Adult Classes & Workshops

Street trees do much to improve our environment, but they often receive little care. In this class, learn the benefits of street trees and how to improve the health of a street tree by caring for its bed. Get tips on amending soil, mulching, watering, pruning, and tree-bed gardening. Bring your street tree care questions, and find out more about MillionTreesNYC efforts to increase and protect the urban forest canopy.

Learn to make bouquets, corsages, pew decorations, centerpieces, and headpieces in the styles and flowers that most brides want. Bring your toolbox. Prerequisite: Intermediate Flower Arranging.

Permaculture focuses on growing organic, perennial food, but there is much more to it than that! It aims to create a self-renewing, bountiful landscape in harmony with nature. Claudia Joseph is a permaculture gardener, instructor, and the designer of the gardens around Brooklyn’s Old Stone House. In this workshop she’ll address how permaculture methods can be applied to small, urban spaces from schoolyards and community gardens to backyards and balconies.

From pea shoots to strawberries, get tips on growing, harvesting, and eating four seasons of staple and unusual herbs, vegetables, and fruit in a small urban space. Learn intensive edible gardening methods that work on even the tiniest terrace.

Selecting the right plant means the difference between something that looks gorgeous and is easy to take care of and a sad-looking specimen that leaves you wondering what you did wrong! This class will help you find plants that love exactly the amount of light, humidity, and other conditions your indoor space has to offer.

After this class you’ll never again have to wonder whether you watered too much or too little, when to repot a plant into a bigger container, or about any other fundamental questions of indoor plant care.

Learn to identify birds living in the area or passing through on their spring migrations. Classes meet at the locations listed below. Car-pooling is available; when registering, please indicate if you will need a ride and provide a phone number where you can be reached on Friday evenings.


April 21 BBG/Prospect Park
May 5 Central Park
May 12 Alley Pond Park
May 26 Jamaica Bay NWR
June 2 Ward Pound Ridge

From pea shoots to strawberries, get tips on growing, harvesting, and eating four seasons of staple and unusual herbs, vegetables, and fruit in a small urban space. Learn intensive edible gardening methods that work on even the tiniest terrace.

Learn the techniques to design with dried and silk materials alone and in combination with fresh flowers and foliage. Please bring clippers or a floral knife.

If you’re thinking of installing a rooftop garden or want to learn proper care for an existing roof garden, this daylong workshop will give you the tools to get going! We discuss rooftop garden design and care, including choices of planters, potting materials, irrigation, and suitable plants. Please note: This class covers container gardens, not green roof systems.

Think you can’t grow edibles because you have a shady garden? Think again! There are plenty of delicious and unusual plants that thrive in woodland conditions. Learn which plants grow best in partial to full shade and how to care for them from planting to harvest.

Learn the basics of watercolor painting while exploring springtime at the Garden. Learn basic techniques such as wet-on-wet and dry brush, with a thorough discussion of materials and sources. Copious demonstrations, hands-on exercises, and individual attention form a major part of the class. Class will be outside, weather permitting. A supply list will be sent upon registration.

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” but what about lark’s heels or lady’s smocks? Without insight into Shakespeare’s audience, much of the humor, irony, and subtle emotion in the Bard’s plays and sonnets are lost on us. Through well-illustrated lectures on 16th-century botanical lore and symbolism and informal drawing sessions, this class will explore the expressive possibilities of BBG’s Shakespeare Garden.

Use native plant life found in the spring Garden as inspiration to improve technique and create beautiful watercolors through individual and class instruction. Open to all but best for those who know watercolor.
*Dates differ from those in the printed catalog

Learn current trends in the floral design industry. Create the designs that are in demand now, such as theme-party designs, seasonal arrangements, and advanced designs. Bring your toolbox. Prerequisites: Basic and Intermediate Flower Arranging.

Hanami means “flower viewing”—and that’s what we’ll do. This special three-part class explores ways to capture with a camera BBG’s flowering cherries, from bud to peak blossoming, using a variety of photographic techniques. Each week student work will be reviewed and techniques discussed, with plenty of time to photograph outdoors.

