CGC Updates: Summer 2025
From conservation to urban agriculture and youth education to volunteering, our program areas have had a busy summer! Here’s a sampling of what we’ve been up to.
Plant Propagation
This season we grew more than 4,000 native plants of over 65 unique species, many of which will be available at our Fall Native Plant Festival on Saturday, September 6! While we continued to grow some of the classic favorites, this year we focused on adding in some new species of harder-to-find varieties. Species such as Zig-Zag Goldenrod and Blue-Eyed Grass can be found in this year’s mix of species as we try to diversity beyond the sun-loving perennials. A huge shout-out to Debbie Lutkenhoff and the many other volunteers who help us transplant, care for and sell our native plants!
Lil’ Sprouts Extravaganza
We have all kinds of Lil’ Sprouts updates. First up: Lil’ Sprouts here at the CGC has a new start time as of this month! Kids ages 3-8 and their caregivers are invited to join us from 10-11:30am on the second and fourth Mondays of the month.
This summer, we also took Lil’ Sprouts on the go! At MadTree Brewing’s Parks & Rec location, we’ve been running slightly more structured programs, exploring concepts like seed starting, the water cycle and native plants and pollinators. (Visit our kids’ activities area at the Fall Native Plant Festival to sample that last one!) We’ve also hosted over 14 library programs with more than 231 participants. We explored Compost Close-Up, where we raced red wigglers and discovered the little critters that help break down compost, and Nature’s Rainbow, where we used natural materials to create plant-based dyes, then turned those colors into watercolor art.
Backyard Garden Program
This summer we addressed barriers to accessing fresh produce by launching our Backyard Garden program. We established nine backyard gardens by building garden beds and supplying our gardeners with soil, plants, seeds, organic pest controls and other materials to reach the goal of promoting healthy eating and greater food security. Over 100 pounds of fresh produce have been grown so far this season, and we plan to continue growing into the fall with the help of season extension techniques.
Volunteer-A-Thon
This year, we’re trying something new: a Volunteer-A-Thon! We have so many amazing volunteers who gift their time and talents to the CGC. From now until early November, volunteers can recruit sponsors who are willing to donate to the CGC in support of the hours that volunteer invests. Everything counts—from facilitating field trips to working on the grounds to helping in community gardens to helping with the Fall Native Plant Festival and more! Want to join us? Get all the info here.
HUB Garden Classes
We’ve had more than 50 people attend our free Garden to Plate and education HUB Garden classes so far this year! At the Northgate Community Garden, we explored nontraditional ways of including crop parts we typically would discard or compost, like pumpkin leaves, in dishes inspired by gardeners from Cameroon. These dishes are packed with vital nutrients like vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants. At the Loveland Community Garden, we preserved cucumbers using the hot water bath technique to make delicious kosher and bread-and-butter pickles. At our plant pressing class at the Mt. Airy Community Garden, participants arranged artful masterpieces using dehydrated produce and flowers from gardens in our network and from the CGC’s grounds, demonstrating creative ways that crops can be used beyond just for cooking.
There’s still time to join us for a HUB Garden class this year! Check out the rest of the schedule here.
Looking Ahead
The Third Annual Fall Native Plant Festival (this weekend!)
The Fall Native Plant Festival is back for its third year on Saturday, September 6! In addition to the CGC, you’ll be able to shop selections from Bean Native Nursery, the Cincinnati Nature Center, Green Living by Design, Junebug Native Plants, Keystone Flora, Native Roots, Natives in Harmony, Scioto Gardens, Shaker Trace, Tikkun Farm, Treeyo Permaculture and Wild Heart Gardens—our biggest vendor lineup yet.
Want to preorder a Pollinator Pocket Garden Kit of CGC-grown plants for pickup during the festival? If you’re reading this when our newsletter comes out, there’s still time! Learn more and reserve your kit here.
Jennifer Jewel Documentary
Jennifer Jewell, host of the award-winning public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden, and President of the Cultivating Place Foundation, has chosen the CGC as one of the sites for the filming of her upcoming documentary Cultivating Place: The Power of Gardeners!
The Cultivating Place Foundation team is currently at work on the documentary with filmmaker Myriam Nicodemus of EM EN films to explore some of the lessons learned over 10 years of hosting thought-provoking conversations with gardeners growing our world better in all the places they cultivate. The film will premiere around the country in 2027 and feature the expansive cultivation of our world by gardeners in California, Ohio, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Indiana. We are thrilled to be included!
Dewey Garden Project
This year we’ve entered into a new partnership with The Port of Greater Cincinnati to identify vacant properties and explore opportunities for urban beautification. Our first project is in Price Hill, where we’re removing invasive plants and installing a pocket park consisting of native pollinator plants and native trees that will one day provide a beautiful shaded garden for neighbors to enjoy. We hope you’ll join us in November at the site for our first planting day. Keep an eye on our eNews or register as a volunteer to stay in the loop!
McMicken Collaboration
Cardinal Land Conservancy recently acquired a new property on McMicken Avenue where they’ll be establishing office space for their urban greenspace initiative. The CGC and Adventure Crew will be working with our friends at Cardinal to establish a demonstration site that will show off what successful urban greenspace initiatives can look like. While we’re still early in the planning stages, some ideas include market garden space, a micro-forest with hiking trails, pollinator gardens and more. We hope this site will inspire even more greenspace initiatives throughout the Greater Cincinnati region and provide us with additional space for classes and community programming in the future.
The Green Teens Challenge
We’re so excited to kick off another year of the Green Teens Challenge! Last year’s entries blew us away—from using solar power to make iced tea, to upcycling scraps into handmade paper, to leading waste audits at school lunches, to experimenting with vibrant plant dyes and even writing to the city council. With that kind of creativity and passion setting the bar, we look forward to seeing what students come up with this year!