Whether you are…
Brand new to gardening and don’t know where to start
Or you have been gardening for years and want to take it to the next level
You’re in the right place.
Now the best of both worlds, this “hybrid course” can be completed at your own pace online
AND you can attend in-person sessions if you want to..
Because of this, our spots are limited!
See more below:
the human poop predicament
{that started it all}
6 years ago, our family set a goal to grow all of our own meat and produce for a year, and to learn the preservation techniques that would allow us to eat our home grown food all year long.
The goal felt impossible because we had a lot of mouths to feed (we are a blended family with 11 kids total), we homeschooled many of them, Jake had (& has) a full time job, and we had no background in farming or homesteading whatsoever.
When we got started, we were overwhelmed with where to begin and just how much we didn’t know. There are so many different kinds of compost (cow, horse, sheep, mushroom, plant, etc), soil (garden, potting, vegetable, fertilized, unfertilized, etc), and things we’d never heard of in the soil section (perlite, vermiculite, peat moss, etc). What do you start with? What is safe to use and what should you avoid?
We did a deep dive on gardening, and specifically organic gardening because we thought that was the direction we wanted to go. What we found shocked us…
Almost all the compost sold by nurseries in Spokane can be traced back to one company: Barr-Tech. And Barr-Tech’s compost is made from Spokane’s yard waste, food waste, and biosolids (aka human waste). All the prescription drugs, toxins, plastics, radiation, etc is packaged into a “certified organic” soil and sold to you as a premium garden soil. And as it turns out, we discovered *most* of the local organic farms are growing in it.
We felt like we must have fallen into the twilight zone… how is this acceptable?!
The last thing we want when trying to be free from the food system is to grow our food in compost that is the lump sum of the food system. So we searched high and low for a nursery carrying a large supply of compost NOT from Barr-Tech and couldn’t find any. That led us to a momentary existential crisis. We knew what we didn’t want to do, but we had no idea how to pull off what we did want to do.
It took us a few years and A LOT of trial and error, but we achieved our goal: we raised, grew and preserved all of our own meat and produce that our family eats in a year. And we did it without machinery, chemicals, pesticides, artificial fertilizers OR compost containing human waste touching our land & livestock.
We now have a simplified system that we follow every year so we know exactly what and how much to plant and how much we need to preserve to last us all year. And we have automation in place so that WE CAN GO ON VACATION! We leave our garden for weeks at a time and it keeps on growing without us.
While we love that we save thousands of dollars a year by growing our own food, the real value isn’t monetary. It’s having the peace of mind that comes with knowing where our food comes from, what it does (and doesn’t) contain, and that we have the skills to keep growing and preserving it regardless of what happens in the future.
As friends and followers watched our journey, we started getting a lot of requests to teach classes on how to do what we were doing.
We decided to put together an in-person gardening and preservation class series that was everything we were looking for and couldn’t find when we were first getting started. It sold out in a week. We opened another one, and it sold out again. The more classes we’ve taught, the more requests we’ve received to make them available online.
After years of teaching, improving our courses, filming, writing, and editing, we are so excited to finally have an online course available to everyone!
And the best part is, unlike in-person classes, you can follow along step by step in your kitchen & garden with the ability to pause, rewind, and rewatch as much as you need to until you have mastered the skill.
WHY THIS COURSE?
What sets us apart from the others:
THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU IF:
- You want to learn how to garden without pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, and artificial fertilizers.
- You would like to source compost that does NOT contain human waste (most nurseries carry compost made from the city’s human waste)
- You are interested in learning how to make your own compost and natural soil amendments in a small backyard setting (i.e. you want to build a self-sustaining system)
- You want to learn how to plan a garden and grow all the food you {& your family} need for the year.
- You want to learn how to preserve & store produce for winter.
- You are looking for a garden course specific to your zone and region for better success
- You would like a course that walks you through the season step by step
- You want coaching and the ability to ask questions and get help with problems that arise all season long
- You want the opportunity to come to our farm, observe how we garden, see live demonstrations.
- You want to meet other local gardeners who are also trying to grow and preserve their own food.
THIS COURSE IS NOT FOR YOU IF:
- You want to know how to do large scale farming with tractors & heavy equipment
- You want conventional growing methods that include the use of pesticides & artificial fertilizers/amendments
- You are in zones higher than 8
- You live in a Southern region or climate different than ours.
Here's what OUR NEW 2025 course members are
saying As THEY WORK THROUGH THE COURSE:
CoursE
Overview
Seven comprehensive modules with everything you need to know to master the skills to grow and preserve a year’s supply of nutrient dense food without pesticides, chemicals, or manufactured fertilizers.
