"Introduction to Gardening" with Daniel Parson

Daniel Parson is in his twenty-third season of organic growing. He started in 1998 at wildflower organics in Dawsonville, GA, where he worked four years. Next, he managed the Clemson University student organic farm for two years, and operated Gaia Gardens in Decatur, GA for five. In 2009, he started a new venture, Parson Produce, supplying a CSA, local restaurants, and farmers markets in Clinton, SC. In 2014, Daniel moved to Oxford, GA to start a campus farm for Oxford College of Emory University, producing food for the dining hall, CSA, and Emory Farmers Market while serving as a resource for student education and research.Daniel has two degrees from Clemson, a BS in Biological Sciences and an MS in Plant and Environmental Science, focusing on cover crops and organic systems. In addition to growing produce, Daniel has presented workshops on various organic topics to many state and regional groups, including the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Southern SAWG and Georgia Organics. Daniel received the 2009 Georgia Organics Land Steward of the Year Award and in 2008 was listed on Mother Nature Network’s 40 farmers under 40. Also, he served on the Georgia Organics board from 2006-2008 and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association board from 2012-2014.In this episode Daniel makes an introduction to home gardening that can help people think about planting this season. Daniel talks about site selection (sun, proximity, and water); soil management and testing; mapping/calendar/rotations; crop selection and timing-garden calendar from UGA; weed management: cultivation and mulching; harvest timing -getting the most out of your planting.UGA extension is our best resource in Georgia and every state has a similar service if there are listeners from other parts of the country. https://secure.caes.uga.edu/extension/publications/files/html/B577/B577PlantingChart.pdf To learn more. please visit:https://oxford.emory.edu/academics/organic_farm.html This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visithttps://bit.ly/EmoryLM