Growing herbs indoors lets you pick fresh, flavorful ingredients year-round, whether or not you have a garden! Learn which herbs do best indoors and how to care for them, including how to overwinter outdoor herbs inside.

Lasagna gardening is an easy no-till, no digging soil-building method that will save time, money, and space as you create a perfect place for all your spring seedlings! Learn this simple and inexpensive technique in this hands-on workshop.

Explore the fundamentals of springtime garden care. Learn how and when to prepare your soil for new plantings, how to plant seeds, how to transplant, and how to propagate.

A strong foundation in botany is essential to understanding how to maintain a healthy landscape. This course includes discussions on plant anatomy, plant life cycles and reproduction, taxonomy, and plant physiology. This course requires no previous knowledge of botany and is recommended as a first course in the certificate. Required text: Introductory Plant Biology, by Kingsley Stern.

The planning that goes into creating a beautiful garden is wasted if the soil is poor. Learn about soil structure, fertility, and water availability to understand what happens underground. Learn to improve the soil with amendments and other techniques. Lectures are supplemented by hands-on lab sessions. Students receive a copy of the BBG handbook Healthy Soils for Sustainable Gardens. Required text: Teaming with Microbes, by Jeff Lowenfels.

Work late? Unplug in the evening in your night garden! Learn about white-flowering plant choices that shine after dark and gorgeous night bloomers that release their fragrance into the twilight. We’ll discuss basic garden design principles for creating lush and inviting outdoor spaces.

Think your dream of having a vineyard means quitting the city for Napa Valley or the hills of Italy? This workshop covers the art of growing grapes and maintaining a backyard or small vineyard in Brooklyn. Learn about establishing a small vineyard, including site selection, layout, size, recommended varieties, equipment needs, propagation, vine nutrition, and more, followed by a tasting of homemade wine to complement what we’ve learned.

This slide-illustrated class will consider a variety of sumptuously blooming, often deliciously fragrant, easy-care shrubs like pieris, skimmia, edgeworthia, and hardy camellias, all of which flourish in the shade in the instructor’s organic garden. Learn time-tested tips on shrub care and mail-order plant sources.

Street trees do much to improve our environment, but they often receive little care. In this class, learn the benefits of street trees and how to improve the health of a street tree by caring for its bed. Get tips on amending soil, mulching, watering, pruning, and tree-bed gardening. Bring your street tree care questions, and find out more about MillionTreesNYC efforts to increase and protect the urban forest canopy.

If you’re interested in spreading compost know-how and enthusiasm in Brooklyn, become an NYC Compost Project Master Composter. This certificate program is designed to promote the practice of urban composting and consists of 25 hours of classroom training (including two field trips) and 30 hours of volunteer outreach service in compost education and promotion. Application required and due February 17, 2012. Application

Do you garden by impulse each year without having a long-term plan? Here’s your chance to learn simple planning techniques from a design pro that will make gardening fun, not frustrating! Learn how to deal with excessive shade and awkward spaces to create a garden that you’ll enjoy for years to come.

What’s the difference between an annual and a perennial? What’s mulch and why do plants need it? Don’t know the answers to these questions? Join us and find out! Learn how a plant works and what it needs, how to understand soil and composting, which tools every gardener needs, how to care for your plants as they grow, and the importance of native species! Students will leave the course with an action plan for their greening project at home. Please dress for the weather.

Learn how leaves, kitchen scraps, garden trimmings, and weeds can all become garden gold through composting. Making dark, rich, crumbly compost doesn’t take much time, work, or space. This class explains the process, usage, and problem-solving of composting.

This class demonstrates time-tested methods aimed at the novice chef who wants to prepare simple, natural foods with care. Learn how to use hearty winter vegetables available in your local market in healthy and exciting ways: We will roast beets, toast nuts, stew meats, and cook wholesome grains, dried beans, winter vegetables, and leafy greens. After the demonstrations, we will sit down together to enjoy all the recipes we learned to prepare. You will get to take all the food you make in class home with you as well as some new kitchen equipment. Class will stand in the kitchen to work, so please dress casually and wear flat shoes.

