8/20 in El Cerrito: Grow Food in Your Own Backyard! An Introduction to Bio-intensive Gardening

Backyard Gardening Workshop: An Introduction to Bio-intensive gardening

at Grandma Mary’s Organic Farm in El Cerrito
with the farm’s co-manager Kevin Rowell
and Ecology Action apprentice David Basile

Saturday August 20th 10am-4pm

We will discuss and give hands on demonstrations of:
*Garden design and planning
*Hand cultivation of vegetable, flower and fruit garden beds
*Home composting and soil management
*Seedling propagation and transplanting
*Plant disease mitigation
*Food production for self-sufficiency
*Inspiration and encouragement to get you started!

$60 class fee-work trade available
Bring a bag lunch and cup for refreshments

Grandma Mary’s Organic Farm is located near the El Cerrito Plaza Bart
station. We have off street bike parking!!

For information and registration call 707-367-2567 or email:
plant_veggies at yahoo.com

Instructor Biographies:

Kevin Rowell runs Grandma Mary’s Organic Farm, a half-acre urban
farmstead in the East Bay with his partner, Marisha, and her
grandmother. He has worked in the field of urban agriculture installing
gardens for the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG) and
middle school gardens in the Bay Area. In South East Asia he studied
indigenous agricultural traditions and the social/environmental effects
of the transition to mechanized agriculture. As filed manager at Green
Gulch Farm in Marin he received trainings in French Intensive
Agriculture and tractor cultivation.

David Basile lives in Mendocino County, manages the Golden Rule
Community’s Bio-intensive mini-farm, and trains interns from all over
the world in French Intensive/Biodynamic gardening. Through the support
of Ecology Action and his mentor, John Jeavons, he conducts research in
sustainable small-scale food production. For the past two years he has
grown most of his family’s food from 1/8th of an acre. He has offered
classes to the public on topics such as seed saving, grains, compost,
bed preparation, growing your own bread, and more. Currenly, he is very
interested in turning his harvests into cultures and ferments for
better, tastier health.