Beautify Your Garden with Continuing Education Classes

The Community and Continuing Education Department at Kalamazoo Valley Community College provides innovative and relevant lifelong learning opportunities for community members of all ages. These non-credit classes emphasize personal enrichment, professional development and community outreach.

Upcoming Sustainable Foods, Farm and Garden classes include:
Designing the Perfect Pollinator Garden
Would you like to learn a little bit more about pollinators and why you might want to attract some to your garden? What plants do they really like and what plants do they need to really stick around. What colors do they like, what other pollinators do they like to hang around with. What annuals, perennials, and vegetables can you mix up in a design to create the perfect pollinator paradise. Create a simple container planting to bring them to your door.

All participants will receive a link to join the virtual Zoom session the day before the class.

Fee: $5
Instructor: Robert Welch
Date: 6/3/2021
Time: 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Global North-Global South Relationships Through Mesoamerican Permaculture Lenses

The course will address the importance of understanding power relationships between Global North and Global South territories in order to contribute to environmental and social justice and how Mesoamerican Permaculture can provide some guidelines for this. The Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura – IMAP) is a non-profit organization based in Guatemala. It was founded in 2000 by a group of local people concerned by the serious environmental, social and cultural problems affecting the nation. They established an ecological education center to promote permaculture techniques, local biodiversity conservation, production of organic food, and a seed bank that strives to reconstruct the Mayan seed heritage.

Kalamazoo Valley is partnering with Transformational Connections to offer the Spring 2021 series of International Life Enrichment courses. Transformational Connections of Southwest Michigan is a Michigan 501c3 whose mission is "To provide volunteer opportunities in the developing world and foster life-changing experiences within ourselves, our community and those we are serving." They have developed over 12 trips to the Lake Atitlan, Guatemala region, including study abroad courses through local universities. Transformational Connections looks forward to travel to and with our partners in Guatemala in 2022. Fee: $5
Instructor: Este C.
Date: 6/1/2021
Time: 7 - 9 p.m.

Home Landscape Maintenance
Your landscape is out of control, plants need pruning, some need fertilizer, others have died. Discover some of the basics of landscape maintenance. It starts with properly identifying the plant, and what its needs are. Is the plant located in the right place? How do you plant a plant properly and how much do you water it. Learn about these common situations, and how to diagnose the problems. This presentation will help you ask the right questions so you can make the right decisions. If you want to learn more after this lecture, and actually complete a basic design for your home landscape, stay tuned for a new 6 week course that's coming up this fall.

All participants will receive a link to join the virtual Zoom session the day before the class.

Fee: $5
Instructor: Robert Welch
Date: 5/27/2021
Time: 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Incorporating Edibles into Your Existing Landscape
Do you have a vegetable garden? Do you have an area you would like to add some color to brighten up your landscape? Learn how you might enhance your existing landscape and add some colorful plants that you can eat. Many herbs, vegetables and flowers are good landscape plants and are good to eat. Sample a few with us in this lecture series and learn how to incorporate them into your landscape. A container garden of edibles may be a quick solution to a sunny spot.

All participants will receive a link to join the virtual Zoom session the day before the class.

Fee: $5
Instructor: Robert Welch
Date: 6/10/2021
Time: 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Register for classes at https://www.campusce.net/kvcccommunity/course/course.aspx?catId=37.