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Date: 4/12/2023
CHESTER — Ed Sourdiffe of Chester, also known as the “Green Thumb Guru,” is teaching a free class on organic garden planning for Hilltown residents at the Southern Hilltowns Adult Education classroom in the Village Enterprise Center, 26 Main St., Chester, on April 27 at 6 p.m.
According to Sourdiffe, “every successful new beginning starts with a plan, and it’s no different with organic gardening.” The class will share tips on locating a garden, types of plans to grow, and how to get great abundance with less effort.
Sourdiffe, who regularly talks about gardening on WWLP television’s “Mass Appeal,” was formerly the head of historic gardens at Hancock Shaker Village, which he said were all organic. He now teaches, lectures and mentors privately, as well as tending to his gardens on Skyline Trail.
Sourdiffe said with organic gardening, plants get healthier and the food is better without insecticides and herbicides, or relying on fake chemicals which are weak.
He said more than 95% of insects are beneficial, and insecticides destroy the entire ecosystem of positive insects. He said the pests rebound, but the positive insects do not.
“Letting insects do their roles helps you,” Sourdiffe said. For example, a plant with bite holes in it shows the birds that there’s a pest there, and the birds will come search it out.
He calls using insecticides a “nuclear” option.
“In the evening, you can hand pick the insects off the plants after dusk. Tap them into a can of soapy water,” he said, is one of the simple techniques in organic gardening.
The class will also talk about nurturing the soil: “The better the soil, the healthier the plants, better able to fight off disease,” Sourdiffe said, which he will demonstrate with examples.
Sourdiffe said he also brings in samples. For example, he said heirloom plants were bred for taste, as opposed to hybrid plants which were bred to ship, and give up flavor. He said gardeners who collect the seeds on hybrids, such as big boy tomatoes, never know what they’ll get, while seeds from non-hybrid plants will grow true to form, such as a large red tomato or yellow tomato.
“Only collect from the plants that look the best,” he said.
For example, with an heirloom yellow pear tomato, gardeners should collect seeds from the most prolific plant that looks the most like a little yellow pear.
“Within a few years, you have a variety grown specifically for your soil, your environment,” he said, which will be the healthiest for that environment, and best able to fight off diseases. “That is what our ancestors did for thousands of years. You don’t have to buy seeds every year,” he said.
He said the same is true with roses. They are pretty, and bred for size and shape, but fragrance has been lost and growers are now working to get it back.
“Something was lost with modern transportables,” he said.
Sourdiffe also shares tips on grow lights, and starting seeds without a greenhouse, something he didn’t have while gardening at Shaker Village.
In his own gardens on Skyline Trail, Sourdiffe has perennial beds, vegetable beds, a large two-story conservatory with a lot of tropicals, and bonsai trees on 34 acres that haven’t been logged in 200 years, with a roaring brook.
Later in the summer, he plans to reopen his Airbnb on the property, which has been closed since the onset of COVID-19.
“It’s really cool. You can really see the stars and the milky way at night,” he said.
To register for the April 26 Organic Garden Planning workshop, visit www.SHAEC.org, call 413-354-1055 and leave a message, or email Southernhilltownsaec@gmail.com. This is a free in-person class for Hilltown residents.