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.
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!
Since long before Kroger Pharmacy, people have used the plants growing in their gardens and surrounding forests as natural herbal medicine. Do you have a go-to native plant for healing minor ailments? Join us to learn all about medicinal native plants!
FACILITATOR: Julie Dennewitz (CGC Horticulturist)
COST: Included with CGC membership
Bring your current project and a snack or drink to share (if you’d like) and join your fellow CGC members for an informal evening of making together! Whether you knit, crochet, embroider, sketch, paint, spin, papercraft, or anything else creative—if it’s portable enough for you to get it here, you’re welcome to come do it in good company.
Come be part of our CGC member community!
COST: Included with CGC membership
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 harvest moon is on the horizon, and so is our fourth and final Herb Circle of the year. This session, we'll focus on bringing herbs into our care routines by making an herbal salve. Join us as we celebrate the power of herbs to soothe our skin after a long season in the garden.
As always, we welcome beginners who are herb curious as well as experienced herbalists who enjoy sharing good conversation!
FACILITATOR: Mary Dudley (CGC Director of Education)
COST: Included with CGC membership
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!
Join award-winning veteran Cheesemaker Eduardo Rodriguez to explore the history, culture, process, and uses of Ricotta! In this beginner-friendly class, you'll sample some cheeses, participate in a demonstration, and have the opportunity to ask questions. You'll go home with the basket and cheese cloth needed to make Ricotta as well as a basic recipe.
INSTRUCTOR: Eduardo Rodriguez (owner of My Artisano and Slow Food Cincinnati member)
COST: $35
Sharpen your coffee-tasting skills with Cody Brown, Director of Operations for Proud Hound Coffee!
In this beginner-friendly class, Cody will take you on a deep-dive sensory journey through the world of coffee—including its geography, essential processes (like farming, processing, and roasting), the people around the world who make it possible. After a lecture and demonstration, you'll get hands-on to learn specific tasting skills such as identifying profile notes. You'll also have the opportunity to ask questions.
INSTRUCTOR: Cody Brown (Proud Hound Director of Operations)
COST: $35
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
For our final performance in the 2026 Hauck Concert Series, we’ll gather together in the CGC’s auditorium to hear beautiful string quartet music. Throughout the afternoon, we’ll share spiced wine and mulled cider, light bites, guided conversation and good company. At the end of the event, we’ll raffle off the one-of-a-kind centerpieces–all made by CGC Horticulturist Julie from garden findings–for lucky audience members to take home. Each ticket includes one (1) drink ticket and light bites.
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.