Learn from Urban Gardening Experts at Beds & Breakfast Seminar

Shake off those winter blues and learn expert tips from urban gardening pros at Greater Newark Conservancy’s Beds & Breakfast Winter Seminar.The event, on Saturday, February 24th (snow date: March 3rd), from 9:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m., will be held at the Conservancy’s Outdoor Learning Center, 32 Prince Street (between South Orange and Springfield Avenues) in Newark. The cost is only $55 per person, and includes a nutritious, organic, prepared-on-site breakfast plus workshops, giveaways, gardening resources and door prizes. Register for the event online at http://citybloom.org/2016/01/20/beds-breakfast-2016/#sthash.O9L5376U.dpbs.

There will be three different workshop Topics/Tracks (Home Gardening, Community Garden Organizing and Nutrition) but participants do not need to follow one specific track.

Workshop presenters will include Tobias A. Fox, founder of Newark Science and Sustainability, Inc. (Think Global, Act Local....That's GLOCAL!), Keven Porter, founder and gardener of Rabbit Hole Farm, a diverse and beautiful organic garden next to his home on Rose Terrace in Newark (Urban Farmsteading), and Cody Parker from Drop the Beet Farms, (Oyster Mushroom Cultivation), who has 8 years of hands-on mushroom cultivation experience and wants to guide you in your mycological journey. Other Beds & Breakfast workshop topics include Spring Seed Starting, Buying Local Produce: Grow Quality, Price & Health, Kimchi, The Honey Bee, Her World and Ours, Essential Oils: The New Flavor Enhancer, and Fuel Better on a Budget.

Newark-based urban planner Damon Rich, a 2017 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, will serve as keynote speaker and will share his vision of community advancement through design and democracy in civic decisions about urban change. Rich will be speaking about how the community can protect access to city-owned property for gardening purposes, success stories in riverfront zoning, advice on strategies to protect gardens and will lead an interactive discussion regarding decisions that impact Newark’s community gardens.

He will be joined by guest speaker Demetrice Mills, a community activist, community gardener, and community leader from Brooklyn, New York who serves as President of the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust (BQLT). BQLT owns, operates, and stewards 35 community gardens in Brooklyn and Queens, and leases two open space garden properties, one from the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), and another one from the NYC Housing Preservation Development (HPD). BQLT’s mission is to ensure the conservation and preservation of open space in perpetuity, for the benefit of the general public, to act as steward of the open spaces properties that BQLT owns, and to establish a community of gardeners in New York City.

Space is limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis. No walk-ins can be accommodated on the day of the event. Participants must be aged 16 and older (no child care is available).

For more information about other programs, services and volunteer opportunities or to make a donation, contact Greater Newark Conservancy at 973-642-4646 or visit www.citybloom.org. You can also follow news from the Conservancy through social media at Facebook.com/GreaterNewarkConservancy, plus Twitter and Instagram - @Citybloom87.