Embody the Rhythms of Nature and Bring More JOY to Gardening
Imagine walking into your garden and instinctively knowing which seeds need sowing, which crops need harvesting, what companions will keep the bug d’jour at bay, which weeds are for eating and which are for pulling and feeling rooted and grounded and excited while doing it all in an efficient and effective regenerative way.
The ecological frameworks we learn in Garden Rhythm will help you reconnect to the rhythms of Nature and understand why you are doing what you are doing in the garden from an ecological perspective. We’ll get you thinking in a way that takes the guesswork out of gardening. Your new found garden knowledge and confidence will make gardening more easeful, more abundant, and more fun and joyful!
Become the gardener you've dreamed you could be....
Embody the rhythms of Nature
When the patterns of nature are our guide for making decisions in the garden, gardening becomes logical, efficient, and easy. You can create a healthy garden ecosystem with less effort and more abundance!
Regenerate your soil and rejuvenate your spirit!
Reconnect to Nature through your garden. Healing the relationships in our soil also heals something within each of us. As we create beauty and abundance in the garden in a climate-wise way, we will reconnect to the joy within each of us.
Join a vibrant garden community and get expert coaching
Learn and grow with a community of heartfelt gardeners. Share your successes and get your questions answered quickly. You'll have fun and caring expert instructor who has coached hundreds of gardeners with this framework. Our online platform lets you carry your coach and the course into the garden with you!
Cohort is Full for 2023!
Introducing Garden Rhythm: a regenerative gardening course and community
An immersive online experience to become an inspired and confident climate-wise gardener who works with the cycles of nature – thinking like an ecosystem, and growing a resilient garden.
Since taking Jennie's gardening classes, I have achieved my lifelong dream of becoming a gardener. A confident, successful, blissed out gardener with a lush and beautiful garden. Dream come true. Full stop.
~ Julie Gallivan
Jennie not only taught us fundamental techniques and strategies, but she also taught us how to make gardening a more joyful and fulfilling experience. Jennie’s in-depth knowledge, friendly teaching style and holistic attitude toward gardening are invaluable resources to anyone who would like to take their gardening game to the next level!
~ Lars Mudrak
"I have taken several gardening classes with Jennie. She is passionate about gardening and it shows. Besides being highly knowledgeable she is personable and fun."
~ Felice Schwed
Here's What You'll Get.... Garden Rhythm is a 6-month online ecological gardening course and vibrant community.
IT INCLUDES
May - October 2023
The Garden Rhythm Curriculum
In Garden Rhythm, each month has a theme or two, a suite of related plants that support that theme, and live skill building workshops in line with the activities in the garden that month.
🗓️ MAY
Vegetable Planning and Planting
Plant Guild Focus:
Annual vegetables
Skill Building Focus:
- Applying Ecological gardening practices
- Tools for the ecological gardener
- Vegetable planning and design
- Choosing varieties for your vegetable garden
- Seed starting & planting for Spring
🗓️ JUNE
Flood and Drought Resilience
Plant Guild Focus:
Annual flowers and herbs
Skill Building Focus:
- Companion planting, Interplanting, succession planting
- Becoming an organic insect and disease vigilante
- Beneficial insects and natural enemies
- Ecological techniques for water resilience
🗓️ JULY
Ecological Pest and Weed Management, and Fall Gardening
Plant Guild Focus:
Perennials for bird, bees, butterflies and other beneficials
Skill Building Focus:
- Dancing with weeds: organic techniques for a weed free garden
- Gardening for the birds and the bees
- Summer planting for an autumn harvest
🗓️ AUGUST
Harvesting, Seed Saving, and Cover Crops
Plant Guild Focus:
Cover crops for the home garden
Skill Building Focus:
- Seed saving: dry crops
- Seed saving: wet crops
- Cover crops for fall and winter
- Harvest techniques for maximum food, medicine, and beauty
🗓️ SEPTEMBER
Fertility and Forest Gardens
Plant Guild Focus:
Food forest canopy species
Skill Building Focus:
- Designing and Planting a Home Food Forest (Forest Garden)
- Berries, Nuts, Perennial Vegetables, and other Weird Fruits
- Adding organic fertility to your garden
- Soil amendments for your ecological garden
🗓️ OCTOBER
Soil Regeneration and Preserving the Harvest
Plant Guild Focus:
Food forest understory species
Skill Building Focus:
- Healing Your Soil
- No Till Gardening techniques
- Gifts from the Garden: Preserving, Fermenting, and Medicine Making
- Reflecting on a Garden Year and Looking forward
🌸 Hi, I'm Jennie!
Gardening is my heart and soul. As a child, I was enamored with my grandparents’ garden but was raised by indoorsy people. As a teen, I found myself drawn to the forest and would even lie to my parents telling them I was going to the mall, and then skirt off to the forest to be by myself among the trees and birds and soil.
This led me to study ecology at Cornell University and then a graduate degree in the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont. At the age of 19 I started my first garden with some friends. We grew the basics and I got a taste for food that was freshly harvested and homegrown.
As I continued to study ecology I got very curious about what was going down underground and how all the pieces, patterns, and processes in Nature worked together and how those same pieces, patterns, and processes were working together in my garden.
As the years passed, I noticed that mimicking the patterns I saw in Nature in my garden led my garden to be more abundant, have fewer pests, and be shockingly beautiful while also being inexpensive.
I completed a Permaculture Design Course on the Bullock’s Farm on Orcas Island, WA, worked on many organic farms producing both vegetables and seeds, and restored native ecosystems and grew and reintroduced endangered plant species with the children of all ages at the Institute for Applied Ecology.
I found myself and my joy in studying plants and ecosystems and there is no better place to do that than in the garden. Being connected to the rhythms of Nature connects me to myself and to the joy of being alive. I’ve been teaching people about plants and ecosystems for over 25 years. Garden Rhythm is the collection and culmination of all I have learned in the classroom, in the garden, and in life. It’s my passion and purpose and I can’t wait to share my joy with you!
Coaching Program Options
Have an expert garden coach by your side while you grow the garden of your dreams.
Grow!
Lessons, program, and small group coaching to feel great about your garden through the growing season.
$1,200
Here's what you'll get:
- Private garden planning session with Jennie
- Full 6 month Garden Rhythm cohort-based program
- Live, interactive classes on a range of seasonal topics
- Access to the Garden Rhythm community
- Accountability and support to keep you growing through the season
- Resources, Handouts, and Checklists
- Bonus food storage and fermentation harvest workshop (Announced Fall 2023)
Bloom
Personal one-on-one coaching for more experienced gardeners who want an extra level of support and advanced coaching.
$1,500
Here's what you'll get:
- Everything included in Grow, plus...
- Four private 60-minute remote garden coaching session with Jennie to keep your efforts efficient and aligned with your gardening goals.
Cohort is Full!
Thanks for checking – our 2023 cohort is currently full.
Questions?
Reach out if you have questions about your decision to grow with Garden Rhythm. During the enrollment period I am available to chat and respond at jennie@gardenrhythm.com
All classes are recorded and recordings will be sent out the morning after each class.
While you wait...
Any upcoming events will be displayed here. Please join the email list to be first to hear about upcoming Garden Rhythm events.