MODULE 1
Orientation & Goal Setting
The course kicks off with a background on the mistakes we’ve made, the lessons we’ve learned, and how we accomplish eating homegrown all year. We share the method we use to accomplish big goals, and then have class members go through our planning exercises to get a clear plan for the year {and years} to come. Most mistakes are made by people who don’t start with an end goal in mind, so this module is essential!
MODULE 2
Planning & Pitfalls
This module begins with everything to consider when choosing the best location for your garden, including the major mistakes we made and how to avoid them. Get an overview of trellising and how to utilize vertical gardening to increase how much you can grow. And then we take you through our planning system step by step and by the end of it you will have a professional garden plan, a food preservation plan, a seed shopping list, and a planting schedule for your zone.
MODULE 3
Seed Starting 101
Lessons:
- The results of our experiment on seed starting vs purchasing seed starts
- Where we purchase seeds, how to store seeds long term, and more
- Greenhouse vs indoor seed starting
- Shelves, lights and equipment needed to start indoors as cheaply as possible
- Soil Biology 101 – the essential information you need to know to grow without pesticides and fertilizers
- How to make your own germination mix to significantly increase your success
- Seed starting 101 – how to start every kind of seed and care for them indoors
- How to harden off seed starts for transplanting
- Advanced lessons:
- Cold stratification & scarifying
- How to grow microgreens
- All our tips for selling seed starts to make as much of a profit as possible
MODULE 4
Spring Prep
Lessons:
- A walk through the garden in Spring
- Compost and “hot” vs “cold” manure and how to source and use them
- How to start a new garden bed
- Building raised beds
- How to amend an established bed for better success
- Why, how and when to broad fork to increase the health of your soil
- How to use weed barrier and other forms of mulching and weed suppression
- How to set up an easy and affordable automatic watering system (that will significantly increase your harvest!)
- All about season extension (high tunnel)
- Various trellising methods and tutorials
MODULE 5
Biochar & Compost Tea
Most of our course members have small backyard gardens. Biochar and compost tea are two incredible amendments that can significantly increase the health of your soil and the nutrient quality of your produce. Over time, they will reduce the amount of water and compost your garden needs. The best part is, both biochar and compost tea can be easily made in a small backyard setting!
Lessons:
- What is biochar and why should you use it?
- How to make your own biochar retort
- How to make biochar
- How to use biochar in the garden and around the homestead
- What is compost tea and why should you use it
- How to make your own compost tea brewer
- How to make compost tea
- How to use compost tea to increase your yields and eliminate pests
- What does it mean to compost
- How to make a simple composting set up
- How to make a wind row
- How to make your own vermicomposting set up (worm bins)
MODULE 6
Last Frost to First Frost
Lessons:
- Direct sowing & planting tubers
- How to transplant
- Dealing with pests naturally
- Thinning and sowing gaps
- When and how to prune to increase production
- How to take notes to significantly increase your success in upcoming years
- Seed saving 101
MODULE 7
Fruit & Vegetable Spotlights
An everything you need to know lesson on each of the major fruit and vegetable crops we grow. Lessons will include all of the tips and tricks we’ve learned for best success on how to plant, harvest and preserve each of these crops.
Lessons:
- Carrots
- Green & Dry Beans
- Onions
- Sweet corn & popcorn
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Sweet Potatoes
- and more!
Q&A Sessions &
Garden Community
There will be question and answer sessions with us {Jake and Amanda} at least once a month from January through October.
Every gardening season throws different curveballs, and we will be with you every step of the way to help you problem solve and succeed.
Also included with this course is a community feature that allows past and present class members to ask questions, share information, and communicate. Because this course is specific to Zones 5 & 6, the community is filled with gardeners that have similar growing conditions and growing methods.
IN-PERSON Tour
HERE in our garden
We are very excited about this NEW addition to our course!
We will have several in-person “tours” in our garden exclusively for our garden course members. Each member will have the opportunity to come up to two times during the season. The “tour” will consist of showing the garden at various stages in the season, demonstrating things like pruning, and answering questions.
We feel that this will give our course members the best of both worlds – they can complete the course at their own pace and rewatch videos as much as needed but will also have the opportunity to see the garden and ask questions in person (AND meet & chat with fellow local gardeners!)
If you are too far away or unavailable, we will take questions to answer in advance and the tours will be filmed and uploaded for all members to watch.
ALSO
Included
Guide to Food Preservation Course
This course {within a course} covers covers everything you need to know to preserve fruits, vegetables, medicinal & culinary herbs, and dry flowers so that you can make your harvest last long after the season is over.
Modules:
- Canning: canning safety, how to choose the right canner for you, how to water bath can, how to pressure can.
- How to set up cold storage, and everything we store in cold storage (plus all the longest lasting storage varieties)
- Drying & Dehydrating: When to dry and when to dehydrate, how to dry cut flowers for design, and how to make your own powdered cayenne, paprika, etc.
