Backyard Kitchen Garden

What a great opening presentation for our first program meeting of our 100th year! Dani Scanella led us clearly and simply through the creation of a backyard kitchen garden. She covered everything from what to plant and ― very important ― when, to ensure a year-long supply of fresh vegetables. Using the example of her own backyard, she showed us how to set up your raised beds and thwart the critters.

She shared some of her favorite local suppliers with us, as well as her top 5 takeaways for new backyard farmers.

GCM members (members only) can sign up for a workshop on Feb. 20 led by Dani where she will go deeper into the basics, including components needed for a successful setup, what seeds are best started indoors as opposed to in the garden, and she’ll demonstrate planting seeds in both traditional trays as well as her new favorite method, soil blocking. She’ll share her favorite seed catalogs and we’ll finish the workshop with a “mini seed swap."

The meeting finished with the opening salvo of our celebration year: one hundred cupcakes!! Created by Liliane Gooch, they vanished like, well, hot cakes. Delicious.