Winter is a meditative time for Black Mountain’s Diana S. McCall. Manager of the town’s one-acre Dr. John Wilson Community Garden, McCall reserves the cooler months for thought and respite. But in no way is she sitting idle.
“Winter is for walking your land and observing where the snow melts fastest or slowest, taking note of the hot and cold spots, and planning accordingly for the spring,” she says.
It’s also a time for learning. Each March, McCall partners with the Organic Growers School to host a six-week Gardening Series. With field time in Black Mountain’s community garden, backyard agronomists can unearth the basic principles of organic permaculture. And this has nothing to do with actually growing plants, McCall notes.
“As gardeners, the most important thing we’re doing is growing fertile soil,” she explains. To encourage micronutrients, McCall follows Laura Lengnick’s four touchstones for promoting soil health: 1. Keep the top on the top, 2. Keep the bottom on the bottom, 3. Keep it covered, and 4. Keep living roots in at all times.
Doing so, as Lengnick stressed, requires a no-plow approach. Following in the former Warren Wilson College professor’s footsteps, McCall is sure to teach her students no-till basics like lasagna gardening — a method where cardboard is layered with organic materials — and cover cropping. “We also break the paradigm on what a weed actually is,” she says.
In that way, the program is like an amuse-bouche to the Organic Growers School’s annual Spring Conference. Celebrating its silver anniversary in 2018, the conference brings together commercial farmers, backwoods foragers, and health-conscious consumers for a weekend of serious learning.
More than 150 classes will cover topics including sustainable forestry, renewable energy, community food systems, and more. Events like these, says OGS Executive Director Lee Warren, “establish WNC as a region committed to regional food systems, small-scale sustainable agriculture, and a food and growing-literate population.”
But many eager farmers want to get started well before the spring equinox. For those folks, OGS offers their Gardener’s Library: a free, online archive of how-to articles designed to educate the home gardener. Wanting to accommodate all competencies — from beginner to guru — the articles start by answering “Why Organic?” and end with an instructional guide on growing transplants. (According to OGS, the latter requires a seed schedule, germinating potting mix, tons of water, and even more patience.)
These expository pieces are perfect for rookies trying to rev up their know-how before planting time. But, as McCall notes, even experts can stand a refresher.
“I hit my 10,000th hour working in the community garden this June,” she reveals. “Supposedly, that’s the number of hours you need to master something. It’s both beautiful and exasperating, but there is still so much to learn.”
The Organic Growers School sponsors workshops all winter, including “Holistic Financial Planning” (January 8-9 at Burnsville Town Center), “Farm Dreams” (February 3 at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Asheville), “Homestead Dreams” (February 17 at Living Web Farms in Mills River), and “Diana McCall’s Gardening Series,” a six-class program starting March 14. The school’s 25th annual Spring Conference runs Friday, March 9 through Sunday, March 11, at UNCA. For more information, visit organicgrowersschool.org.