the best week for a Garden Master course (poor man's poll)

I am currently talking to Helen Atthowe about teaching a one week Garden Master course.  When she taught the excellent master gardener course, she was on a very tight leash and there was a lot of pesticide stuff that was required.  The thing I've been talking to her for years is to teach the same course, plus all of the fukuoka stuff she studied, her own improvements in the organic processes, etc. etc. etc. ....    A far more magnificent course.  


And it is ready.


I have always thought this course would be taught in January, because all cold climate garden's are dormant then and people are willing to spend time away from their gardens.   Plus, most gardeners feel powerful gardening urges in january.  

She said

My MG course started at the end of Jan. and ended in April with tours of [B. G.'s] garden. I changed to offering the course September through December and the course got better.

Of course, that was 4 hours every saturday, spread out for months.   We need to pack it all into one week.

She wants to point at all the growies and do walks.   At the same time, she doesn't want to take people away from their own gardens.    So a lot of back and forth, and we have four possible weeks we are thinking of.   We want your feedback.  And maybe once we have that feedback, we might have another poll for a week or two before or after.   If there is enough interest, we might offer more than one course.

So please click on the thumbs up for the options that you like best.  Feel free to add more options and comments.  

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you think the third week of january would be best

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you think the second week of march would be best

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you think the second week of april would be best

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you think the third week of october would be best

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you think any time is as good as any other

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you are definitely parting with coin for this course (GIMMIE! GIMMIE! GIMMIE!)

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you have done the math and can prove that half the people in the world are smarter than average

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you are willing to come during a warm month loaded with life and growies.

Click on the thumbs up for this post if you prefer a cold month so you can be away from your gardens, plus you get to tinker with the rocket mass heater stuff here.

Hello there...I thank you for the offering of the Master Gardening intensive...I am available the 3rd week in January in Medicine Hat Alberta Canada..

Betty Aitken wrote:Hello there...I thank you for the offering of the Master Gardening intensive...I am available the 3rd week in January in Medicine Hat Alberta Canada..

Just to be clear, the master gardener program is tightly controlled by chem ag.  So that is NOT what we are offering.   Instead, we have taken one the world's best master gardener instructors who left that job to pursue paths far beyond organic, and was an intern with Masanobu Fukuoka, to teach a far superior course.

Oh, and this course will be taught here, near Missoula, Montana.

My schedule is currently weird.

If the event is held during the 50% of Saturday-Thursday stretches when I can attend, then I'm there.


I'll probably still attend if my schedule causes me to miss a day of the class.

How can anyone teach a quality knowledge filled class in a week's time & expect to be able to teach all there is for someone to become a "master gardener"? And I'm not talking about including any chemical related stuff in there. This would have to be an all day every day thing. I didn't see the link for more info on said class. Is it in person only? Is it online & in person for tours? Is it online only? What's the cost?

As for the Poll. I would suggest before people start planting crops, whether in their homes, greenhouses or in the ground. Or after they've done cleaned up the garden & prepped it for the next year, that way they can focus their attention on the course, especially if it's only 1 week. I unfortunately couldn't attend in person, I don't have the kind of money it takes to take an expensive course, lodging for said course for the entire time, etc. But always up for learning more.
So, I am up for a non-rushed course, that happens before or after my irrigation/gardening/harvesting/process/starting seedlings, etc. )

The master gardener course that helen taught in the past was 4 hours every saturday for ten weeks.   4 * 10 = 40.  40 hours.  

This class will be 5 days, 8 hours per day.  5 * 8 = 40.  So THAT is how it is done in one week.

I didn't see the link for more info on said class. Is it in person only? Is it online & in person for tours? Is it online only? What's the cost?

This will be an in person class.  

This is our first attempt to guage interest in such a course, so we haven't made a web page, nor have we set a price.

Can we attend virtually?  Via Unlisted YT or Vimeo vids for a fee?  Access anytime?
One Straw revolution was an amazing and eye opening read.  
Would love to learn more but will be unable to attend multiple weeks in a row.

This event will be one week long.  More like five days.

This event is not multiple weeks.

We have never done this event before so there will be no video.  I suppose if we sold all the tickets and there were a bunch more people wanting to come to the event, we would explore having another event or maybe videoing it.   But so far, the number of people wanting to buy tickets hasn't been enough to warrant that.

July or August works best for many southern gardeners if we can find someone to water the garden for two weeks. It takes 4 to 5 days to drive to Montana from Georgia, so build an an additional 8 to 10 days on the road for the round trip. Late summer is "layin' by time", traditionally a time to pick veggies and water but no major planting or plowing. .We garden winter and summer here, but fall seed sowing does not start until late August or early September. We have Master Gardener classes here, but they do tend to push agri-chemicals as a remedy. But a short course with organic alternatives might make a good patch on an otherwise comprehensive Master Gardener certification. Unlike Montana, we grow tropical ornamentals and vegetables in our long hot summer and we need to learn universal principles. Our abundant bugs, red clay souls, high humidity and high heat fungal diseases, create unique challenges for anyone who would attempt to grow here.

A second window of time would be mid to late October. Our rainy season begins in early November most years and we'd have less concern about watering, but we've had frost as early as the end of October and our tropicals have to move to the greenhouse when nights start getting well below 50 degrees F.
But our fall crops are mostly planted by mid-October. We might miss some of the cool season mushroom harvest, but we'd simply have to find someone to fill in for us and water until the rains come back.

There is a great long-term Permaculture apprenticeship in Atlanta offered by Shades of Green Permaculture. Combined with one of the Georgia Extension Service Master Gardener certification programs and you might be able to cobble together a marketable cert with the organic principles taught by Shades of Green. In addition, you'd get training on plants that live in the Southeastern USA, Zone 7B and 8 to be precise.
In my previous post, I said I have a red clay soul. While that is true, I meant to say that our soil is red clay!

I'm adding to the voices that have asked about doing this course online - COVID has pushed the whole world into learning via Zoom or the like.
1) Living in Canada (which is currently not allowing her citizens to cross into the US for non-essential reasons) makes attending an in-person course in Montana impossible.
2) January is best from the perspective that that's the only time of year we could free up 40 hours to study intensively. Obviously nobody in Montana is going to have anything happening in their garden in January either. So without the possibility of walk abouts, an online course makes even more sense.
3) But we heat with wood and it gets cold here in January (like possibly -40) so leaving the cabin for more than 1-2 days at a time in the winter doesn't work for us.
Summary: I'd be willing to pay retail prices for an online course in January.