Barbara’s prolific flowers amidst the tomatoes and basil

Over the summer, Fabric of Life was excited to partner with ML Altobelli (she/her) to offer a season long Understanding Your Garden program series. One participant, Barbara Blumenthal, gives us a first-hand account of her experience, and how she directly used her newly learned skills to revitalize her garden.

Barbara says, “This year’s Fabric of Life gardening sessions with ML really transformed my approach to gardening! Even without implementing every bit of advice – which I hope to do more of in 2022 – my yields and the quality of my produce increased enormously.”

Quite a bountiful harvest from just one day in August, all from Barbara’s garden

She has been a home gardener for about 40 years and has been reasonably satisfied with her vegetable harvests. In 2021, she said she decided to make some changes. She began in early spring by laying down cardboard and mulch hay to both nourish her garden and keep down the weeds. She then joined us for our season-long gardening series, which took place both in-person and virtually.

“The most fun sessions, not surprisingly, were the two in-person ones at the Farmhouse in Shelburne, in May and October. ML’s enthusiasm, breadth of knowledge and experience, and commonsense approach to gardening were so helpful and inspiring.”

Early November view of Barbara’s garden, all tucked in for the winter

And inspiration is something Barbara has certainly found through this program! “This fall, I’ve completely redesigned my small garden, digging paths which I filled with wood chips.” Barbara has also changed the structure of her growing area, “establishing slightly raised garden beds, applying mineral mix, wood chips, and grass clippings, leaves, and straw for my garden to winter over.” In her excitement to build her garden soils, Barbara says she “bought a cordless, electric lawn mower with a collection bag so I can use more grass clippings to feed my garden. In my husband’s words: I’m obsessed!”

Barbara also shares that she had to work a bit to incorporate the information from our garden series, confiding that “the wealth of knowledge presented was a bit overwhelming at times, but always logical and precise, and the ability to review the videos of all sessions was very helpful. This program has really enriched my gardening life and enabled me to preserve more food for the winter. It’s also been fun to see how the Fabric of Life garden has improved and truly blossomed during the virtual sessions throughout the growing season.”

Watch our Understanding Your Garden series videos