sunnyvale

Fourth Year - December, 2009

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Overview

In 2009, the Sunnyvale Teaching and Demonstration Garden completed its fourth summer in its garden space at Sunnyvale’s Charles Street Community Gardens.We continued our popular series of free gardening classes in the garden and continued to grow seasonally appropriate, organically grown vegetables and ornamentals in our demonstration beds.

Teaching

This year our monthly free public classes covered topics ranging from the design and use of drip irrigation systems to garden bed preparation and planting vegetable seedlings to ways to renovate an aging home landscape. We taught seven of our classes outdoors in the community gardens’ growing circle meeting space. These classes were followed by rounds in our garden where class participants could see examples of what was taught in class, try their hands at techniques taught or learn about ways our project gardeners were meeting various gardening challenges. Two classes were taught in the Sunnyvale Public Library. Overall, 432 gardeners attended our nine project classes.

Third Year, 2008

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Gardening year round is easy and rewarding in our mild Mediterranean climate. Learn how to have a successful, environmentally responsible food garden that provides delicious vegetables and herbs every month of the year. This course stresses sustainable gardening practices such as mulching, efficient watering methods, on-site composting,integrated pest management, and use of organic fertilizers and soil amendments.

Topics include:soil preparation, amendments, and fertilizers; irrigation methods and systems; working with both seeds and seedlings; cultural requirements of specific warm and cool season crops and varieties that do well in our area; and how to identify and manage common pests, weeds, and diseases of vegetable crops in Santa Clara County.

The class meets once a week for six weeks, on Wednesdays from 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.: January 28, February 4, 11, 25, March 4 and March 11, 2009.  Note that there is no class on February 18.

Register at http://ace.fuhsd.org or phone 408-522-2700.

Learn simple techniques of sustainable gardening to create and maintain a beautiful ornamental garden that will be attractive year-round while respecting and protecting the environment. Topics include caring for the soil, using efficient irrigation and choosing the right plant for the right place. The course also covers basic design concepts, non-toic pest management and season-appropriate chores to keep your garden looking its very best.

Six consecutive Wednesday evenings from September 17 - October 22, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Register at http://ace.fuhsd.edu or call 408-522-2700.

Second Year, 2007

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Project summaries: First Year | Second Year | Third Year | Fourth Year

Our teaching and demonstration garden is located in the southeast corner of Sunnyvale’s Charles Street Community Garden at 433 Charles Street near Olive. Here we teach and demonstrate organic and sustainable methods of gardening in our garden of raised beds, in-ground beds and containers. The garden showcases perennial and annual food-producing plants as well as ornamental plantings selected for their beauty, ability to attract beneficial insects and low water use. The garden’s infrastructure demonstrates use of salvaged materials such as the broken patio concrete, other salvaged materials and timer controlled drip irrigation.

Master Gardeners built the demonstration garden in the spring of 2006 as the community garden was being built. Since then, we have been teaching monthly classes on gardening, covering organic growing methods, integrated pest control, water-wise irrigation methods and other sustainable gardening practices. Check this website for a listing of class topics and schedule.