FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Attention Master Gardeners
Contact: Katie@SquareFootGardening.com
Mel Bartholomew Wants to Give You $42
The Square Foot Gardening Foundation Wants YOU at Mel’s Only 3-Day 2012 Symposium
As the nation wakes up to local food, community gardening, sustainable agriculture, water conservation, farm to school programs, etc.; communities are looking more and more to their county agricultural agents for support and answers. The Square Foot Gardening Foundation (SFG) encourages this as we train community leaders in the easiest and most efficient method of organic growing with 80% less space and 90% less water than traditional row gardening. It’s so easy that inner city children use the method to start their own apartment balcony gardens.
If you’re reading this, you’re more than likely a Master Gardener. As the cost of food rises and the known benefits of local agriculture become main-stream, your neighbors will start looking more and more to YOU for all of their growing and Square Foot Gardening questions, especially as the Square Foot Gardening Foundation encourages the general public look to their local Cooperative Extension Office for advice. We want to best equip YOU to support those working to end hunger in your community.
Mel Bartholomew, founder of the SFG method and best-selling garden author of all time, will hold his only 3-Day Square Foot Gardening Certification Symposium this year from October 11th-13th in San Diego’s Balboa Park. The Square Foot Gardening Foundation is offering their 20% nonprofit discount to ALL MASTER GARDENERS NATIONWIDE since you are the backbone of gardening culture. The Symposium will empower and equip you to promote positive change while networking with other Master Gardeners, nonprofit staff, and Square Foot Gardeners from around the country. Symposium sessions range from “Cutting Your Food Bill in Half” to “How to Start Your SFG Business”. As volunteer Master Gardeners, we will show you how you can have a business and change the world as a Certified Square Foot Gardening Teacher/Instructor.
This is a one-time-only deal that ends October 4th. Email katie@squarefootgardening.com with your extension service’s address to receive your 20% discount for $42 off registration. Register Today: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/sfg-certification/come-to-san-diego-oct-11-13-for-the-best-ever-3-day-symposium/
#####
Thank you for giving a 20% discount to Master Gardeners! What a great thing to do!
I am a Certified Square Foot Gardening Teacher/Instructor (home study course) and am also a Certified Master Gardener – Tulare/Kings County.
I love being able to help people become more self-reliant by incorporating fruits & veggies in their landscape. My employment in a garden center (where I am a Certified Nursery Consultant) allows me that opportunity every working day and I am a speaker on SFG for the Master Gardeners.
Bev–Great to hear that you are SFG Certified and can share the simplicity and benefits with your fellow Master Gardeners! Edible Landscaping….Love it. Can you help me spread the word to Master Gardeners that I am giving them 20% off of registration for the San Diego Symposium Oct 11-13 (via twitter, Facebook, Master Gardening friends and listserves)? We need them there to spread the SFG method to all of the neighborhood, community, and school gardening projects nationwide.
How can I find a master teacher to come and help us at Anton Elem. School in East LA. The 3rd grade students and teachers want to start a container garden in our cement patio. There are cement benches that we want to use to hold the raised beds. I hope someone out there can help us!
PM–I’ll work on it and am also sending your info to Cynthia who heads up the SFG office in San Diego. Excited to get you all going with SFG!
Mel, I am a Master Gardener from SE Tenn and we (Bradley County Master Gardeners) have been asked by the Juvenile Judge to Start teaching gardening to kids on probation for drug offenses. The Judge has already installed 18 4′ X 8″ raised beds with some private grant money behind the juvenile jail.
I have ordered the course outline today. It would be nice to have our instructors certified. Any suggestions for us?
Dear Mike,
What an exciting opportunity. I want to give you all the help we can, and I may send you various suggestions at different times. If you can keep me posted on your progress, that would be great. I can’t believe you have 18 4×8 beds! Do they follow the SFG method? What kind of wood are they made out of? I hope not creasole or other treated wood which might prove dangerous for raising food. Next, is the soil already furnished and is it the Mel’s Mix formula or have they brought in possible weedy topsoil? If we can, lay down a weed fabric. Check our website and let them know they can order straight from us. It’s industrial strength material–no weeds will grow through that. Then lay the Mel’s Mix down over that, all within each bed. Remember you only need 6 inches of Mel’s Mix. The grid can then lay right on top of the soil. Make this out of wood. Home Depot sells 4 foot long lath that are perfect for grids. Drill a hole every 12 inches, nuts and bolts attached to each other.
