Are you dreaming of spring? Can’t wait to get your tools out and begin another year and another quest to conquer the ever elusive green thumb? Join us at Denver Botanic Gardens for a full day event, packed with answers to all those looming and mysterious gardening questions. Get started on the right foot this year with all of our best beginner’s classes, carefully designed to equip you with all the tools you’ll need to master that garden once and for all!

Classes include:

Starting your garden from Seed

This beginners class will take you step by step through the process of starting seeds, raising them to sturdy plants and transplanting them to guarantee the greatest success for you and your garden. We will identify the easiest seeds to start, have a hands on lab on how to do it and send you home with a tray of seeds ready for you to care for and all the tips you need to grow them to healthful vegetables, herbs or flowers.

Instructor Patti O’Neal

Patti O’Neal has been an instructor at Denver Botanic Gardens for 9 years, specializing in kitchen gardens A-Z, seed starting, preparing the beds, intensive growing, pests and diseases and extending the seasons to a successful harvest. She is a horticulturist in CSU Extension office in Jefferson County.

Soil Savvy: A Key to Successful Gardening

Soil is the most fundamental component of a healthy landscape, yet it is the resource we usually know the least about and often tend to ignore when establishing and managing gardens. Healthy plants require healthy soil. We will explore the basic physical, chemical and biological soil properties that gardeners need to understand in order to make sound management decisions that create and maintain a healthy garden. We will also discuss harmful or unnecessary practices that you should avoid when adding fertilizers and organic amendments.

Instructor Jean Reeder

Dr. Reeder worked 30 years for the USDA Agricultural Research Service conducting research studies on the properties of Colorado and Wyoming soils. Since retiring, she works as a consultant for the CSU Soil Testing Lab, and as a soils instructor for the Denver Botanic Gardens and the CSU Extension Master Gardener Program.

Beginning Vegetable Gardening

If you have never planted edible plants or had little success at growing your own vegetables, Betty will take you through the ABCs from planning, soil preparation, plant choices, watering, fertilizing and harvesting your first vegetable garden. Betty will include the most popular vegetables to grow, including lettuce, spinach, peas, tomatoes, peppers, green beans and more. You'll take home a comprehensive planting guide that will help you through the entire growing season and garden seeds to start planting in early spring.

Instructor Betty Cahill

Betty writes the weekly garden “Punch List” for the Denver Post Grow section. She teaches gardening classes at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and garden centers along the Front Range. Betty is a Colorado Master Gardener and a member of the Denver Rose Society, The Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Herb Society and the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. As a native Montanan she knows the challenges of growing vegetables in all types of weather and soil conditions. She will teach everyone how to successfully garden from March through harvest.

Annuals and Perennials for Color in the Garden

The variety of annuals and perennials is limitless – as are the ways to use them in your garden – rock gardens, pocket gardens, cottage gardens and vegetable gardens. In this class you will learn the differences between annuals,perennials and biennels, as well as when it is best to use each of them. We will put emphasis on how to choose the best plant options for spucing up your current garden beds as well as all the things to consider when planning a new garden bed. We’ll talk about natives and Plant Select options, along with herbs and other edibles and how to incorporate them into your landscape. We’ll send you on your way with some great ideas and all the ideas you need for success in the coming flower gardening season!

Instructor Cathy Jo Clawson

Cathy Jo Clawson began gardening at an early age – thanks to being raised on her parents and grandparents farm in Pennsylvania. She is a certified Colorado Master Gardener in Jefferson County and also a Native Plant Master. She serves the Jefferson County MG program as the manager for public education programs and she is particularly passionate about teaching beginning gardeners. She has taught classes through the extension office, for private organizations, and has worked with Habitat for Humanity on design and installation of home gardens. She enjoys helping other gardeners be successful in this sometimes difficult high and dry region.

These classes combined usually cost more then $200 but with New Gardener Boot Camp event will be $60 members, $80 non-members. Register Early as space is limited.