Urban Poultry Raising Part Two
Covers hatching eggs, slaughter and plucking, frugal shelter and feeding, preventing disease, using chickens and Muscovy ducks for weed control plus fresh eggs and meat. This Saturday, November 5, from 11 AM until 1 PM, $20 per student. 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 Call to confirm attendance please. John Starnes 813 839 0881
Basics of Easy Winter Organic Veggie and Herbs Gardening
Autumn is a great time to begin planting the very wide variety of crops that love cool temps and that laugh at frost. I had my first veggie garden here in 1967 when I was in 9th grade at Madison Junior High, and have learned since then core principals and techniques that make winter food gardening in central Florida both pleasant and productive. You may have read my articles in The St. Pete Times and Florida Gardening. Forget pesticides, forget wasting money on plants and seeds and crops that fail, and forget thinking that you have a brown thumb. Learn how to create a fertile garden site that will bless you with fresh pesticide-free produce for the six cooler months of the year. I am teaching this class again on November 6, from 11 AM until 1 PM. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. You will receive two free packets of winter crops seeds. I will provide a handout, but be sure to bring a notepad and pen. See you then! John Starnes 813 839 0881
Urban Foraging 101
There are a surprising number of wild plants in Florida that bear tasty and nutritious fruits, roots, flowers, leaves and stems that I've been enjoying in Tampa since the 1970s. This class will be held in the two parks just north of MacDill AFB where south Himes Avenue dead ends. Bring a note pad, pen and camera if you wish to learn how to spot, identify and eat these very diverse wild food crops. The cost is $20 per person though barter for 1 gallon of raw whole milk or some 420 works too. One park is very natural and overgrown so wear long jeans and perhaps tall boots when we walk through the hip high meadow. We will also discuss plants NOT growing there so you can look them up on line then find them on your own, especially if you live near marshy areas. The class date is: November 19 from 11 AM until 1 PM. See you at the parks' parking lot that day! John Starnes 813 839 0881
Frugal Holiday Gifts For Cooks and Gardeners
The tyranny of the holiday season is closing in......Occupy Your Budget and put an end to ratcheting up debt due to cultural pressure to give high-end gifts. This class shows you quite a few ways to make VERY affordable gifts FROM THE HEART for friends and family that love to either cook or garden or both. None take a great deal of time and involve easily gotten "ingredients", some of which you might already have on hand, and most involve skill levels that let children participate in too for school projects. Create a new family holiday tradition...no more slamming hundreds of $$$$ onto credit cards, and instead use your native abilities combined with your love of family and friends to create gifts that will make them think of you often for many months after the holidays have passed. The cost is $20, class time is November 20 from 11 AM until 1 PM at my home: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611. Please call to confirm your intention to attend: 813 839 0881 You will receieve 2 packets of cool seeds you can use to create edible living gifts that will be mature when the holidays roll around. Thanks! John Starnes
Cultivating Creativity
I am a multi-media artist and writer and people say my livingroom, including the mirror floor, typify my approach to creativity, which involves working with materials and situations at hand and ones own native abilities. (Look at the videos of my livingroom on YouTube). You will learn some habits of seeing and thinking that foster joyful habitual creativity both artistically and in living life more fully. The class date is November 12, from 11 AM until 1 PM, the cost is $20 per person. The address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 Please call to confirm attendance. John Starnes 813 839 0881
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWkLijEwcAM
Frugal Wholistic Pet Care
Students in my gardening and urban farming classes have commented on the youthful look and behaviors of my two 14 year old cats, and the vibrant demeanor and glossy coat of my rescued dog Cracker, who was badly malnourished when I got him last February. This class will cover easy ways to make healthy low cost stews rich in fiber and beneficial fatty acids and more for healthy skin and coat, teeth and gums and anal glands in both dogs and cats. You will also learn non-toxic low cost methods for preventing and treating fleas, ear mites, ticks and fungal skin conditions. Vet bills can be HUGE.....better to insure your pet a healhy happy life than to spend a fortune to try to reverse health problems later. The class date is: November 13 from 11 AM until 1 PM, the cost is $20 per person, and my address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 Call to confirm your intention to attend please. John Starnes 813 839 0881
Urban Farming For The Beginner
There is no security more reassuring than daily harvesting fresh meals from your front and back yard, just feet from the kitchen, even if just potted arugula or snow peas or cherry tomatoes for starters, or a fresh chicken egg or meat. But don't know where and how to start? Learn easy ways to deeply cut your water use, to insure fresh salads and root crops and fruits year round, a super cheap solar shower, and more. You'll get a lesson sheet of 15 topics to be covered; please be sure to bring a notepad and pen. Feel free to shoot pics and video. You will receive two free packets of cool weather veggie seeds, plus instructions on their culture, harvest and use. I've taught this class many times and folks say it it thorough and intense. It addresses a way of life and a mindset vs. being just a gardening class. I am teaching this class again on November 26 from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Question and Answer session after. My address is: 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611, about 6 blocks south of Gandy and 1 1/2 blocks west of MacDill, jungly yard on the south side. Please park on my side of Paxton off of neighbors' lawns. The cost is $20 per student. Happy Gardening! 813 839 0881
Water Wise Container Gardening
Hopefully, we are all making wise water use a central focus in our lives as Florida's population continues to boom. Since drought and watering restrictions have become the norm, I've invented an alternative method of making home made container gardens that grows food and flower crops well with much less water, and that can be made for free to just $10. As a result, despite my yard being an urban farm, my June 2009 water use bill was just $1.35! This class teaches you how to make your own from free recycled plastic containers, how to create a great soil mix for it, and easy ways to maintain and sustain yours using cheap and/or dumpster-dived supplies. This simple design avoids the problems that many have experienced with others often described as "self watering containers" and that can cost $100. You'll see several of mine in differing styles and stages of growth to help you decide what works best for you and your space and budget. This class also covers veggie gardening basics in central Florida, and so would be a great choice for northern transplants who feel that Florida gardening is either impossible or difficult at best. My first veggie garden here was in 1967, so I can pass on practical, time-tested techniques.I love how my Water Wise Container Gardens use VERY little water vs. my growing the same crops, including my beloved Old Roses, in my in-ground gardens. Growing food crops in this manner can also allow a gardener to avoid using Tampa's and St. Pete's reclaimed water that has caused severe difficulties for many folks due to the very high levels of salts and chlorides. Plus one is not supposed to eat raw veggies grown with reclaimed water, which rules out growing fresh salads and herbs from one's own garden! Special attention will be paid to the very common problem of nitrogen deficiency often encountered in container gardening whether one makes one's own soil as I do, or purchases it in bulk or bagged. You will get two packs of very hard to get vegetable seeds that will thrive all summer long in your Water Wise Container Gardens. The cost of the class is $20 per person.
This class has been very well received, so I am teaching it again on November 27 from 11 AM until 1 PM, with a 30 minute Q & A session following. My address is 3212 West Paxton Avenue, Tampa FL 33611. Phone is 813 839 0881 e-mail is JohnAStarnes@msn.com. RSVP is not required but helpful in my planning each class. Come learn how to grow your own organic produce for a fraction of what you pay in the stores while slashing your water use and bill and avoiding the toxic-to-plants reclaimed water. .Happy Gardening! John Starnes
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