Suburban Farmers

Workshop Chair Karen Fricke (l) and presenter Dani Scannella

Soil preparation doesn't seem like the funniest topic for a workshop, but nine of us met in the club room on Feb. 20 for a hilarious workshop with Dani Scannella, our January program speaker, and owner of The Backyard Gardener. With a dizzying array of her kitchen mixing bowls, spatulas, spackling tools, toothpicks, cell trays and other bizarre instruments, Dani demonstrated how to create a enormous batch of what looked amazingly  like chocolate brownie mix! She then showed exactly how to transform this dirt into vegetable gold. We all became fans of "soil blocking" which eliminates the need for plastic pots, reduces the amount of space required, and benefits the plants by air pruning the seedlings as they grow, creating stronger, healthier root systems.

There was also time for us to join in a seed swap: people brought seeds, and Dani supplied us with little envelopes to take home along with new ideas as well as the realization that winter really will end one of these days.

Dani provided the following handouts to remind us of what she covered in the workshop. One thing to note is that the soil blocking document only shows the recipe for the soil mix. You can just use the Vermont Compost Company Ft. Vee Mix instead, and follow the rest of the instructions from there. 

• Seed Starting Supplies

• Soil Blocking Procedures