The Victory Garden Challenge:
Our (At Least) 50 Days of Gardening Classes
Learn about Chickens & Other Animals, Composting & Soil Building, Cooking & Other Plant Uses, Fruit Trees, Gardening & Urban Farming, Permaculture, and Seeds Skills
A collection of over 50 videos to empower you to feel more self-reliant and start and/or maintain your own garden.
In the middle of March 2020, Farmer Greg and Janis were discussing the developing health crisis and decided to do something to help. The result was moving some of our in-person events online and then refresh some of our other content to create a resource helping people start their own gardens. We decided to put up 30 days of free classes and then this morphed quickly into our Victory Garden Challenge which lasted for 17 weeks.
Our team of educators stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. Kari Spencer, Bill McDorman, Scott Murray, Don Titmus, Ed Williams, Peggy Sue Sorensen, and Chad Hudspeth, all pitched in and helped with multiple classes, and then several other people kicked in for a class or two. And as a result we’ve developed a great resource for our audience – so much so that we had to sort the classes into categories just to help make sense of them all.
Click HERE to Harvest the entire series for yourself!
Live classes with Q&A sessions – CLOSED FOR 2020.
In the live classes, attendees were able to participate in the chat and submit questions for the Q&A. Each class was available for 48 hours after the class finished with a replay of that class. If you want access to the entire series, click on the green button!
The classes in our program:
This is the list of all the classes we’ve held during our Victory Garden Challenge, and as you can see we already have more than 50 classes in our list.
Week 1
- Basic Seed Saving – Seeds
- Jump Start Your Spring Garden – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Victory Gardens 2020 – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Food System 3.0 – Permaculture
- Non-Composting – Composting & Soil Building
- Keeping Backyard Chickens – Chickens & Animals
Week 2 – Edible Backyard Summit **
- Summit Day 1 – Straw Bale Gardening w/ Joel Karsten, Module 1: Sun & Shade, and Q&A session **
- Summit Day 2 – Secrets of Living Soil Revealed w/ Emily Rockey, Module 2: Soil, and Q&A session **
- Summit Day 3 – Wickedly Smart Water Harvesting w/ Greg Peterson, Module 3: Water, and Q&A session **
- Summit Day 4 – Linking Soil and Human Health w/ Dr. Elaine Ingham, Module 4: Seasons, and Q&A session **
- Summit Day 5 – How to Grow Tomatoes at Home w/ Jason Johns, Module 5: Seeds & Transplants, Q&A session **
**NOTE: Days 7-11 classes, and all 7 of the Modules of Growing Food the Basics Course by Kari Spencer
(including full module worksheets) are available as part of 2020 Edible Backyard Summit Package
Week 3 - Intro to Permaculture – Permaculture
- Seed Starting – Seeds
- So, You Want to Grow a Fruit Tree – Fruit Trees
- Gardening Made Easy – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Solar Cooking – Cooking & Other Plant Uses
- Fire Cider – Cooking & Other Plant Uses
- Backyard Orchard Maintenance – Fruit Trees
Week 4 - Ecological Abundance for Your Life – Permaculture
- Growing Mushrooms – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Humanure: A Good-Natured How-To – Permaculture
- Urban Farm Virtual Tour – Permaculture
- Aquaponics Revolution: How to Grow a Fish-Powered Garden – Chickens & Animals
Week 5 - Vermicomposting – Composting & Soil Building
- Epigenetics – Seeds
- Patio Farming – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Edible Weeds – Cooking & Other Plant Uses
- Growing Culinary & Medicinal Herbs – Gardening & Urban Farming
Week 6 - Ecological Abundance: Intro to Permaculture – Permaculture
- Non Composting – Composting & Soil Building
- Berry Gardening – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Weeds: The Good, The Bad, The Yummy – Cooking & Other Plant Uses
- Aquaponics Revolution: The Health Difference – Chickens & Animals
Week 7 - Solar Applications at The Urban Farm – Permaculture
- Intro to Beekeeping – Chickens & Animals
- Go Organic, It’s Easy – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Flower Essences for Health – Cooking & Other Plant Uses
- Foliar Feeding: Fully Loaded Fruit Trees – Fruit Trees
Week 8 - Regenerative Composting – Composting & Soil Building
- Seed Saving Hacked – Seeds
- Basic Bread Making – Cooking & Other Plant Uses
- Lessons on Livestock at The Micro Farm Project Virtual Tour – Chickens & Animals
- Drip Tape Step by Step – Gardening & Urban Farming
Week 9 - Intro to Edible Landscaping – Fruit Trees
- Compost Made Easy – Composting & Soil Building
- Basic Crop Planning – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Dishing with Greg – Permaculture
- Making Sourdough Bread – Cooking & Other Plant Uses
Week 10 – Begining of Tues/Thurs only - Seed Chat with Bill McDorman – Seeds
- Intro to Urban Farming – Gardening & Urban Farming
Week 11
- Summer Orchard Care – Fruit Trees
- Four Steps to Becoming a Flower Farmer – Gardening & Urban Farming
Week 12
- All About Healthy Soil – Composting & Soil Building
- Summer Orchard Care – Fruit Trees
Week 13 - Ways to Water Your Garden – Gardening & Urban Farming
- Mesquite Pod Harvest & Processing – Cooking and Other Plant Uses
Week 14 – Backyard Barnyard Summit
Summit Day 1 – A Beginners Guide to Getting your First Chickens w/ Greg Peterson,
Urban Animals: An introduction (Intro to Urban Animals Course), and Q&A Sessions
Summit Day 2 – Small Scale Dairy Production: Goats & Cows w/ Chloe Lieberman,
Designing a Productive System with Farm Animals (Module 1: Urban Animals Course), and Q&A Sessions
Summit Day 3 – How to Build your Chicken Coop w/ Greg Peterson,
Designing a Productive System with Chickens (Module 2: Urban Animals Course), and Q&A Sessions - Collaborative Urban Farming (A virtual tour of Two Peace in a Pod Orchard and Morning Star Garden) – Gardening & Urban Farming
Week 15
- Seed Chat with Bill McDorman – Seeds
- Gardening for the Whole Family – Gardening & Urban Farming
Week 16
- Drip Tape Step by Step – Gardening & Urban Farming
- ReWilding, ReEnlivening, ReHydrating – Permaculture
Week 17
- Meat Alternative Super Stars – Cooking and Other Plant Uses
- Live Zoom Chat with the Hosts of The Victory Garden Classes
**Week 2 is available with 2020 Edible Backyard Summit Package– These extended learning events were part of the previously scheduled 5-day Edible Backyard Summit.
**Week 14 is available with 2020 Backyard Barnyard Summit Package – These classes were part of the scheduled 3-day Backyard Barnyard Summit