Ag Days Program Features Strategies and Tips for Home, School Gardens

Ag Days Program Features Strategies and Tips for Home, School Gardens

Are you an avid gardener, already planning your seed beds for spring, but always interested in new ideas? Or are you a “newbie,” excited about the thought of growing your own fresh fruits and vegetables but unsure where to start? Then this year’s MonDak Ag Days and Trade Show is the place to be!

The 2013 event on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 10-11, at the Richland County Fairgrounds Event Center includes a series of gardening talks to kick of this year’s programming schedule. From 8:30 am through noon on Thursday, you can learn how to use raised beds and limited space to increase your gardening productivity, how to capture rainwater and identify good and bad insects; how to do easy bucket composting, and how to kick off a gardening project at your school. Presenters include local master gardeners and insect experts, well-versed in gardening in this region, along with a Montana Food Corps volunteer helping to connect schools and institutions with freshly grown local foods, whether by scaling up their own gardens or working with area farmers. And finally, “Captain Compost,” aka Mike Dalton, founder of Gardens from Garbage, will also be on hand to discuss composting techniques for both big and small gardens.

Raising More With Less

The gardening session begins with a presentation entitled “Square Foot Gardening and Raised Beds” by Master Gardener George Biebl of Sidney. “Square foot gardening” techniques call for the use of raised beds and soil mixes for your garden which is laid out in a grid in which only the seeds you need are sown. The system allows you to grow much more in a smaller space and is easier for youngsters and adults with limited mobility to manage. According to practitioners, the method uses fewer resources, requires less work, yet still produces a crop equal to a single row garden five times its size. Biebl has used the techniques, particularly the raised beds, in his garden for ten years now and will share his successful experiences and tips during his presentation.

At 9 am, another local Master Gardener Bill Iversen will discuss his own innovative watering techniques in a presentation entitled “Rainwater Capture Strategies.” Iversen harnesses Mother Nature to handle much of the watering chores needed for his large garden, and will share how he does it during his Thursday morning presentation.

Iversen will be followed by Deb Waters, a biological science technician with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Sidney, insect expert and fellow gardener. Waters will discuss many of the problem insects local gardeners can expect to encounter and ways to manage them, along with highlighting the beneficial insects also present in their gardens and ways to preserve them. Her presentation, scheduled for 9:30 am on Thursday, is entitled “Garden Insects: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

“A New Era of Composting”

“Captain Compost” Mike Dalton of Great Falls takes over at 10 am with a wide-ranging discussion of “a new era of composting” and how it can not only aid backyard gardeners, but also schools and institutions looking to improve their meal offerings by establishing their own gardens for raising fresh fruits and vegetables and to dispose of their food wastes in a productive manner. Dalton’s talk entitled “Bucket Composting” will demonstrate how to use a natural “live” compost accelerant called Bokashi in an easy cold composting process with “no turning and no stink.” According to Dalton, the process, which uses essential microbes in an air tight environment (the bucket) to break down organic matter, is ten times faster than regular composting and works with dairy, fats and meat organic waste as well as plant materials.

Dalton has taught the process to fourth graders and other students at several Montana schools that have established their own gardens for fresh produce. He’s also been exploring options for using the process to aid disposal and composting of institutional and municipal food waste that currently is dumped in local landfills. Find out more from “Captain Compost” during his MonDak Ag Days presentation Thursday, Jan. 10 beginning at 10 am.

Gardening in Schools

“Captain Compost” Mike Dalton

The Ag Days gardening program concludes with a presentation by AmeriCorps VISTA Anne McHale, who is serving with the FoodCorps team in Glendive, MT. Montana’s FoodCorps aims to improve access to healthy, locally-grown food for kids, and provide new markets for local farmers and ranchers. As full-time, year-round VISTA volunteers, the FoodCorps team builds and tends school gardens, helps cafeterias serve locally-grown meals, and educates students about how and why to eat healthy, locally-grown food.

McHale will discuss her work in Glendive and with area schools in establishing their own gardens. Her talk is entitled “Gardening in Schools” and is set to begin at 11 am Jan. 10 at the Event Center. We hope you can join us for this interesting series of speakers.