Are the beds located hopefully in a sunny area? I’m going to attach a few information sheets that will help you in laying out the gardens and deciding what to plant. Are the beds spaced three feet apart for easy entry and working room?
I’m sure you want to grow tomatoes, cucumbers and beans, so we should have some vertical gardens. Check out the chapter on Vertical Gardening as well as the chapter on Structures to see how to make the vertical frames. Again you can order the nylon netting directly from our .com website: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/garden-accessories/nylon-netting-per-foot/
As far as spacing, check out page 109 which shows each potential gardener the spacing of different plants. If you would like, I can have some seed catalogues sent to you so that each person can have their own seed catalogue. If you’ll send me the address of the judge or warden and how many kids will be involved, we have a direct link to Jung Seed Company who might even help us for this project. We have found in the different jails we’ve worked at that it’s best to treat them best like schools in that each child or student gets their own squares. They then have to decide what they want to grow and then are in charge of those squares because it’s their responsibility. They find quite an attachment to that. The other nice thing you learn about SFG is that we nurture our plants. Anyone in a prison certainly needs something to nurture and believe in as well as take care of. I hope you’re progressing nicely with your course. Feel free to email belinda@squarefootgardening.com if you have any questions as far as the course is concerned.
Can you send me some pictures of the beds as they are right now? Let’s continue by email about any questions you might have. Will you have any of the other master gardeners in your county involved in this project, and are there any other things that we can help you with? We have worked in several jails and detention centers in other parts of the country. I think our experience would be of great help to you. You might have the judge order a few books for everyone to read and definitely some of the introduction videos on our .com store. Another good idea would be to download the three minute trailer video on our website and show that to everyone possible that are working on this project, including the kids and all of the officials. Thank you for writing and good luck on your project. Please do stay in touch and let me help you with any questions you might have. Ironically I just returned form Tennessee last week when I spoke at the University of Tennessee and then taught a whole room full of Master Gardeners and County Extension Agents all of the basics of Square Foot Gardening. If there’s anything they could do to help you, I could put you in touch with the people that we spoke to there at the University.
That was such a great offer. I know you have a strong following on the east coast, several in the Chester County Master Gardeners group. Would you consider a repeat performance on the east coast in the spring?
Hi Janet,
I’m so glad that you and your fellow East Coast gardeners are wanting to attend a 3-Day Symposium If you’re really serious about becoming a Certified Instructor, a 3-Day Symposium is the way to go. In order to have more Symposiums around the country, we’ve put up a notice around our website where individuals or organizations around the country will become Hosts for a 3-Day Symposium. It doesn’t cost them any money. In fact, we offer a $50 giftcard if they become a host: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/hosting-a-symposium/. I’m assuming you’re involved with the local gardening clubs?
What’s involved in becoming a host is merely to make all of the arrangements for location of classroom, display garden, help coordinate travel of all the students that sign up. That means finding a nice, local, inexpensive hotel, give them information about airport and arrange for meals, sign-in, and other coordinating details like that. All expenses are paid by the Foundation or the attendees. Your organization just does the hosting and coordinating of the event. We send you the teachers for that Symposium, although in the past we have had some of the host members participate as student trainees. It’s a good way to learn how to become a teacher of Square Foot Gardening. We do not encourage people to come to these sessions just to learn How to Garden. They should already know how to SFG, already have a garden, but be desiring to learn the proper teaching methods so that they can become an instructor, do humanitarian or educational projects in their neighborhood, and we’ll even show them how to start a business from their home. We have about 400 people right now, and I would love to have more from the Arizona area. So what do you think? Is that something you would like to tackle?