{"id":23137,"date":"2025-03-14T18:13:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T00:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bring-your-gardening-dreams-to-fruition-at-this-free-workshop-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:27:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:27:34","slug":"bring-your-gardening-dreams-to-fruition-at-this-free-workshop-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bring-your-gardening-dreams-to-fruition-at-this-free-workshop-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Bring your gardening dreams to fruition at this free workshop in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The seed starting advertisement for the Wednesday, March 19 workshop.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A free, hands-on gardening class that\u2019ll teach participants how to start a vegetable garden is coming up at Good Sam\u2019s Food Pantry.<\/p>\n

Already, almost 40 people have reserved a place in the class on Wednesday, March 19 starting at 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Matt Keefauver, the green thumb who\u2019s teaching the class, said that \u201cworst case, we\u2019ll do a second one,\u201d since that\u2019s a lot of people to teach.<\/p>\n

All supplies are provided \u2013 and there will be \u201ca broad selection of seeds to plant and take home\u201d \u2013 thanks to grant money from the LOR Foundation.<\/p>\n

This will be the first class in a series that aims to highlight the different parts of home gardening from seeds to canning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes sense to start with seeds,\u201d said Keefauver.<\/p>\n

It also makes sense to start with talking about the basics of gardening, planting and ideal growing conditions, which is how the class will begin on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Keefauver said he\u2019ll also cover \u201cunusual things,\u201d like planting \u201ctiny seeds you sprinkle on the surface and gently push into the soil versus things like squash, corn or peas that have bigger seeds and you plant at a certain depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

With \u201cout of control grocery prices,\u201d it\u2019s great to feel empowered to grow your own food, to be able to pick a tomato from the backyard instead of buying one from the store, said Keefauver.<\/p>\n

Plus, gardening is \u201ccathartic\u201d and \u201cseeds don\u2019t talk back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keefauver grew up in rural Illinois with a family of farmers, so he grew up growing and harvesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s never been a time I didn\u2019t grow and preserve food,\u201d he said. \u201cI though that\u2019s just what everyone did.\u201d<\/p>\n

So although he might not have a formal degree in herbalism, he has years and years of lived experience under his belt in both the plant and teaching arena.<\/p>\n

He also volunteers regularly at Good Sam\u2019s, the venue of this workshop, and said that \u201cthe pantry is more than a just place where people go to get food.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about community, self-improvement and helping people live healthier lives- and this workshop is an example of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery person has the potential to be empowered when it comes to their health and food choices,\u201d Keefauver said. \u201cThe more informed choices we can make, the better off we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if we can take care of our own bodies, more power to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the first of a series of gardening classes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77989,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23137\/revisions\/77989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23137"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}