Common Ground GardenAdult Garden Classes
Garden Classes and Events to Grow Your Expertise
All garden classes hosted at Common Ground Garden, 687 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto 94306
More classes on the way!
A ticket for our one of our classes supports all of our community oriented programming, including: Youth Education (free field trips for Title 1 schools), garden Volunteer Program, and weekly sustainably-grown-vegetable donations to the Palo Alto Food Closets (SPAFC and PAFC).
View our classes in calendar format here.
Bee-autiful Gardens! Planting for Pollinators
September 24, 2016 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Only $5 thanks to the City of Palo Alto PublicWorks-Watershed Protection and the Our Water, Our World program!
Learn tips and techniques that will help you transform your garden into a safe oasis for honeybees, native bees, birds and other pollinators. Come find out ways to bring the pollinators in and keep them healthy once they are there.
Brought to you by the City of Palo Alto PublicWorks–Watershed Protection, Common Ground Garden, and the Our Water, Our World program. Taught by Teresa Lavell, a certified IPM Advocate who works with water agencies in the Bay Area to promote cleaner waterways by educating home gardeners on less-toxic solutions for their gardening problems.
Register online at http://bit.ly/29PnYdU
October 1 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Price: Only $5 thanks to the City of Palo Alto PublicWorks-Watershed Protection and the Our Water, Our World program!
With winter coming, now is the time to ready your garden against pests!
Fall is the perfect time to set your garden up for success in the spring. Come learn in this garden class about what you can do now to help prevent pests and disease in the coming months. Participants will also learn how to keep ants, rodents and other pests out of the home.
Brought to you by the City of Palo Alto PublicWorks–Watershed Protection, Common Ground Garden, and the Our Water, Our World program. Taught by Teresa Lavell, a certified IPM Advocate who works with water agencies in the Bay Area to promote cleaner waterways by educating home gardeners on less-toxic solutions for their gardening problems.
Register online at http://bit.ly/1m0bR0i
Fall Fruit Tree Pruning for Beauty and Bounty
October 22 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Price: $30 ($25 when you purchase all three classes in the series together!)
This class is part of the ‘Home Orchard’ series, including ‘Summer Fruit Tree Thinning and Pruning for Quality’ (8/6), ‘Fall Fruit Tree Pruning for Beauty and Bounty’ (this class), and ‘Bare-root Fruit Tree Planting’ (1/14/2016). Until 8/6, you can click here to purchase all three and save over 15%!
Pruning is vital to your fruit tree’s health. If you want a fruitful abundance, make sure you understand the art of pruning, from apricots to apples, pomegranates to plums.
In this class, you will learn basic techniques of pruning and what tools to use. Tom Cronin, the workshop teacher, will first demonstrate how to prune a tree and then foster hands-on learning with one-on-one helps in the pruning process.
Tom Cronin has gardened for over 25 years, and he is extensively involved in a number of garden projects. To read all about his experience, visit his website, Tom’s Edible Gardens.
Register online at http://bit.ly/29IWUzc
Edible Landscaping with Exotic Fruits
November 5 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Price: $30
Rosalind Creasy, a pioneer in the field of edible landscaping, an award-winning professional photographer, and author of the garden book, ‘Edible Landscaping’, will give a PowerPoint presentation acquainting West Coast gardeners with a plethora of unusual fruits. She will cover the basics of landscape design and then share the joys of less common fruiting plants like heirloom low-chill apples, quinces, hardy kiwi, jujube, and limequats in the home landscape.
Register online at: http://bit.ly/2aO7Rzo
December 3 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Price: $30 ($25 when you purchase both classes in the series together!)
January 14 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Price: $30 ($25 when you purchase all three classes in the series together!)
This class is part of the ‘Home Orchard’ series, including ‘Summer Fruit Tree Thinning and Pruning for Quality’ (8/6), ‘Fall Fruit Tree Pruning for Beauty and Bounty’ (10/22), and ‘Bare-root Fruit Tree Planting’ (this class). Until 8/6, you can click here to purchase all three and save over 15%!
Do you know how to choose an appealing apricot tree? How to care for a mulberry? How much water a pomegranate tree needs in this drought?
This workshop is your chance to learn hands-on what an arborist sees when selecting and caring for fruit trees. Tom Cronin, a masterful arborist, will take you into the garden to plant some trees and learn about…
- Bare root definition
- Tree/plant selection
- Timing of plantings
- Hole size and planting depth
- How to fertilize trees best
- Water basin and watering requirements, especially in the drought
- Critter protection (including gophers, deer, squirrels, birds, rats, raccoons, etc.)
Tom Cronin has gardened for over 25 years, and he is extensively involved in a number of garden projects. To read all about his experience, visit his website, Tom’s Edible Gardens.
Register online at http://bit.ly/2a4xZ8H
Early Spring Fruit Tree Grafting
February 4 from 2 PM to 4 PM
Price: $34 ($29 when you purchase both classes in the series together!)
- Sourcing and storing viable scions
- Varietal selection
- Tool selection
- Best practices in grafting
- Q&A
5 Comments on “Adult Garden Classes”
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I have several questions:
1) Would you ever consider having a class on what plants, in a survival situation, might be edible.
These would be plants in the garden that would be edible, however, not on the list of fruits and vegetables that most people specifically plant to eat?
2) I planted an all organic lawn 7 years ago. It is now about 50% weeds, Bermuda grass and Crab grass. What can be used (organic, not toxic) to kill the bermuda grass. NO ROUNDUP or similiar.
3) My last problem is having dozens of squirrels that live on my property. They eat every single fruit or vegetable and many flowers that are planted with the exception of Bell Peppers and Jalapenos. It has gotten worse as the years have gone by. It is easier to prevent deer and rabbits from getting to crops, however, squirrels can climb anywhere!!
Do you have any suggestions?
thanks, Pat Sheehan
Hi Pat,
Thank you for reaching out! Some quick answers that I hope are helpful:
1) We are looking to host a foraging class on wild edibles. Keep checking back to our adult classes for it!
2) As for your lawn question, I have reached out to an owner of a local landscaping company called Landsthetics (landsthetics.com). I’ll be in touch with his suggestions.
3) You are about the 20th person who has asked about this issue. I have some good news on the squirrel front! It is possible that CGG may host a free class about squirrel and gopher protection for gardens. It is a pressing gardening issue in this region of the Bay Area, and we are planning to make cages for our garden beds to protect our crops. So far, we have not found another way to solve the pest problem.
If you have more questions, please continue to reach out to CGG. Thank you for gardening.
Hi,
I echo the concerns with squirrels! I look forward to any info on that subject!
Mona,
If the Silicon Valley Community Foundation approves our proposal, we hope to offer a free class about (furry) pest prevention to the local gardening community. It seems that insects are not the challenging garden pest this time!
Keep checking our adult class page or sign up for our newsletter to get updates. I hope to meet you one day and talk about squirrels!
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