A Practical, Historical, and Sensitive Approach to Gardening

Despite the dominance of restaurant culture, advances in technology, the spread of urban centers, and the tendency toward convenience in our world, people continue to keep gardens.

That, and a growing number of young professionals are leaving the corporate world for the farming lifestyle every year. People tend gardens for countless reasons ranging from artistic expression to spiritual enlightenment, and from practical need to political activism. Legendary voices in the field of horticulture are those who’s work tends to encompass the applications of their craft to the human experience, and provide practical approaches to tending soil, plant, and animal that speak across scientific, technical, socioeconomic, and spiritual realms to address the importance of gardening to human culture.

One such legendary voice is that of Alan Chadwick, a celebrated gardener and passionate voice for horticulture, famous for his teachings and for his work at UC Santa Cruz and several other locations in California. Having apprenticed with Rudolf Steiner, the creator of Biodynamic agriculture, as well as many other European horticulture masters, Chadwick emerged as a leader in community gardening, organic agriculture, its applications and effects until his death in 1980. The result of his training and his work is a hybrid approach to gardening that combines Steiner’s methods with those of classic French market farmers, as well as science-based techniques and aesthetic considerations, combined into what is known as the French Intensive Gardening Method.

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While much of Chadwick’s work has been scattered among his many students, his legacy lives on at UC Santa Cruz, which boasts one of the top training programs in the country for aspiring organic farmers. And, right in Western North Carolina, one of Chadwick’s students and friends, Craig Siska is devoting himself to collecting and commemorating the work of Alan Chadwick into an online library and gallery, as well as teaching Chadwick’s methods and his philosophies to gardeners and farmers of all levels. Through the Alan Chadwick Living Library and Archive, and workshops that delve into the French Intensive Method, Siska works to apply Chadwick’s
wisdom and practice to modern concerns.

On February 20, 2018, Siska will visit Living Web Farms for an evening introductory lecture about Chadwick’s teachings, the French Intensive Method, and its application to current-day issues. The evening event will serve as a preview to an eventual two-day intensive at Living Web Farms in November, when Siska will deliver a deep and practical distillation of Chadwick’s practices, adapted for the WNC region. The intensive will cover a broad range of topics, from aesthetic and efficient garden design to composting, seed sowing, greenhouse growing, biodynamic plant preparations, and underutilized plants of the Appalachian region.

In the February 20th introductory session, participants will come to understand the history and underlying principles of Biodynamic and French Intensive Gardening, and a framework for the application of the teachings Siska will present in the fall.

Registration is by donation at livingwebfarms.org.