Mini-Classes at the Nursery
Our free mini-classes at Love Apple Farms' Nursery are fast, fun, and easy. No advance registration needed, just flow in and out. Maybe have lunch at the best food truck in the land, Melamore (Italian-esque for "love apple") while you're here and walk through their kitchen garden. Many of our classes will take place in the garden itself, while we give you tips and tricks for that day's topic. The classes are always from 10:30 to 11:30, with plenty of opportunity to ask questions. No fair, though, picking our brains about off-topic items (those are other minis or long-form workshops on other days). We gotta flow in and out ourselves! Check our calendar page for dates.
Location: Love Apple Farms' Nursery 5311 Scotts Valley Dr., Scotts Valley, CA
Classes include:
Tomato Cage Making: How to make a proper, strong and extra tall (7 feet!) tomato cage.
Potatoes: We advocate growing potatoes in containers. Did you know a home-grown potato is as different from a store-bought potato as a tomato is? Only two things money can't buy: homegrown potatoes and true-love.
Bed Amending: How to infuse life back into tired garden beds - one of the secrets to mad-pro gardening skills.
Beans: Yep, it's the musical fruit, but hey we love 'em. Fresh and dried, we're talkin' beans!
Container Vegetable Growing: Not as easy as it sounds. We'll plant out a tomato in a pot and show you how to get it to grow as big and yield as well as tomatoes grown in the ground.
Deer Proof your Garden: Those pesky critters will take it all down to the ground. Don't let them!
Dahlias: We call dahlias the "King of Flowers." Learn what it takes to get gorgeous blooms. We should have some dahlias in stock for you to buy after class, too.
Peppers: Yep, peppers are fun to grow and we've got some tips to get more peppers. Learn about sweet, mild, hot, and lava-hot peppers.
Microgreens: Have a cutting garden on your windowsill. We show you how.
Gophers: There's no co-existing with them. Come learn how to trap them as humanly as possible.
Root Veggies: From carrots to scorzonera, we talk best methods for growing root veg year round.
Pruning Tomatoes: One of our biggest FAQs: to prune or not to prune. The answer is both! We'll talk specifics when ya get here.
Bugs: Learn to identify the bad bugs from the good ones and strategies to cope. Did you know that pests are the most frequent way we get diseases in our gardens?
Compost: We're talking decomposition, why it's a good thing and how to get a productive compost pile going.
Excessive Heat Controls: Your garden does NOT want crazy heat. Learn various methods to keep your garden happy through those heatwaves that are coming.
Weed Control: No, we're not talking cannabis laws. Weeds in your garden can be hard to control, but you MUST handle them for many reasons.
Watering Skills: Perhaps the hardest thing for gardeners to master. Trickier than you think and of the utmost importance to get right.
Drought Tolerant Gardening: Even though we've had a record-breaking rain season, you still can save money by learning how to use less water in both your vegetable garden and ornamental landscapes.
Rodent Control: Rats and mice can chew the heck out of your vegetable garden. Learn some good strategies on how to control vermin without poisons.
Cover-Crops: What's the best way to protect and replenish your soils during the off season? We show you how.
Growing Giant Pumpkins: First it's genetics, then it's technique. Learn the one/two punch on how to get a giant pumpkin for your front porch this fall.
How to Grow Monster Tomatoes: Are you in a contest with your neighbors to see who can get the biggest tomato fruits? We give you the inside tips on how to do that.
Winter Tomato Growing: It's tough, but not impossible to grow tomatoes through the winter. Learn some crazy ways on how to do so.
Note: not all topics have been calendared. Some will be taught multiple times, so keep looking back on the schedule to see if we've set them. Got a topic to suggest? Email us at [email protected]