Companion Planting

Rocky Mountain Gardening Elective

Companion planting is a very helpful tool in the high-altitude garden, whether you are growing vegetables, flowers or herbs. Learn to keep a chemical-free garden and increase yields. Companion planting looks fantastic and is just plain fun to do. Physical plant sizes and shapes, relay planting, bloom time, attracting pollinators, repelling pests, soil building, crop rotation and even ground animal control are all a part of companion planting.

After 33 seasons of growing at 8,120 ft in the Colorado mountains, Penn and Cord automatically plant trap crops and companions, keep antagonists apart and let plants intermingle so they can support each other. There is folklore to consider and scientific discoveries that support the relationships plants have to one another. Nature grows food, herbs, trees, shrubs, vines and flowers together and so can you. Don t miss this one it s never too late to plant companions.

Price: $38, $32 member

Instructors: Penn and Cord Parmenter

Penn and Cord Parmenter are high-altitude food and seed growers. When they began homesteading in 1991, the Parmenters were told tomatoes don't grow in the mountains. Today, they work with 250 varieties of tomatoes at 8,120 feet in the Wet Mountains. They apply a multitude of techniques to overcome the challenges of growing tomatoes in the high country. They own Smart Greenhouses LLC, a sustainable greenhouse design and build company, and Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds, providing regionally adapted seeds for extreme climates. They are celebrating over three decades of growing seasons in the Rockies!