- Curing: When and how to cure for long term storage
- Freezing: how to process crops so they taste good and last as long as possible in the freezer.
- Bonus: how to purchase beef & pork directly from a farm or ranch
- Rendering animal fats: how to render and use tallow, pork, and schmaltz (chicken fat)
- Waterglassing Eggs: how to preserve fresh eggs to last for 12-18 months at room temperature
These methods are the culmination of 6 years of trial and error to find the best ways to make each major crop last as long as possible. We include all of our favorite recipes too!
Coursebook
Our {NEW} 3rd edition course book is 240 full color pages that contain profiles on how to grow 36 major fruit and vegetable crops, 29 of our favorite culinary and medicinal herbs, and 25 of our favorite flowers for cutting and drying. We not only share all the essential information to grow each crop, but we give the tips and tricks we’ve learned over the years to have better success with growing and processing them and our favorite preservation recipes.
For the last 6 years, we have tested hundreds of varieties and taken notes on which ones do best in our zone, climate, weather, and soil conditions. We then pick the varieties that taste the best, yield the most, and store the longest. We include all of this information in our course book so that you get to skip the trial and error (and wasted money and time) and get fast tracked to success.
Additionally, there are garden planning worksheets, sample garden plans for both raised beds and an in-ground garden, all of our favorite recipes and much much more.
Please note: This course book is only available to people who take this course, we do not sell it separately!
*Course book is shipped within 1-2 business days of purchase of the course
COURSE
SCHEDULE
START TODAY!
We will ship your course book within 2 business days of signing up, and you can begin Module 1-4 immediately.
Don't take our
word for it..
here's what our PAST course members
HAVE TO SAY:
A GARDENING Course TAILORED TO
YOU
YOUR ZONE
Weather, pests, soil type, season length, and plant varieties all vary drastically by zone and region. This course is tailored specifically to our local community here in zones 5 & 6 in the {Pacific} Inland Northwest region.
YOUR EXPERIENCE
If you have never gardened before, you can start with the basics year 1, and then implement some of the more advanced techniques year 2 and 3. Rewatch videos as much as you want for years to come until you have mastered the material.
YOUR PACE
Lunch breaks, after the kids go to bed, or while you’re having your morning coffee.. fit in learning on your schedule. You can complete the course at the pace we recommend or at the pace you prefer- whatever works best for you! Each module is 2-3 hours long.
YOUR GOALS
Whether your goal is to start a hobby garden, or you are looking to grow and preserve a year’s supply of food, we teach you everything you need to know to help you accomplish the goals that work for your time, budget and resources.
YOUR QUESTIONS
We will be with you every step of the season from planning in January to final harvesting & preservation in October. Each month of the season, you can ask questions and get help with problems that arise.
YOUR COMMUNITY
You will have access to our online gardening community, filled with past and current members that are gardening and preserving in the same zone, weather, and conditions as you are. This is an amazing resource for sharing information, asking questions, and building {gardening} friendships in your area!
WHAT DOES GARDENING IN ZONES 5 & 6 MEAN?
Zones are determined by the coldest temperatures a location reaches in the year. Typically, people in similar zones have a similar weather climate, season length (first and last frost dates), and can successfully grow the same plant varieties.
We are located in West Spokane, Washington. We are between Zones 5B-6A, which are the light blue and dark green colors on the map.
As you can see, there is a blue and green belt across the middle of the country that falls into the Zones 5 & 6 category.
Our course content is most specific to zones 5 & 6 in the Inland Pacific Northwest, which is the Eastern part of Washington and Oregon and the Western part of Idaho.
If you fall into zones 5 & 6 in any other part of the country, our content will still be applicable to you.
If you are in zone 3, 4, 8 or 9, most of our content will be applicable to you so you can still take the course if you’d like to.
•REVIEWS•
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Why we made the switch from in-person classes to an online course
We taught this Gardening course as an in-person class series for 2 years. We did what we call a “see and then do” style of class series. Each class was about 2-4 weeks ahead of when the information was needed for the season (i.e. the seed starting class was at the end of January, and seeds in our zone need to be started at the end of February). Our class members were able to learn a manageable amount of material, ask questions, and then go collect the necessary supplies and apply what they learned.
They would then come for the next class 4-6 weeks later, learn the next module, and have the opportunity to ask questions about any problems they were encountering.
The course ran from January to October with a total of 8 classes that were 3 hours each. Here is what our class members loved about the class series:
- The “see & do” structure of the course was ideal because it prevented them from getting overwhelmed, and they were able to go apply what they learned while it was fresh in their minds.
- The ability to ask questions and get help with problems throughout the season.
