2010 Workshops and Tours from SCD

Register for all tours and classes by emailing workshops at snohomishcd.org (no spaces, use the @ sign between workshops and snohomishcd.org) and typing your name, the class/tour you wish to attend, the number attending and a contact phone number.

Brier 'Natural Yard Care' Series

Brier City Hall - Free 

2901 228th St SW, Brier

April 22, 29 and May 6, 2010

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Thursday, April 22nd

Emily Bishton, Green Light Gardening

1.) Natural Yard Care

Using natural yard care methods to create and maintain your lawn and garden is the key to long-lasting beauty and sustainability. This class will help get you started off right by knowing how to build healthy soil, water wisely and efficiently, and use proper mulching and pruning methods. Natural yard care helps you prevent garden problems, and provides successful and safe remedies if pest or disease problems do arise. This all adds up to the combination of a more beautiful garden and less maintenance time for you!

2.) Child-friendly Garden Design

Natural yard care is key to achieving a child-friendly garden. This class will teach you about the tried-and-true plants, design techniques, and other garden features that will inspire and nurture the children in your life. See great photos of children's ideas and a hands-on display. A free poster with activity sheet is available for the children who visit your garden.

Thursday, April 29th

Jennifer Carlson, Haven Illustrated

1.) Sustainable Landscape Design

Learn how to read your land and make practical landscape design decisions for your property. Topics will cover how to identify and conserve natural resources, utilize the existing conditions on your property, and create a healthy, beautiful, low-maintenance landscape.

2.) Right Plant/Right Place

Learn how properly preparing the soil before planting can feed plants and conserve water. Select appropriate trees and plants for specific growing conditions that are disease and pest-resistant. Jennifer will bring a variety of low-maintenance hardy plants for the class to see. 

Thursday, May 6

1.) Good Bug, Bad Bug

Sharon Collman, WSU Extension, Snohomish County

Sharon is a well-known entomologist in the Central Puget Sound area. She will help you distinquish between good bugs, such as pollinators, and bugs that might harm your plants. Learn easy, non-toxic ways to control the bad bugs and techiniques you can use to attract the good bugs. 

2.) Backyard Composting Basics

Lois Ruskell, Snohomish Conservation District

Have you always wanted to start a worm bin but don't know how? Do you have a compost pile in your yard that does not seem to be composting?

Lois will show you how and what to compost, and some innovative techniques such as hugelkultur, compost fences, worm bins, and more. Learn how to keep your leaves, twigs and food scraps working for you. 

Funded by a grant from the WA Dept of Ecology Centennial Clean Water fund.

Other Workshops in the Area

Note: SCD is offering these events for information only, and does not in any way endorse materials or services offered by the sponsors of these events.

From WSU Extension, Snohomish County

There’s only a short week left before the award-winning  “Cultivating Success: Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Farm Business Planning” course starts in Everett. It’s designed to help new and existing farmers gain skills in business planning and direct marketing. In addition, the course will have a special emphasis on the financial and legal issues unique to farm-based businesses.

The course runs 12 weeks on Tuesday evenings January 12, 2010 through March 30, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at WSU Snohomish County Extension’s Cougar Auditorium in McCollum Park, 600 128^th St SE, Everett, WA. Course facilitator is Stanwood Angus beef rancher Holly Thompson, a WSU graduate in animal science and agriculture economics. Thompson recently assisted with WSU Skagit County Extension’s “Sustainable Small Farming and Ranching” course and has worked for Northwest Farm Credit Services as a loan officer.

Farming can be a wonderful lifestyle, but achieving financial success requires a view of farming first and foremost as a business. Beginning farmers must look at their farm as a new business with all the careful planning that entails, while existing operations must carefully evaluate how diversification or expansion might impact land, labor, capital, and management resources. This in-depth business planning course covers evaluating resources, planning and research, legal and management issues, marketing strategies, budgets and profit/loss statements along with how to cultivate financial resources. During the course, participants will develop a business plan they can literally take to the bank to finance a new enterprise or expand an existing farm-based business.

The course features a full line-up of local guest speakers including bankers, business professionals, and successful farm owners. In addition, there will be two Saturday field trips to learn how other thriving farms are turning business plans into profitable reality.

Class size is limited to 20 farms and pre-registration is required. Cost for the twelve-week course is $250; register now to hold your spot. To register, contact Karie Christensen at (425) 357-6039, email klchristen@cahnrs.wsu.edu, or download the form at snohomish.wsu.edu/ag/workshops/AgEnt2010.pdf and mail with your check.

For more information on the course, contact Andrew Corbin, (425) 357-6012, corbina@wsu.edu. For more information on the Cultivating Success series, visit www.cultivatingsuccess.org.