New Eden Collaborative Spring 2010 Workshop Listings
New this year is the ability to register to New Eden workshops on line. Online registration begins Tuesday, April 6th. All workshops are at First Parish Church, Newbury, and our gardens behind the church. We are located at 20 High Road Route 1A Newbury, MA
Sheet Mulch Garden Beds
Saturday, April 17 Rain Date: Saturday, May 1st 10:00 AM to Noon
This participatory workshop will teach you how to start a new garden bed without the usual toil of deep digging. Sheet mulching is a no-till method that uses plant trimmings, cardboard/paper, straw and a few additional amendments to create rich planting beds. Earthworms and other soil organisms do most of the work by converting the mulch material into a rich compost right where you want it to be.
Sheet mulched beds can be installed over existing lawns or even weedy areas to create gardens without the toil of digging and turning earth. Soil strata is preserved allowing beneficial organisms to aid in creating fertile loam . The results are vibrant, healthy plants and very few weeds.
Instructor: Charlotte Dion
Fee: $16 per person with online registration $18 the day of the event
Sheet Mulch and Double Dig combined $26 with online reservation $30 the day of the event
Register Online
Limited to 15 participants
Youths from age 12 to eighteen are welcome with an adult supervisor.
Double Dug Garden Beds
Saturday, April 17 Rain Date: Saturday, May 1st 12:30 AM to 2:30 AM
This-hands on workshop will teach you how to create rich garden soil using the double-dig method.
Compacted, heavy clay, sandy and low or high pH soils can all benefit from this method of preparation. Double digging allows the incorporation of compost and other soil amendments more rapidly into the root zone resulting in greatly improved plant growth. Heavy soils are loosened and aerated allowing roots to penetrate deeper for better access to moisture and nutrients.
Instructor: Charlotte Dion
Fee: $16 per person with online registration $18 the day of the event
Sheet Mulch and Double Dig combined $26 with online registration $30 the day of the event
Register Online
Limited to 15 participants
Youths from age 12 to eighteen are welcome with an adult supervisor.
Build a Hen House
Saturday, April 24th 10AM – 4 PM
New Eden is pleased to present a hands-on workshop building a backyard hen house!
Back yard laying hens are the new and old “must have” source of healthy local food. People in cities and suburbs all around are catching on to this easy and delightful way of producing food at the most local level…your own back yard. Hens are easy to raise as pets with benefits, but they have a few basic requirements…food, water and a safe home.
Please join us and learn how to use simple tools and materials to build a home for your backyard hens!
Participants will also learn about the needs of laying hens, their housing requirements, feed suggestions for healthy birds, winter considerations and a bit about different breeds.
Participants will learn from hands-on building experience and will receive a set of plans that can be scaled down for smaller flocks of hens.
Instructor: Charlotte Dion
Fee: $26 per person with online registration $30 the day of the event
Register Online
Limited to 10 participants
Youths aged 14 to 18 welcome with an adult
Basics of Organic Gardening
Tuesday, April 27th, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
This class will be on the basic principals of organic gardening. Topics to be covered include garden preparation, composting, crop rotation and plant families.
Instructor: Deb Cinamon Whalen
Fee: $16 per person with online registration $18 the day of the event
Register Online
Limited to 20 people
Youths from age 12 to eighteen are welcome with an adult supervisor.
Chicken 101
Saturday, May 1, 10 AM-noon
Learn the basics of raising day old chicks to adulthood including maintaining a healthy environment for each stage of development and characteristics of different breeds.
Instructor: Mary Carpenter
Fee: $16 per person with online registration $18 the day of the event
Register Online
Limited to 20 participants
Shiitake Mushroom Cultivation
Saturday, May 15, 10 AM – noon
Would you like to know how to grow delicious mushrooms in your own backyard? Then join us for a hands-on mushroom cultivation workshop! Participants will inoculate hardwood logs with dowel spawn and learn how to care for their mushroom logs to promote several years of shiitake mushroom growth. Other varieties will be discussed along with appropriate wood to use for future adventures in fungi fun.
Each participant will receive a log inoculated with Shiitake spawn to take home along with instructions and info on further learning resources.
Instructor: Charlotte Dion
Fee: $36 per person with on-line registration, $40 the day of the event
Youths from age 12 to eighteen are welcome with an adult supervisor.
Register Online
Limited to 15 participants
A limited number of inoculated logs will be available for an additional $25 each.
Introduction to Bio-intensive Vegetable Gardening
May 22, 10 AM – Noon
This workshop will introduce you to a system of gardening that can produce high yields in small areas using a method that draws on French Intensive systems and a bit of Biodynamic methods.
This hands-on experience will teach you:
How to prepare a planting bed
What nutrients to add to the soil from local sources
Heirloom vegetables choices
Companion plants for small plots
We will also do an earthworm census and a simple test to determine soil
composition.
Instructor: Charlotte Dion
Fee: Preregistration $16, Day of event$18
Youths from age 12 are welcome with an adult companion.
Register Online
Limited to 12 participants
Chicken Tractor
Postponed due to rain New date in July TBD
There’s no argument that free range eggs are superior to those produced by cooped birds fed a limited diet. For those of us with small or unfenced lots, free ranging isn’t a real option. This hands on workshop will teach you how to build and use a Chicken Tractor – a light weight movable coop. Hens in a tractor are able to eat a natural, healthy diet while being safely contained. This portable structure also allows you to direct the birds’ attention to cleaning up vegetable beds and depositing manure before and after harvest. The tractor we will build was designed for easy storage during winter months. Participants will receive plans and material list to build their own.
Instructors: Charlotte Dion and Mary Carpenter
Fee: $16 per person with online registration $18 the day of the event
Youths from age 12 to eighteen are welcome with an adult supervisor.
Limited to 15 participants
Organic Disease and Pest Control
Saturday, June 12 10AM-Noon
Learn organic strategies for pest and disease prevention and control including the use of predatory insects and companion planting.
Instructor: Javier Gil
Fee: $16 per person with online registration $18 the day of the event
Register Online
Limited to 20 participants
How to Build an Earth Oven
June 25, 26 and 27 9am-4pm
This three-day hands on workshop will teach you how to build a beautiful and durable earth oven using natural, native materials. Earth ovens, also known as cob ovens, have been used for centuries in outdoor settings to bake bread, pizza, meats, beans, pastries and more. These ovens are a wonderful gathering point for outdoor events!
This workshop is appropriate for homeowners, community organizers, artists, landscapers, masons and builders. All skill levels welcome!
Instructor: Jonah Vitale-Wolff of Hudson
Fee: Sliding scale $175 to $ 350 Preregistration required
Register Online
Limited to 12 participants
Instructors Bios
Mary Ryan Carpenter graduated from UNH with a Masters in Environmental Education in 2008. She studied sustainable living methods including bio-intensive gardening, poultry care, and green energy in Belfast Maine at Lesley’s Audubon Expedition Institute Summer Sustainable Practices Intensive. She considers herself a Jack of all trades, and will try almost activity at least once.
Charlotte Dion is a permaculture practitioner, organic gardener, carpenter, bread baker, hen herder and herbalist in training. She and her husband live in Ipswich with their two dogs, several cats and five laying hens in the midsts of a fledgling food forest.
Deb Cinamon Whalen is a life long gardener and sells organically grown flowers and vegetables from The Good Food Farm in East Kingston NH. She is a NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) land care accredited gardener and a member of The Real Food Campaign.
Jonah Vitale-Wolff of Hudson Valley Natural Builders
