shared lots of tips on how to raise different types of seeds, including which seeds are best planted directly into the garden bed and which work better raised in seedling trays during their vulnerable first weeks. Seed saving is a great way to save money and cultivate successful crops from year to year - participants learnt the best techniques for collecting and storing seeds.

There was a very friendly atmosphere at the workshop - we were encouraged to ask questions and discuss issues. Pete was very informed, he explained things very clearly and in an engaging, generous and interesting way. (Ruth, Propagating for the Garden participant)

Everyone left armed with a wealth of advice from Pete as well as an information pack and details of lots of great online resources to help them start and maintain wonderfully successful and productive kitchen gardens.

Upcoming public workshops at the Kitchen Garden Learning Centre are ‘An Italian Spring Feast and Southern Italian Sweets, both hosted by Teresa Oates, and ‘Phillippa's Secrets for Bread Making'. Check out our public workshops page for more information about these workshops and join our mailing list for all the latest news about workshops and the Kitchen Garden Program.

Photos: Examples of garden beds in Kitchen Garden School gardens around Australia.