Classes & Events: 2024 In Review
The CGC unites people of all ages and backgrounds through gardening, education and environmental stewardship. Our multifaceted and accessible approach reaches professionals and students, schools and community organizations, toddlers to homeowners, with educational offerings for every age and skill level: tours, lectures, workshops, plant festivals, meaningful volunteer opportunities and more. Here’s an overview of what we offered our community in 2024.
GrowFest
In 2024, we made a major pivot in how we presented our long-running spring plant event, shifting from a plant sale to an all-day plant festival. We also narrowed our focus, curating a selection of natives, perennials, herbs and both traditional and rare/heirloom veggies. Despite a mid-morning downpour, our first-ever GrowFest was a success, and the format is here to stay for future years! We hope you’ll join us in 2025, when GrowFest will happen on Saturday, May 3 from 9am to 3pm. (And if you have garden items you’re no longer using, consider donating them to the Green Flea!)
The Fall Native Plant Festival
For the second year, we held our Native Plant Festival on the Saturday after Labor Day. It included CGC-grown plants as well as 11 other local native plant nurseries. Thanks to the participation of our partners, this event offers the largest selection of native plants in the Greater Cincinnati region! In 2024, it attracted over 1,000 people.
It’s not just about the plants, though. We were thrilled to welcome Tess Taylor as our keynote speaker leading up to the festival, and the day also included a variety of conservation organizations and educational talks, providing opportunities to learn and get more involved in local efforts. The Fall Native Plant Festival offers us a moment to celebrate the importance of native plants, highlight the crucial work being done by small local nurseries and create a space for building community around the native plant movement here in Cincinnati.
The Winter Open House
Our annual Winter Open House was the best attended yet! It was wonderful to celebrate the season with our community and to share a signature cocktail, delicious light bites and live music together. Thank you to all who helped make this community appreciation event a success!
Classes & Education
In 2024 our small staff of 10 talented individuals facilitated 582 educational programs, reaching thousands of learners! Some highlights:
We ran several multi-week training series, including CGDT, MGT and Growing Our Teachers.
We offered 209 continuing education opportunities and classes at the CGC on everything from native plants to mushroom cultivation to kimchi to natural dyes and more.
We held a 75th birthday party for our Lea’s Oak.
We hosted Barry Green’s The Four Elements and Hortus Deliciarum, a concert as part of the Cincinnati Early Music Festival.
We partnered with presenters from Fern, Rich Life Farm & Fungus, Good Green Earth Farm, the University of Cincinnati, Dean’s Mediterranean and more.
We continued Botany Bistro, Lil’ Sprouts and our Nurturing the Mind collaboration with Episcopal Retirement Services Center for Memory Support.
Numbers alone will never tell the complete story; the real results rest in the hearts of our partners and community.
“Your class was so fantastic! I really appreciated your attitude and approach to the whole thing—it was truly a relief to hear you say that our main goal is not, in fact, creating perfect compost for our gardens, but to minimize what we put in landfills. That made me feel like I was on the right track and that I can grow and learn at my own pace, and that I’m already doing something important and meaningful just by not throwing eggshells and carrot peels in the garbage. This was my first event at Civic Garden Center and I will be back!”
“I just want to let you know how much the Mount Auburn Presbyterian Earth Care Committee appreciated Mary Dudley giving us a tour of the LEED building and grounds. this past Sunday. She came in on her day off, this so we could get more people after church. I have taken at least 5 classes from Mary and I always leave her classes wanting to be a better gardener.”
“I have so enjoyed all the Botany Bistro programs! Sometimes I listen to them twice. I can’t join for the live broadcast because of work, but I so appreciate the archive.”
Outreach Programs
Offering onsite and offsite nature-based programs to local organizations is another opportunity for CGC staff to reach new communities and audiences. We program for libraries, garden clubs, community council meetings, community groups and others throughout the year. In 2024, we participated in 63 such events ranging from Master Gardener and Master Rain Gardener trainings and library classes to tabling at events around Cincinnati.
Looking Ahead
We’re already well into the planning for GrowFest 2025 (May 3!), and we will continue to focus on both it and the Fall Native Plant Festival as a community-building events. We hope to attract even more nurseries and vendors to ensure the fall festival remains THE premier native plant event in our region. And our calendar of classes and educational opportunities is so full we’re having trouble finding free space! If you don’t already get our twice-monthly eNews, The Civic Gardener, sign up and we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear about what we’re up to!