Our Sound Home's Kitsap Course List

I can’t wait for the spring and summer time. My good friend Miss Sarah Lou and I took a gardening course through the WSU Kitsap Extension (Go Cougs!) program about a week ago, and it was wonderful.  My parents lovingly signed me up for the course as an early birthday gift, knowing I wanted to do some work this year in my yard.  My dad was going to go with me, but had out of town plans that weekend, so I got to bring along Miss Sarah with me. 

It was really nice to bounce ideas off each other, since we're both pretty new homeowners and gardeners.  The class is a four part series (you can also just take one or two classes, which is what we did), with each class held on a different weekend.  The class we attended was Organic Garden Planning which was perfect for the two of us, since we are both new homeowners and both of our gardens are starting (mostly) from scratch.

In the class we learned about where to physically place different plants in your yard (in relation to the sun, and what grows best next to one another as complimentary plants), composting, crop rotation, bee pollinators, and fruits and berries. WOW! It was a very full class, packed with lots of great information. I have my seed catalog now and I am going through, trying to pick what I want to grow most in our gardens first year. Lots of choices! Check out what Sarah thought of the class here.

I think I'll use this existing garden bed on the side of our house for most of my veggies - note that this was a photo from when we first moved in. Since then, the weeds and shabby wooden stuff is out!

I also want to plant some edibles around the yard - herbs, lavender and strawberries, for example. My massive rosemary tree has actually made it quite nice when I'm cleaning up that area of the garden - there is nothing like the smell of fresh rosemary!

If you are interested in checking out other classes that are offered, they have a Backyard Chickens class in early February, and then a series of classes on Preserving the Harvest throughout the spring time.  This includes Canning 101, Pickling, and making Salsa. Sign me up! This will especially be helpful for all the veggies I hope to grow this next year.  Who knew Kitsap had all these great resources?!