Community Horticulture

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.

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.

Whether you are a parent or teacher and your children are planting in the ground, in containers, or in tree beds, you need some practical tips on how to get a school garden planted—now! Learn how to launch a simple yet engaging gardening program, connect with resources, and identify the materials you need to get growing.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.