Author's Bio: Goals, Passion, and Projects
Larry Cipolla is a life-long gardener, life-long learner, published author, speaker, and master gardener. He teaches a wide-range of topics related to vegetables and herbs and specializes in hydroponics for the home-owner. His vegetable, herb, pollinator, and Japanese gardens have been on more than twenty-five fund-raising tours and featured on national and local television programs, local and national newspapers, and periodicals.
Larry has developed his own organic heirloom Italian paste tomato varieties, ‘Cipolla’s Pride’, and ‘Cipolla’s Rose’. Born and raised in Connecticut, Larry now lives in Minnesota.
Larry willingly shares his experience and expertise about gardening tips and techniques. His goal is to encourage you to integrate hydroponics with soil-based gardening, whether you are a first-time or seasoned gardener. The intent is to help you garden the year-round, whether you live in a detached home, condo, apartment, or senior high-rise. His passion is to encourage you to become more independent and more self-reliant, in order to take more control over what you eat.
He accomplishes this by …
- Collaborating with garden club members, community garden organizers, seniors, corporate and faith-based organizations to establish their own soil- and/or hydroponic-gardens.
- Collaborating with teachers and students to set up hydroponic systems for their school lunch-program and to support their community service programs by providing food to the local community, restaurants, and farmer’s markets.
- Collaborating with other master gardeners to grow and donate produce to food shelves and under-served residents in and around the metro area.
- Collaborating with science teachers to link book-learning with experiential gardening practices.
- Establishing an on-going succession and feedback process for planning, implementing, training, and evaluating year-round gardening projects with middle and high school students-teachers.
- Conducting experiential hands-on workshops to help young people and people young at heart to get started with hydroponics with easy to set up and maintain systems with minimal effort and at minimal cost.
- Conducting train-the-trainer workshops to teachers, educators, and master gardeners who want the knowledge and confidence to teach others.
- Providing on-site gardening suggestions at community, senior-living, and K-12 gardens.
- Facilitating learn-by-doing sessions to help people build raised and elevated beds and rain gardens for their own use or use by others.
- Mentoring master gardener interns by providing support, guidance, experience, and expertise.
- Helping Veterans plan and build sustainable in-ground and raised beds, then maintain, grow, and harvest fresh veggies and herbs to help them feed their families and become self-reliant.