let’s learn together…
Grow your awareness and intimate knowledge of medicinal herbs from the comfort of your home!
backyard apothecary
10 online modules
Video footage and instruction on a variety of growing skills such as mixing soil, scarifying & stratifying seed, seed-starting, amending, potting-up transplanting, mulching & compost, harvest, drying, and storage.
10 module PDF Course guide
Professionally designed course guide with 80+ pages
Printable Record-Keeping Docs, Calendar & Guides
Print out your own seed-starting journal and calendar, plant monographs, and more.
12 Featured Herbs
We’ll cover 12 beautiful medicinals to grow in your yard – including annuals and perennials; roots, herbaceous, and flower crops.
Live Q & A Session
Mid-way through the course, we’ll meet up online to see how things are going, and I’ll be there to answer questions and cheer you on!
why grow your own
The starting point and foundation for the course is an exploration of why growing your own and establishing a local herbshed is so important and meaningful.
Explore your why and also get some encouragement to dig into your herbal heritage and connect with the herbs and herbal practices of your ancestors.
crafted with care
The Backyard Apothecary has been steeping in my mind and heart for years, and I am so excited to finally bring it to you. The course is based on my own decades of gardening experience and half a decade of herb farming. It’s based on years of my own personal research obsession – countless hours of reading, videos, podcasts, conversations, and trial and error hands-on experience.
I’m so excited to get you growing and co-creating a beautiful garden with the herbs you invite into your life – with love and intention.
watch the launch video
what will we learn?
1: Why grow your own?
An exploration of why our local herbshed and resilience with local medicine is important. Discussion of herbal ancestry and reciprocity.
2: Nesting – Gear up
Everything you need – and a bit more – to get growing, including tips on using the biodynamic calendar.
3: Dream & Design
Garden visioning, permaculture considerations, types of garden beds, and a sample design process.
4: Sow Seeds
The entire seed-starting process from mixing soil to specialized seed treatments to heat, light, and watering.
5: Tend New Life
All you need to know to care for your seedlings, including amending, watering, growing strong seedlings, potting up, and more.
6: Make Your Bed & Tuck Them In
Bed preparation and transplanting specifics – depth, spacing, companion planting, protection from elements, amending, and more.
7: Tend Again
Continued care – mulching & weeding, pest & disease management, amending & encouraging healthy growth, cultivating connection
8: Harvest
How and when to harvest for peak potency herbs.
9: Dry & Preserve
Home drying options & tricks of the trade for well preserved herbs.
10: Co-Create
Ideas and recipes for making your own herbal remedies with the plants you’ve
BONUS: 12 herb monographs
Easy access info on our 12 featured herbs, tailored for gardeners.
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meet your guide
Hi, I’m Kris. I’m an educator, community space creator, and the herb farmer behind Awaken Herbs. I’ve been growing gardens for over twenty years, dabbling in herbs for a decade, and farming medicinals for about eight years. I grow on our family farm a stone’s throw from the southeastern shores of Lake Winnipeg, on Treaty 1 land. A longtime passion of mine is creating community spaces and projects that foster connection with others, with nature, and with a slow and mindful way of life. The foundation of everything I do is growing strong, interconnected roots in both community and soil. Though this course is online, I hope it will encourage you to grow herbs, growing relationships with them – and to invite your community to join you on that journey.
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by the end of the course, you’ll:
Understand & talk about
… reasons to grow your own medicine, your herbal ancestry
Set Up
…your own indoor seed starting space
Start Medicinal Seeds
…taking into consideration the unique needs of 12 specific herbs, using our printable seed starting calendar, 12 herbal monographs, videos and guide book
Tend seedlings
…with specialized knowledge of how to grow robust transplants
Design & Plant
… a beautiful herb garden in your yard
Tend
… the garden throughout the season
Connect
… with the herbs and grow a relationship with them
Harvest
… herbs at peak potency
Know
… whether to co-create medicines with the herbs in their fresh, dry, or either form
Preserve
… the harvest with expert tips
Record
… your seed starting and growing journey on our printable forms