To work in the industry you must be familiar with the unique styles and techniques of sympathy arrangements. Learn about communication and etiquette with the bereaved family as well as the mechanics and design of arrangements for funerals and memorials. Bring your toolbox. Prerequisite: Basic and Intermediate Flower Arranging

Learn the techniques, materials, and traditions of bonsai culture. Work on creating your own bonsai—repotting it into a bonsai container, pruning it, and finding the potential style that will bring out its inner beauty. Learn how to care for your bonsai once you get it home. Bring small pruners or surgical shears (you may purchase shears in class). All other materials will be provided, including the BBG handbook Growing Bonsai Indoors.

Tai chi chuan (“supreme ultimate force”) is a Chinese martial art that helps balance the yin and yang. Regular practice of tai chi chuan improves blood circulation, relaxes your mind and body, increases your chi (internal energy), and gives you a good night’s sleep. The class is held outside on BBG grounds (except Tai Chi Chuan I), weather permitting. Wear comfortable clothing that allows freedom of movement.

This class offers advanced study of tai chi. Students should have completed Tai Chi I and II or have equivalent experience.

Tai chi chuan (“supreme ultimate force”) is a Chinese martial art that helps balance the yin and yang. Regular practice of tai chi chuan improves blood circulation, relaxes your mind and body, increases your chi (internal energy), and gives you a good night’s sleep. The class is held outside on BBG grounds (except Tai Chi Chuan I), weather permitting. Wear comfortable clothing that allows freedom of movement.

This class is appropriate for those who have taken Tai Chi Chuan I or have equivalent experience.

Tai chi chuan (“supreme ultimate force”) is a Chinese martial art that helps balance the yin and yang. Regular practice of tai chi chuan improves blood circulation, relaxes your mind and body, increases your chi (internal energy), and gives you a good night’s sleep. The class is held outside on BBG grounds (except Tai Chi Chuan I), weather permitting. Wear comfortable clothing that allows freedom of movement.

This class begins with a foundation in the history of garden design and offers a brief overview of landscape design principles, materials, and plants. Each student then creates a design for an urban garden. <1> A supply list will be provided at the first session.

Develop your understanding of color and composition using pastel, an opaque medium that allows layering and building of color much like oil paint. Live plants and other still-life materials are used to focus on new concepts, with plenty of room for individual style.

Learn to paint in the Chinese style using a bamboo brush, ink, and rice paper. Get step-by-step individual instruction of this ancient art form, and develop your own style. Materials are provided for an additional fee if you do not have your own inks, brushes, and rice paper.

Brighten your winter days by drawing and painting water-lilies, orchids, and other plants in the Steinhardt Conservatory. This class focuses on drawing skills, composition, color, and watercolor techniques. A supply list will be sent to you upon registration.

Explore botanical elements in American art at Brooklyn Museum to inform and enhance your own renderings back at the Garden in sketches, drawings, or paintings. Class meets in front of Brooklyn Museum.

Learn advanced styles and complicated design mechanics with a variety of fresh flowers. This class allows you to be more expressive in your designs. You’ll master techniques for parallel designs, vase arrangements, and working without floral foam, among other topics. Lectures, hands-on workshops, and critiques are included. Prerequisite: Basic Flower Arranging.

Making compost is a great hands-on way to teach ecology, recycling, and gardening. We will discuss different outdoor and indoor compost systems, ways to incorporate composting into curriculum, and what resources are available for school administrators, teachers, and parent volunteers.

Gain a deeper appreciation of the spiritual nature of Ikebana as you explore the use of space and line to convey emotions such as love or longing. Use this opportunity to create a loving arrangement for yourself or a special someone. Prerequisite: Introduction to Ikebana Workshop.

The ancient Japanese art of ikebana uses empty space and asymmetrical form to inform the composition of a floral design. Create a classic ikebana arrangement to take home. Please bring your own clippers or scissors.

If you’re thinking of installing a rooftop garden or want to learn proper care for an existing roof garden, this daylong workshop will give you the tools to get going! We discuss rooftop garden design and care, including choices of planters, potting materials, irrigation, and suitable plants. Please note: This class covers container gardens, not green roof systems.

Collage is the simplest, most direct way to explore your intuitive feel for space and color composition. Working from horticultural images, you will cut and paste colored paper to create visual metaphors of gardens.