2025 CLASSES
Stay tuned for details about our 2025 Class and Summer Camp Schedule
You can also register for our WAL (Watershed Approach to Landscaping) Classes on the MMWD website here.
2024 CLASSES
Plant Propagation Classes:
August 31, 2024: Plant From Pieces
September 28, 2024: More Plants by Division
October 19, 2024: Propagation Workshop (postponed until 2025)
Plant Propagation Classes
2024
Hands-on Classes at Home Ground Habitats
“I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.”
SUMMER 2024 on-location classes are open for registration!
August 31, 2024 10:00am – 1:30pm
Plant From Pieces!
Gardeners are usually generous people who love to share their favorite plants by providing ‘cuttings’ to friends and family. Starting plants from cuttings is essentially cloning plants, and there are both positive and negative aspects to this practice.
We’ll walk through the gardens to look at the mother plants and learn to take cuttings at the appropriate times. We’ll discuss how to handle the cuttings and work with already rooted cuttings to practice effective procedures while ‘potting on the cuttings’.
In this class we’ll discuss various plant families and the degrees to which certain plants are ‘easy or difficult’. Learn about using cloning aids, selecting the best mediums, and setting up ‘life support systems’ that will improve conditions to ensure a successful rate of rooting.
Class Fee: $60
Limit of 12 students
September 28, 2024 10:00am – 1:30pm
More Plants by Division!
Dividing plants is one of the easiest ways to propagate certain plant species. Understanding the phenology of the plants you wish to increase is important for best results. While practicing some plant divisions, students will also learn that dividing plants provides opportunities to invigorate the mother plants.
We’ll wrap up the whole series in this class with a closer look at plant families and characteristics that will help students better ID plants and understand the critical timing sometimes necessary to get the best results from the various methods of plant propagation. We’ll be reviewing all other propagation methods, mediums, containers, and ‘life support systems’.
Class Fee: $60
Limit of 12 students
Register for all 3 Classes and save!
When you register for the July 27, August 31, and September 28 class bundle you get a 30 dollar discount!
Class Fee: $150
Limit of 12 students
October 19, 2024 10:00am – 4:00pm
Propagation Workshop *Postponed until 2025!
Join us for a day of fulfilling and productive plant propagation! We will utilize all the possibilities of gardens full of ‘Mother Plants’ and you will leave with lots of wonderful new additions for your own habitat garden!
We will begin with a review of the basic methods of propagation: starting from seeds, cloning plants, and plants from division. Then we’ll walk the gardens looking closely at the phenology of each potential mother plant to determine what is ‘on offer’.
Once we’ve collected our propagules, we’ll get busy under our work canopy to clean and package up seeds, strike fresh cuttings, and pot up other already rooted cuttings, and divide selected species.
Home Ground will provide all the tools and supplies as well as coffee/tea breaks and a buffet style lunch.
*To get the most from this workshop it is recommended that the student take the individual plant propagation classes first.
Class Fee: $235 **Includes Buffet-style lunch
Limit of 9 students
It is highly recommended that you have attended the series of all 3 propagation classes to gain the most from this WORKSHOP.
Instructor
Instructor and Home Ground founder Charlotte Torgovitsky sometimes jokingly refers to herself as a ‘compulsive plant propagator and seed collector’ which emphasizes her love of the potential of the mother plants in the demonstration gardens at Home Ground Habitats.
Charlotte says “Some plants are just compellingly beautiful and so rich with natural resources; ‘Who can resist the urge to propagate more of them?’ – I can’t!”
Learn more about Charlotte here.
Classroom For Hands-On Learning
Home Ground classes are held under the work canopy, which has plenty of worktables at different heights. We supply all the tools, clippers, gloves, and seed collecting and cleaning tools. Also on hand are an assortment of nursery pots and containers, soils and soil components, and various natural fertilizers.
Students will be able to learn about the ‘life support systems’ that enhance all propagation methods by seeing the systems that we use in the Home Ground nursery operation.
In all our hands-on classes, we will be sharing the abundance of our gardens and students will be taking home a variety of seeds, seedlings and other plant ‘starts’. Lots of reference books and materials will be on hand, and detailed hand-outs will be provided.
Classes will be held on Saturdays from 10:00am – 1:30pm. Please bring a lunch to enjoy in the garden after class or a snack to eat during the break.
Class Registration and Fees
$ 60 per class
$ 150 for the 3-part series
12 people max enrollment per class
Location
Home Ground Habitats Nursery
1875 Indian Valley Rd
Novato, CA 94947