Climbing Tree Farm: Raised Bed Garden Workshop- Alchemy Iniative

Assembling frames.

Our introduction to food production was through growing vegetable gardens. Our garden was beautiful, productive, and almost felt like a work of art that we collaborated on. We were able to grow nearly all of the vegetables that we ate year round. We began meat farming to fill in the protein gaps in our garden diet (though we did grow dried beans and soy).

Since moving to our current farm a couple of years ago, and leaving our old garden behind, we have mostly been focusing on meat production for sale, and our home garden has taken a backseat. We did spend more than a year preparing the soil for a new garden when we arrived to the new farm, and even plowed and planted a portion of the garden last year, but competition from weeds in the new spot was too great, and we ended up planting the majority of the garden in pig forage.

We've been members in our friends' vegetable CSAs for the last couple of summers, which has been great, but not quite the same as having our own vegetables growing in our own dirt on our own land. In mid April the Alchemy Initiative held a raised bed gardening workshop

at our farm. A great group of people came to learn how to build, and grow vegetables in, raised bed gardens. In the process of learning, the class built three beautiful garden beds for our farm, and now we are making a slow transition back to growing our own vegetables in our own dirt on our own land. Thank you all! Especially instructors Nikki and Jess Conzo who are incredible, and a wealth of knowledge.

We are hoping to host more workshops on the farm in the future. Have you got an idea for a workshop in mind? Let us know, we would love to have you!