A neighbor recently referred to me as a "Garden
Sherpa." I like this word "Sherpa," because learning how to grow
your own food can indeed feel like climbing a mountain. With my garden coaching program, I build your confidence, ease intimidation, limit frustration
and ensure you enjoy the view at the top, i.e. a bountiful harvest. I aim to
make gardening simple and pleasurable for the tired parent, the busy
professional, or the novice grower who is devoted to learning but has a zillion
other things on her mind and doesn't know where to start.
By making an up-front investment in your education, you will
have a much higher success rate than if you tried gardening on your own, alleviating expense in the long run
since learning by trial and error can be quite costly.
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| Garden coaching client, Meagen of Oakley, fed her bounty to her husband and two young boys, and still had plenty to share with her neighbors. |
If things don't go perfectly, I'm here to walk you
through the possible culprits as well as give you important perspective—if
Mother Nature has something to teach us, she will make sure events unfold to do
so. These lessons are all part of the educational experience. I balance the amount of instruction I give with enough independence so that students learn to pay attention to
cues from their intuition, feeling into the plants' needs, so they can avoid stumbles
in the future.
I design your program specifically to meet your experience
level, needs and schedules. It typically entails about seven visits to
your property throughout the year. We discuss your plans in mid-autumn, build
the soil by early winter, prep the beds and plant from mid-spring to late
summer, install season-extension hoops before winter, and trellis, prune,
harvest and troubleshoot as needed.
I review your budget at the beginning of the program and list
out the supplies for you to collect before each of my visits. I then give you hands-on
assistance while at your property, go over activities for you to do in between
our appointments, and leave you with documents that reiterate what you learned.
I'm careful to give you just the right amount of information without
overloading you with too much material, and make sure the experience is fun! My
clients often tell me how therapeutic working in the garden is for them.
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| Garden coach clients, Liz and Cliff of East Asheville, in mid-June, a month after planting |
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| One month later - look at the growth by mid-July! |
If you're interested in having a Garden Sherpa by your side for
the 2017 growing season, be sure to contact me soon. Once the leaves fall, we
start building the soil, layering piles of organic matter to decompose over
winter, which creates a soil ecosystem for optimal plant health. The
decomposition process takes about four months, so we need to lay out the beds in
late autumn or early winter so the soil is ready for planting by spring.
Do you have limited
growing space at your home but want to be involved with the growing of your own
food? I will likely offer a Group Gardening Coaching program on site at M R
Gardens in 2017. You can improve your gardening skills at
my farm with hands-on activities, participating at the level that you are able
to—which may mean just one lesson a month, or up to two sessions a week
depending on your availability. You not only gain knowledge about growing, but
also take home baskets of vegetables, fruit and herbs! It contains all the
elements of the individual garden coaching experience, except you won't need to
invest in many tools and equipment, and you will likely learn about a wider
variety of plants.
I'm casually gauging interest for this program now, so
contact me if Group Garden Coaching interests you.
Keep an eye out in future newsletters for more information. Call 828.333.4151 to set up a meeting at the farm to discuss your interests, your availability and pricing.