- Everybody in the class was in zone 5 or 6 with similar soil & weather conditions, so they could share about both the problems they were facing and the solutions they were finding.
But.. there were a few drawbacks:
- It was difficult for class members to make it to all 8 classes (especially with vacations in the summer) and if they missed the class, they just missed out on the information altogether.
- While it was nice to see a live demonstration of things like pruning, they had a hard time remembering how to apply it by the time they got home.
- With a 3 hour class, there tended to be “information overload” and it was at times difficult for them to take in everything that was taught.
- There is only so much we can demonstrate in a short period of time to a large group of people so there is A LOT we couldn’t cover.
- We can’t predict the weather a year in advance, so many of the classes were too hot or too cold to teach all the material we needed to.
- Our space could only accommodate 15 people at a time and those people had to be within driving distance and available for all of the classes from January-October.
By switching to an online course, we are now able to keep the qualities that made the in-person class great, while fixing a lot of the problems:
- This online course is still a “see & do” style to prevent getting overwhelmed.
- We will still be here to coach course members through the entire season with question and answer sessions every month (January-October).
- We offer two opportunities to come for a garden tour, live demonstrations and Q&A in person
- We are now able to teach everything we want to because we don’t have the in-person restriction. That means more (and better) tutorials that show exactly what, when and how we do things.
- Course members can watch tutorial videos over and over again and keep re-watching and referencing (for years to come) until the material is mastered.
- With no time limit, course members are now able to work at their own pace when it’s convenient.
- We now have an online community for course members (past and present) that are still in a similar zone and region to communicate, ask questions, share about resources, etc.
THIS COURSE IS NOW THE
BEST OF BOTH!
Do you homeschool?
This course is great for the whole family!
We have been homeschooling & teaching classes in our local homeschool community for over 10 years now.
This year, Amanda started a 2 year gardening and food preservation course for the 8th and 9th grade students at Christian Heritage School.
She uses the Homegrown All Year course curriculum to teach that class.
All this to say, we think gardening & food preservation should be done as a family, and we teach in a way that the kids can join in too!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Absolutely! Our course timeline (the releasing of modules) , content, and course book are all designed for zones 5&6 specifically. That being said, if you are in zone 4 or 7-8, just about everything will still apply to you too.
Yes! Just know that some of the pests, weather, humidity, soil conditions, etc. that you face will be different than us. We will help you as much as we are able, but we will be more limited in that capacity.
You will have lifetime access to the course.
Yes. You can go through it with new course members every year if you would like to.
You can download the Kajabi app for easier access to the courses and navigation, but you will be able to do everything you need to do by logging in through an internet browser.
The course book is only available to people who purchase the course, we do not sell separately. We begin mailing course books out on January 1st.
We have 3 payment options. If paid in full, the course is the lowest price of $559. There is also an option to make 2 monthly payments of $289 or 4 monthly payments of $150.
Once the modules are released, you can complete the lessons within that module whenever you would like to (or you can skip them altogether).
Absolutely! You can submit questions for us to answer during the Q&A sessions and then watch the recorded session later if you are unavailable during the live timeframe.
There’s no such thing as a green thumb (which implies that gardening is like singing or painting – a skill you’re born with or without). It’s not! It’s actually a lot more like building a house or baking bread. Anyone can garden with the right tools and information. Course members who follow our steps are able to garden successfully.
Yes! We cover both raised bed and in-ground gardening that can accommodate almost any size yard big or small. A big emphasis of this course is getting the highest yield possible in the smallest amount of space so that you can maximize your rewards and minimize your input. We have tested hundreds of varieties and we share our favorite variety of each crop for both flavor AND yield in our course book.
Yes! We used to have a 1 acre market garden and we teach the techniques we learned to garden at that scale efficiently. We have found that most people think they need a lot more space than they actually do to support their family. For example, we only need a garden that is about 1/8 of an acre to sustain our entire family of 13 people for a year!
We teach what we call “more-ganic” gardening because the qualifications for organic gardening are pretty disappointing. Organic farms can legally use pesticides, herbicides, and compost containing human waste. We teach how to garden without any of those things.
To figure out what zone you are in:
https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/
Each module contains video & audio lessons and it will take between 1 – 3 hours to complete the module. Quite a few of the lessons can be listened to (no visual necessary) if you like to listen while you work.
IF you love
gardening & homesteading, then this is for you!
Our community gets the best of us: We send out free lessons & tutorials, our favorite recipes, gardening guides (like our secret to growing prolific peppers), and every once in a while some fun freebies (a favorite book, some seeds from our collection, etc). Our community also gets 24 hours advance notice on any new classes or products we drop before we share with the public/social media so they can be the first to sign up. And the only discounts we give go to our community members as well.
If our community sounds pretty awesome, that’s because it is!