From Garden Beds to Forest Edges: School Gardening and Native Plantings

Join GrowNYC School Gardens and The Battery Conservancy on this full day of workshops at two of New York City’s prominent school field trip destinations, GrowNYC’s Teaching Garden and The Battery Urban Farm.  

We’ll start the day on a ferry ride to Governors Island where we’ll then:

• Tour the new site of the Teaching Garden
• Meet fellow school gardeners from all 5 boroughs to share best practices & problem solve garden issues
• Get your hands dirty with various gardening techniques and garden education methods to bring back to your school garden to do with your students

The second half of the day we will take the ferry back for a workshop on Forest Gardens and Native Plantings at The Battery Urban Farm.  This workshop will offer frameworks and resources to help you select native plants for your garden site, both at a small scale and if planning a larger forest garden. We'll explore the concepts of niches, functional diversity, plant guilds, and succession, and we'll highlight particular northeast native plants that can provide multiple benefits for wildlife and people. A guided tour through our Forest Farm will demonstrate some of the concepts in action.

This workshop will help you to:

• Differentiate between native, endemic, naturalized, and invasive species
• Navigate native plant resources to select plants that will provide year-long support for wildlife in your area, as well as other benefits
• Create multi-level perennial planting plans to maximize use of space
• Practice ecological horticulture to support full plant and animal life cycles
• Use perennial and native plants for educational programming with your students including propagation, seed saving, and crafts

Details:

• We will meet at the Governors Island ferry landing in lower Manhattan (Battery Maritime Building - 10 South Street) at 8:15am and take the 8:30am ferry together as a group to the island.
• Participants are welcome to bring their own lunch or eat from the various food vendors on the island or in downtown Manhattan. 

Who can sign up?

• NYC teachers, non-teaching school staff, administrators, or parents/guardians currently involved with gardening at their school, or planning to start an outdoor garden at their school.
• It is highly encouraged that two people from the same school apply, so they can work together on the school garden projects
• Beginner to advanced school gardeners welcome
• Other garden enthusiasts wanting to learn more about gardening

This in-person Learning Opportunity is on Chancellor's Day - NYCPS staff may need to get approval from their principal in order to attend. Please check with your principal before signing up! Space is limited.

This event does not offer CTLE credit.

Questions? Email [email protected]

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