Intro to Organic Backyard Gardening with Farmer Tone
By Krista Martinelli
Recently I was able to attend an introduction gardening class with Farmer Tone, the Tropical Urban Farmer. I really enjoyed the class and his enthusiasm for keeping everything organic. Farmer Tone is willing to work in any small space that you have to grow a few plants, even if it’s not a large garden plot.
For me, I realized the key to successful gardening is the base of everything – good, rich soil. Farmer Tone showed us how to work with some typical (and difficult) Florida soil, full of fertilizer pellets to begin with. He explained why store-bought, chemical fertilizer is not good for the soil. And he showed us how to neutralize the soil. Together we layered the soil with good layers to build up a raised bed garden – from scratch. We looked at how to create our own compost from vegetable scraps on a small scale.
Farmer Tone encourages his classes to get their hands dirty and their feet dirty. He also gives tips on how to protect your back while working in the garden, very important for anyone who wants to nurture a garden. He believes in “working hard, playing hard and eating hard.” So on the day that I attended, Farmer Tone prepared a beautiful spread of food, all from his organic gardening yield.
Anyone who has been “transplanted” to Florida like myself needs to understand how to work with this sandy, unproductive soil and build it back up again before starting a garden. It’s also great to learn about native plants to Florida, which grow more easily than some of the vegetables, for example, that we are used to growing up North. I would recommend Farmer Tone’s gardening class to anyone who wants to start a new, organic garden or needs tips on continuing their organic gardening!
For more information or to sign up for his next workshop, visit his website, http://www.tropical-urban-farmer.com/