Fresh Gardening Classes at Oakmont Library Brightening Winter

For more than 30 years as a pediatrician, Oakmont resident Carol Brand urged parents to serve and eat more vegetables with their children.

“After I stopped practicing, I decided to try another tactic,” Brand said.

So for the past year, Brand has been teaching classes on gardening at the Oakmont Library, where the librarian dubbed her the “Gardening Guru."

Brand helps to teach families the basics of a hobby that she has been interested in for nearly four decades. She also hopes to show participants how gardening can change their lifestyles.

“I hope to convince them that they can have fun outdoors, get some exercise, and grow some good things for their table," Brand said. "You can pick varieties with more taste than what commercial growers choose to grow."

“Children and adults will often eat vegetables that are picked fresh, tender and served raw, especially if they help grow them. And watching their parents eat that salad models good eating habits they will imitate later in life when their taste buds change," she said.

"Just as you don’t drink coffee at age 6 but you do at 16, children decide what a ‘normal’ adult diet is by what their parents eat,” Brand said.

For those who think that gardening is only for those born with a “green thumb,” Brand disagrees.

“Gardening is like any other human endeavor — a few basic rules and a lot of opinions," she said. "I think people get more discouraged by all that does grow, like weeds, than by what doesn’t."

Brand teaches people to start small so they can manage their garden in smaller bursts.

"Much of what passes for ‘talent’ is someone who has a passion that helps them spend the time to do something well. That also applies in gardening," Brand said. 

According to Brand, one common mistake that many people make when it comes to gardening is that they grow their plants in rows, which can be problematic.

“It encourages you to plant too many seeds, and then expects you to kill half of them to allow the others to grow and keep unwanted plants from growing in the big open spaces you have created next to them,” Brand said.

Brand teaches "block" planting in which vegetables are planted in a way that shades out the weeds.

 “Veggie Gardening with Carol Brand” will continue at the Oakmont Library at 6:30 p.m. for the next two Wednesdays. The classes are:

• Feb. 23: Container Veggie Gardening – No backyard? Learn to grow vegetables in pots on your balcony, deck or steps.
• March 2: Extended Season Gardening – Learn what and how to plant vegetables starting in early spring through summer with harvests into winter.

The classes are free to participants, although registration is strongly encouraged.

To learn more about Brand’s fun and educational gardening classes for the entire family or to register, visit www.oakmontlibrary.org.