CGC Updates: Summer 2024
With the growing season in full swing, we’ve been busy here at the CGC! Here’s what we’ve been up to since our last update.
Our New Mural
We worked with Lyric Morris-Latchaw, a farmer and contemporary oil painter and muralist, and her team of artists to transform the corner of our Green Learning Station into a beautiful native plant mural! The design was inspired by a line from one of Lyric’s favorite Tess Taylor poems: "We kneel and copy what the trees are even now above us doing — coax the sugar out of light. Turn the light into the feast of leaving.” (Tess Taylor will join us for a talk on “Why Gardening Matters” to kick off our Fall Native Plant Festival in September!)
HUB Garden Classes
This year, our free HUB Garden classes are back for a third season! July was all about healthy nutrition. We hosted three cooking demonstrations, starting with Korean-inspired savory green onion pancakes at the Riddle Yates Community Garden in Covington. We gave pesto a new spin with some bee balm in Roselawn, and finished things off with a fresh and light zucchini pasta in Carthage.
August will be packed with more cooking demos to get you excited about the peak of our growing season, as well as some fun and informative classes on unique cultural practices, pest management and pollinator companions. We can't wait to see you out there!
Summer Interns
This summer, we’ve had the pleasure of working with three wonderful interns. Katelyn helped run educational programs like Summer Sprouts. Jack has been supporting (and even teaching) our HUB Garden classes in addition to assisting on our grounds at Hauck Botanic Garden. And Ben helped Julie, our Horticulturist, keep Hauck looking its best even through this summer’s dry spells. We have loved working with all of them and wish them the very best as they move on to what comes next!
A New Native Plant Class Format
In June, we trialed a new format for our monthly native plant education: a class on a particular topic, closely followed by a tour that demonstrates the class topic in the real world. We’ve received very positive feedback on this approach and plan to keep offering it! August’s class, Native Plants for Urban Agriculture, is paired with a tour of some thriving urban gardens in Walnut Hills.
Thank you to our gracious and wonderful tour hosts, who have helped make this format so successful!
Volunteer Support
It’s been a busy year so far at the CGC, and we’ve accomplished so much already with help from our wonderful volunteers—from installing a native food forest to spreading thousands of pounds of mulch to supporting our community garden network. So far this year, CGC volunteers have put in almost 2,200 hours over 70 workdays! That’s amazing!
Help us keep the momentum rolling through our Fall Native Plant Festival. We’ll need your support to prepare for, run and clean up the festival! Want to help out? Sign up for your shift of choice here.
Summer Sprouts
Our longstanding Summer Sprouts program was back this year, but we tried something different. Younger groups (74 children from two summer camps) came to the garden and cooked as usual, making things like watermelon agua fresca, greens stir fry, dill garlic pickles, stovetop pizza, garden salsa, raspberry yogurt parfait and summer rolls. The oldest group from each camp (30 children total) came to Ziegler Park’s Great Lawn for ecology activities that included a biodiversity hunt, plant doctor and nutrient relay race, pollination exploration, survival game and natural dyes. We hope they had as much fun as we did!
Looking Ahead
Gardens may be winding down in fall, but we won’t be. Here are a few upcoming things we’re looking forward to.
The Fall Native Plant Festival
The Fall Native Plant Festival will be back from 9am to 3pm on Saturday, September 7 at the CGC! We’ll welcome native plant growers from around the Cincinnati area to sell their wares and share their know-how. We’ll also have educational sessions, food, children’s activities, vendors, a raffle, live music, a beer garden and more. Don’t miss this free, family-friendly event!
The Green Teens Challenge
As the Green Teens Challenge enters its second full year, we’re looking forward to the teacher kick-off (coming up!). Our team took last year’s feedback and created a more focused program that will meet teacher and student needs. We can’t wait to see what our participating schools do with it!
Flavors
Each autumn, we hold a special event just for our community gardeners. Known as Flavors, this evening is a time to come together and share the literal fruits of a productive gardening season as we catch up on the year. It’s always a good time with good people.
Thank you for being a part of our work!