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Seeding the Garden of Gardeners
As the wisdom of eating locally-grown food is spreading, so is interest in growing one's own food. Many would-be gardeners don't know much about Austin's growing seasons, how to design and orient a garden, what to plant where, how to build a functioning compost pile and other useful topics.
Out of the fertile minds of Brandi Clark (Austin EcoNetwork, EcoNetworking, Austin CarShare and more) and Marla Camp (Edible Austin) grew a broad plan to get more gardens growing in Austin. One component of that plan is called Citizen Gardener. Modeled after TreeFolks' successful Citizen Forester program, a companion to the more comprehensive Master Gardener Program, Citizen Gardener provides a framework for getting 10 hours of instruction, completing 10 hours of service apprenticing with a more seasoned gardener, and becoming an official Citizen Gardener.
Brandi pitched the idea of "Citizen Gardener" during her Citizen Foodie talk at the Downtown Farmer's Market Green 4th of July 2008 celebration and got enthusiastic responses. Dick Pierce, Master Gardener as well as veteran Permaculture and gardening instructor, volunteered to offer his Introduction to Fall Gardening class (normally $50) for free to those who would make the service hour committment to become Citizen Gardeners--and the program was born.
Now in it's third season of sprouting new growers, the program has graduated more than 100 Citizen Gardeners and provided more than 1000 hours of volunteer service to school, community and other gardens. In fact, the Capital Area Foodbank now has multiple gardens as a result of Citizen Gardeners.
Citizen Gardener is more than a class, it's a community. Each season there is an end-of-season local foods potluck to celebrate the harvest and the accomplishments. There is an online community for those who go through the program and want to share their experiences, challenges and joys at citizengardener.ning.com. That site also has a list of educational programs available around Austin, like Green Corn Project, as well as school and community garden partners that can host volunteer/apprentices.
Five courses with over 100 students were held in January–March, 2011 to coincide with the Spring planting schedule.
There is good news if you missed our Spring Courses—Austin has a 2nd gardening season in the Fall. Planting time is in late August and September, and we'll have 4-5 Citizen Gardener Courses during that time. Each Course is two Saturday mornings of hands-on learning with a Wednesday evening review session in between.
Please check citizengardener.grouply.com for more information, contacts, and enrollment.
If you are interested in becoming a Citizen Gardener in future seasons, please fill out and submit the form below. You will be contacted when the next season's schedule is set.
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