Classes

Do you want to create your own native plant landscape, but you don’t know how to start? Or do you already have a native plant garden but want to utilize design principles more effectively to help it look its best? This immersive three-part series will help get you there!

Native plants can transform an urban lawn into a wildlife sanctuary while adding beauty and value to your home. They’re often hardier and require less maintenance than traditional landscape plants. Planting your garden with native plants can also make you a loud-and-proud advocate for conservation. But it’s important to understand some basic principles of landscape design and site planning if you want your native garden to be successful.

Each class in the series will cover one piece of the landscaping puzzle—from site analysis to plant selection to proper planting and long-term maintenance. You’ll have the opportunity to practice your skills on an example garden in class and leave with the resources you need to apply what you’ve learned to your own yard.

CLASS DATES: Tuesdays, August 11, 18, and 25, 6-8pm

INSTRUCTORS: Julie Dennewitz (CGC Horticulturist) and Mary Dudley (CGC Director of Education)

COST: $75

Ever wanted to grow your own mushrooms? Join Pete and Emalee Richman of Rich Life Farm & Fungi as they teach the basics of controlled environment mushroom cultivation. You'll learn the step-by-step process to growing your own gourmet mushrooms using readily available products.

MEET YOUR INSTRUCTORS: Pete & Emalee Richman (Rich Life Farm & Fungi)

COST: $20 / $15 for active CGC volunteers

Learn how to save your own seeds in this hands-on class!

Join us as we cover topics such as why seed saving is important, the difference between wet-seeded crops (like tomatoes and cucumbers) and dry-seeded crops (like lettuce and beans), how pollination works and how to prevent unwanted crosses between similar plants, and proper cleaning and storing of saved seeds.

The class will be led by farmer and seed-saver Katie Chase, who will bring a wide variety of her own farm-grown seeds to process together as a group, including beans, peas, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, zinnias, sorghum, and more! You'll also have the opportunity to take some of these seeds home to plant in your own garden or share with others.

INSTRUCTOR: Katie Chase

COST: $20 / $15 for active CGC volunteers

For those of us seeking a path to sustainability in our gardens, native plants are essential.

The plants that are native to our region are aesthetically beautiful, beneficial to wildlife, and biologically diverse. Many of them are also edible! And because they're adapted to our soils and climate, it takes fewer inputs to have a bountiful garden.

Join us as we munch our way through the garden and learn more about these incredible species.

INSTRUCTOR: Mary Dudley (CGC Director of Education)

COST: $20 / $15 for active CGC volunteers

Green your clean and make your own body soap!

Want to reduce the number of chemicals in your cleaning routine? Rely less on processed products? Have a skin care routine that reflects your values? Take control cleaning supplies this year with your own handmade soap. Knowing how to blend your own soaps will open a new world of options. The ingredients you need might already be in your cupboard!

This hands-on workshop will cover the basic process of making handmade soaps, specifically incorporating oils infused from native plants. We'll watch a demo of how to make cold process soap, then make our own rebatch samples to take home. While our soaps solidify, we'll learn more about the native plants in them. You'll leave with the skills to craft your own unique creations, resources for next steps, and a rebatch soap sample.

The workshop is geared toward beginners, though those with experience are welcome to share their success stories. Children aged 8 and up are welcome to attend with their guardians.

INSTRUCTORS: Mary Dudley (CGC Director of Education) & Stephanie Fransen (CGC Administrative & Facilities Manager)

COST: $35

Learn to protect and monitor monarchs, grow native milkweed, and supercharge your backyard habitat—just in time for fall planting!

Late August is a high-stakes window for breeding and migrating monarch populations. By understanding how you can best support this special species in your home, school, community, or public greenspace, you're helping to increase urban biodiversity, monitor local habitats, and helping to provide immediate, measurable lifelines for these endangered pollinators.

We'll begin the class with an overview of monarch conservation and local milkweed varieties, then explore a monarch monitoring and surveying method and community science projects. We hope you'll leave feeling excited and fully prepared to kickstart or enhance a productive pollinator habitat in your own yard!

INSTRUCTOR: Luis Aguilar-Dwyer (CGC Environmental Education Specialist)

COST: $20 / $15 for active CGC volunteers

Learn to dye textiles using common plants!

In this beginner-friendly workshop, we'll explore botanical dyeing using native plants collected at the Civic Garden Center—many of which are likely in your own backyard! After a quick introduction and a demonstration, you'll use a bundle dye technique and an iron after-bath to make a botanically dyed tea towel to take home. While your creation is steaming, we'll discuss common dye plants so you can start your own botanical color journey. You'll leave with your hand-dyed tea towel and a handout that explains the process and lists favorite dye plants.

No prior dye or plant knowledge is required to participate.

INSTRUCTOR: Devan Horton

COST: $35

Every backyard and greenspace has the potential to serve as a critical rest stop for migratory birds. By understanding plant-bird relationships, we can provide the high-energy fuel birds need to survive their journeys. Whether you're a homeowner, community gardener, greenspace steward, or nature enthusiast looking to connect local plant choices with wildlife conservation, this class is for you.

INSTRUCTOR: Luis Aguilar-Dwyer (CGC Environmental Education Specialist)

COST: $20 / $15 for active CGC volunteers

Learn to be more in the present moment and reduce stress and anxiety with evidenced-based practices that create better health, foster more joy and creativity, and help us come closer to the reciprocity we have with nature.

We all need to have internal tools to help us build and maintain mind-body resilience and joy for our health and to share our best selves with the world. Many of us also yearn to feel closer to nature and better appreciate the reciprocity we share with it.

For both beginners and those wishing to refresh their skills, local mindfulness meditation teacher, author, and artist Cathy Sacco will explore nature-based mindfulness practices that can be incorporated into your everyday life. She'll also discuss stress physiology, the role of the senses, and the benefits of self-compassion and gratitude. You'll have the chance to experiment with guided meditation, gentle mindful movement, observation, and art in nature, and you'll learn how to build a home practice right for you.

INSTRUCTOR: Cathy Cebulski Sacco

COST: $25

Learn how to turn a dried-out stem of dogbane into a strong rope—and how that rope can be used to ignite fire from materials commonly found in local fields and forests.

INSTRUCTOR: Howie Zuefle

COST: $35

In this introductory class, you'll learn the fundamentals of plant preservation. No prior experience needed! After a demonstration of how to press flowers or leaves, you'll create a small piece of art with pressed botanical materials to take home.

INSTRUCTOR: Luis Aguilar-Dwyer (CGC Environmental Education Specialist)

COST: $35

Love looking at plants? Learn how to draw one! Get in touch with the joy of drawing as you look more closely at the wide variety of plants growing at Hauck Botanic Garden—even if you've never drawn before.

INSTRUCTOR: Gratia Banta

COST: $50

In this beginner-friendly workshop, you’ll learn how to properly dry, seal, and coat real botanicals in resin so they remain vibrant, protected, and long-lasting, then make your own unique pieces to take home.

If you'd like, join us for an optional harvesting session from 9:30-10:30am on Saturday, September 26. You're welcome to come harvest botanical material to preserve from the CGC grounds or bring pieces from home to be preserved in time for the jewelry-making workshop on November 1.

INSTRUCTOR: Breanna Cole

COST: $100