Classes & Events
What do you want to learn about? Here’s a list of all the classes and events on our calendar at the moment. Click through to learn more and register.
Kickstart your week with a trip to the garden and engage in seasonally relevant activities with the Lil’ Sprouts in your life! This free drop-in series for children ages 3 to 8 and their caregivers offers our youngest gardeners and nature lovers an opportunity to learn more about the natural world. We hold Lil' Sprouts on the second and fourth Monday of each month.
COST: Free!
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
The CHPL Bird Nerds and the Civic Garden Center invite you to come discover why birdwatching is the ideal activity to combine with the practice of mindfulness! Mindful birdwatching is birdwatching quietly, intentionally and calmly while engaging with the natural world around you! Traditional bird watching is often associated with bird checklists, field guides and carrying binoculars or cameras, which can all be fun, but we’re inviting you to come to enjoy a more meditative approach.
FACILITATOR: Lea Shull
COST: Free!
Plants make great food, but they’re not just for eating! We humans have plants to thank for everything from building materials to containers, art supplies, and—of course—medicine. Join us as we explore and (re)discover unique uses of garden plants.
This class will be held at the Melrose Medicinal Garden: 2647 Melrose Ave, 45206.
COST: Free! (Donations welcome)
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
Our gardens are more than just a static showpiece! One of the best parts about having a native plant garden is using those plants in creative ways. Whether it’s a vase of cut flowers on the dining table, natural dyed yarn and fabric, or pressed flower mosaics in a frame, there are a hundred ways to preserve the beauty of our native plants for year-round enjoyment. Let’s craft together!
SPEAKER: Julie Dennewitz (CGC Horticulturist)
COST: Included with CGC membership
The Hauck Arboretum may just be Cincinnati’s best kept botanical secret! A stroll along the pathways of this historic public garden reveals new surprises on each visit. Join us for an informal walk around Hauck Botanic Garden and discover the history of the park and the plants growing within it.
COST: Free!
Join us in the garden for a Healthy Harvest experience! We'll start with a tour of the garden with time to explore and learn, then enjoy a cooking demonstration (with samples, of course!) using freshly picked produce. We’ll cover topics like seasonality, unique and rare crops, and new ways to use old standbys.
This class will be held at the West End Community Garden: 941 Poplar St, 45214.
COST: Free! (Donations welcome)
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
Kickstart your week with a trip to the garden and engage in seasonally relevant activities with the Lil’ Sprouts in your life! This free drop-in series for children ages 3 to 8 and their caregivers offers our youngest gardeners and nature lovers an opportunity to learn more about the natural world. We hold Lil' Sprouts on the second and fourth Monday of each month.
COST: Free!
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
Every year, our green-thumb community gathers to feast on our garden-grown harvests. Gardeners bring homemade dishes crafted from crops they’ve nurtured, turning seasonal produce into a communal, farm-to-table experience right here at the CGC. If you’re part of our urban agriculture community, we hope you’ll join us!
COST: Free (registration required)
The CGC and Sidestreams welcome you to the newly renovated Daryl Gordon Garden in Madisonville! Take a tour of this storied space, which includes row cropping, aquaponics, and live chickens. You'll learn how this garden was reactivated and once again turned into a part of Madisonville’s vibrant community.
This class will be held at the Daryl Gordon Community Garden: 6001 Chandler St, 45227.
COST: Free! (Donations welcome)
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
Did you know that the CGC is host to seven different types of composting systems? Take a walk with us to learn about the different methods of composting we have and how you can incorporate composting into your life! You’ll see Earth Cubes, vermicompost, bokashi, Johnson-Su bioreactors, a three-bin system, a tumbler and a top-loading composter.
COST: Free!
Are you a native plant novice? Expert? Somewhere in between? Join us for the Fall Native Plant Festival! Whether you don’t know what a native plant is or have been growing them for years, this free, multi-vendor celebration of all things native plants is for you. We’ll have the “who’s who” of Cincinnati-area native plant growers as well as vendors, educational sessions, food trucks, a beer garden, live music, kids’ activities and more.
The Hauck Arboretum may just be Cincinnati’s best kept botanical secret! A stroll along the pathways of this historic public garden reveals new surprises on each visit. Join us for an informal walk around Hauck Botanic Garden and discover the history of the park and the plants growing within it.
COST: Free!
The CHPL Bird Nerds and the Civic Garden Center invite you to come discover why birdwatching is the ideal activity to combine with the practice of mindfulness! Mindful birdwatching is birdwatching quietly, intentionally and calmly while engaging with the natural world around you! Traditional bird watching is often associated with bird checklists, field guides and carrying binoculars or cameras, which can all be fun, but we’re inviting you to come to enjoy a more meditative approach.
FACILITATOR: Lea Shull
COST: Free!
Don't miss out on months when you could still be growing! This class will cover strategies to make your harvest last beyond the traditional growing season. You'll learn how South Cumminsville gardeners take advantage of every opportunity to grow, including crop covers and perennial crops (like fruit trees)!
This class will be held at the South Cumminsville Community Garden: 3618 Roll Ave, 45223.
COST: Free! (Donations welcome)
The twelfth-century composer, herbalist and mystic Hildegard von Bingen, while better known to modern audiences for her music, was a careful and scientific observer of the natural world, cataloguing and detailing the uses of herbs for both physical and mental wellbeing and finding solace and health in nature. In her expansive work Physica, we see a curious mind placing scientific inquiry within a theological framework of the goodness of creation.
Join us as we experience Hildegard’s soaring music while participating in simple activities that help us see the world through her eyes. After a brief introduction to Hildegard, we’ll break into three groups and make our way out into Hauck Botanic Garden to explore three stations, each with a performer offering a sampling of Hildegard’s music and an accompanying activity: herbs for health and herbal tea in the Herb Garden, an overview of botanical salve-making (sample included!) in the Food Forest, and creating a small piece of meditative personal art in the Tranquility Garden. Each group will have the opportunity to experience all three stations.
Please note that this event will be held outdoors. In the event of bad weather on September 27, the performance will be moved to October 4 at 3pm. We will be standing and walking a considerable amount during this event, occasionally over uneven or unpaved terrain. The Herb Garden and Tranquility Garden are accessible by mulched or paved path, but the Food Forest is more difficult to reach.
PRICING:
Through December 15, all four concerts in the series can be purchased together for a discounted series price of $125 (a $35 savings)! (Please note that ticket exchanges and partial refunds are not available on series tickets.)
Starting December 16, any remaining tickets to individual concerts will be available for purchase; see pricing information for individual concerts below.
Kickstart your week with a trip to the garden and engage in seasonally relevant activities with the Lil’ Sprouts in your life! This free drop-in series for children ages 3 to 8 and their caregivers offers our youngest gardeners and nature lovers an opportunity to learn more about the natural world. We hold Lil' Sprouts on the second and fourth Monday of each month.
COST: Free!
The CHPL Bird Nerds and the Civic Garden Center invite you to come discover why birdwatching is the ideal activity to combine with the practice of mindfulness! Mindful birdwatching is birdwatching quietly, intentionally and calmly while engaging with the natural world around you! Traditional bird watching is often associated with bird checklists, field guides and carrying binoculars or cameras, which can all be fun, but we’re inviting you to come to enjoy a more meditative approach.
FACILITATOR: Lea Shull
COST: Free!
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