If you are planning your first vegetable garden, or if you want to grow more and better vegetables in your backyard, this March 28 workshop is for you.

Horticulture consultant Paul Rogers and OSV garden researcher Christie Higginbottom will present a daylong program of practical information to assist the home gardener. Topics will include selecting a garden site and choosing crops, planning the garden, managing and enriching your soil, and tools and tips to make work easier. Christie and Paul will offer environmentally-sound advice for success with common garden vegetables: how much space each variety needs, seed sowing and transplanting techniques, fertilizing, mulching, staking, insect control, and more.

Workshop topics:

• Planning a Vegetable Garden
  • Proper siting: sun, drainage, soil type, tree competition, convenience to water
  • Size: large enough to be worthwhile, but not too large to start
  • Variety selection: space needed and ease of cultivation
  • How to make the most of a small space: Making the garden map
• Preparing the Soil
  • Testing
  • Preparation
  • Adding compost and fertilizer
• Tips for Success with Common Vegetables
  • The space required for each crop
  • How to plant: seeds or started plants
  • Soil and fertilizer needs
  • Culture: support, thinning, mulching, and other special techniques
  • Managing pests and diseases

Follow-up programs in the Village during the spring and summer:
As a special benefit of participation in the March Garden Workshops, a follow-up program of focused demonstrations will happen in OSV gardens on selected weekends during the 2009 season -- open only to March workshop participants.

Please note: OSV Members and Sturbridge residents are admitted to the Village free for these follow-up programs. March garden program participants who are not OSV Members or Sturbridge residents will be eligible for a discounted admission to OSV on the scheduled days.

Here's a list of topics by month:


• April: Preparing and Planting the Garden I - prepping the beds, sowing with row crops: root vegetables, onions, peas, greens
• May: Preparing and Planting the Garden II - preparing hills for vine crops, planting bush and pole beans and transplants (tomatoes, peppers, cabbages)
• Early June: Managing Crops I - thinning, weeding, and cultivating techniques, and proper watering
• Early August: Managing Crops II - insect problems, plant nutrition, planting fall crops, and harvest/storage techniques.

This program is sold out.