TECH

Want to be an urban farmer?

Tracy Loew
Statesman Journal

Pringle Creek Community is bringing back its Urban Farming program.

If you've so much as raked your yard, you're a gardener, urban farmer Colleen Owen believes.

But if you'd like to begin cultivating some of your own food or improve your urban farming skills, this eight-class series is for you, Owen said.

Among the topics covered: Crop rotation, fruit tree pruning, succession planting, companion planting, beneficial bugs and insects and bees.

The 32-acre Pringle Creek Community was designed as a walkable, mixed-use, sustainable community that preserves open space.

It includes a community garden and an edible landscape within the neighborhood, including orchards.

"Really, our mission is to get the word out about gardening – organic gardening all the better," Owen said. "We teach it and we walk it."

Colleen Owen, an urban gardener, checks on a lemon tree growing in one of the glass greenhouses at the Pringle Creek Community in Salem on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. Urban gardening classes are beginning Feb. 14 at the greenhouses.

In addition to Owen, the series will be taught by local farmers and Oregon State University Extension Service master gardeners.

Urban farming is the practice of growing food in the city. Proponents say it improves sustainability, food security and solidifies social networks.

"Not only are more and more people interested in organic gardening, they are also increasingly interested to build community," said Kerry Fox, Pringle Creek Community outreach coordinator. "This class offers both opportunities."

The glass greenhouses at the Pringle Creek Community in Salem on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. Urban gardening classes are beginning Feb. 14 at the greenhouses.

tloew@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/SJWatchdog

Urban farmer classes

Classes begin Feb. 14 and run through May 23. Each class will be held on a Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Cost for all eight classes is $99.

The series is open to gardeners of all skill levels.

To register call 503-315-1055 or email Colleen at Colleen@pringlecreek.com.