Gardening with the Wild

Six Online Sessions
May - August 2024

Gardening with the Wild ~ Supporting Plant Diversity in the Garden

Six Zoom Classes ~ May 14th, June 4th, June 25th, July 16th, August 6th & 27th
4 – 6:30 pm on Tuesdays

Come learn how to garden in partnership with the plants themselves! For over 20+ years Sage has been learning how to partner with nature in the garden, leaving room for wild plants to grow freely alongside cultivated plants. This way of gardening with wild nature allows native and naturalized plants a chance to grow, sharing space with the seeds we plant and increasing diversity. We will explore supporting certain wild plants in our vegetable, flower, and medicinal herb gardens, identifying them from early spring as small sprouts. Selectively weeding, transplanting when needed, interplanting with ecologically and medicinally important plant species. Sage will bring her extensive knowledge of wild, naturalized, native, and cultivated plants of the Northeast and temperate climates as well as many tropical medicinals. Students will focus on plants specific to their ecosystems.

Gardening with the wild allows more medicine and food plants to grow naturally in our gardens without our intervening, giving native and wild medicinals the space they need. This method gives us a much more abundant source of food and medicinal plant harvests, as well as greater diversity of plant species in our gardens! We increase food for pollinators and create a healthier plant ecosystem. Gardening with wild nature allows us to confront and transform our tendency to want to dominate and control nature, plants, and the communities that surround us. We will explore intersections of plant medicine, deep ecology, equity, colonization, repair, re-wilding, and the healing power of gardening with nature.

Students will keep a garden journal, practice plant identification, and study their local naturalized, native, invasive, and medicinal plants. Class will include discussion about different plant species, their medicinal and food uses, as well as each plant’s growing cycles and personalities in the garden.

OPTION TO ATTEND GAIA GARDENING WEEKENDS ~ Summer dates TBA
All classes recorded for future viewing. Class begins in May with spring planting and continues until late Summer harvests.