It was a long day that started in Brattleboro, gathering enough rough-cut hemlock for 18 raised garden beds. It took all day to get the wood, cut it to length and then deliver it to our sites. Each site will hold a separate bed building party, which will be held in two weeks! We cant wait to build these beds!
CGC Co-coordinators from left to right: Michael Hightower, Andrew Herrick, Karen Alsen, Megan Kennedy
Our first workshop was a success! The new garden sites were all enthusiastic about this upcoming growing season and cant wait to start growing. It felt like a real community.
This Saturday we are presenting at Antioch for Earth Day. We will be presenting on garden site design and planning. Megan Kennedy and Andrew Herrick will conduct a workshop that will cover basic design and planning considerations when starting a vegetable garden. There will be two mini-lessons: one teaching about the universal, natural and human elements to consider when growing a vegetable garden and another discussing where to grow, this will include plant relationships, companion planting, space and shade. This workshop will provide beginner garden groups with the planning skills, knowledge, and confidence to design their own garden sites.
Here is a picture from out previous workshop. 
This Wednesday is our first workshop with our new sites 
After a blizzard delayed our first meeting we are ready to think about gardening once again. We will tackle the complex issues of Site Design and Garden Bed Planning in a 4-5 hour intensive workshop with good food and new friends. We are getting excited to build more community gardens in addition to the 6 existing sites in Keene, NH this season.
Stay tuned to see how it went and get updates about our next workshop, Bed Building!
Get an inside scoop of what Community Garden Connections is all about!
Last week, for the first time ever, CGC gave an epic presentation to the board or trustees. Former CGC master and Antioch alum, Libby Weiland came to town to join in on the fun. We want to thank Libby for being such a powerful presence during the presentation. Without her, CGC would not be what it is today!
In our discussion we highlighted the many benefits of garden-based education, including community food security, increased quality of life, economic and social wellbeing, as well as building community resilience. Also in the presentation we got to brag about our successes to date. Along with the invaluable services provided to Antioch students, we’ve built 6 garden sites, hosted a myriad of workshops, forums and connected a new community of gardeners to resources in Keene, many of which are children!
Also at this event, CGC unveiled our new promotional video! Thank you to all the people who helped to create this wonderful piece of art! Please check it out and give it a “Like!”
We are really excited to host this year’s first workshop on site design and garden bed planning on March 19th. Stay tuned to hear all about it!
Community Garden Connections is ready for another great season! Much like nature, CGC is constantly evolving and with the passing of some great things, comes lots of new growth. Due to the structure of the Antioch graduate program, Maisie and Allen are in Missouri and California respectively and have allowed for new things to grow :’( Sob. Also, the amazing Caity Stewart is embarking on new adventures. Moment of silence please… All of these garden enthusiasts will be greatly missed.
The first line of business is to welcome three new members onto the CGC team! Meghan Kennedy, Andrew Herrick and Michael Hightower. All three of these graduate students are motivated and bring a plethora of great skills to the table, including a degree in plant and soil science and multiple experiences working on vegetable farms in VT.
This year we are introducing three new community garden sites. This brings the total number of sites to nine in Keene! Each new site will enjoy the installation of 6 raised beds, for a total of 240 square feet of garden space. Talk about greening up the city!
Here at CGC we believe that gardening is a vehicle for change. Whether it’s increasing access to healthy food, improving community green spaces around Keene, or simply fostering wellness, our goal remains building a healthy and sustainable environment that fosters strong social networks and improves quality of life for all those involved.
Stay tuned for updates on our three workshops and how you can volunteer!
Like with the coming of every new year, of every new season, there is the anticipation of a fresh beginning. As is the the case with us here at CGC!
About to embark on our third season of existence, we here at CGC are preparing to introduce our newest garden members. Although the holiday season brings complication and certainly slows down the process given our scattered locations as we visit family, we are all eager to share soon just who in Keene will we be working with next to help spread the good news about fresh food and gardening.
With this addition of new sites, we will unfortunately be loosing some of our own staff. Due to the structure of the Antioch graduate program, most second year students end their course work in December and finished the rest of their schooling their last semester focusing specifically on an internship and finishing their final project. This structure allows students to live literally anywhere in the world to complete these tasks. Two of our own, Maisie Rinne and Allan Pearce, will be moving to Missouri and California respectively for this next semester. Maisie and Allan have been integral to the development and organization of CGC. Their creativity and determination have helped to enable CGC’s influence on and involvement in the city of Keene. We are forever indebted to their commitment! As the new semester begins, we look forward to introducing to you our latest CGC leaders.
With new leadership and new garden sites upon, what about goals? What about new aspirations? Our recent dreaming session saw the development of what we hope to see here at CGC these next months and years. Be sure to check it out and tell us what you think! In the mean time, we here at CGC wish you all a joyous New Year and look forward to sharing this next year with all of you.
What do you get when you combine hummus, crayons, and laughter? A wealth of dreams.
Last week, just hours before our CGC team was to embark across the country to join families for the Thanksgiving holiday, we hosted a meeting specifically designated for us to dream up all the grand ideas we could conjure for the future of Community Garden Connections. We called it our “retreat.”
Meeting at the cozy home of our faithful advisor, Libby McCann, we started our dream session with a hike in the woods followed by local snacks. While these factors may sound trivial, they are indeed some of the most crucial components to encouraging our brains and hearts to entertain nearly unfathomable ideas.
We chose to separate this retreat into two areas of focus: first, this next year and second, a time period with no deadline. This first half of our session was important because, like it or not, CGC is always undergoing new leadership. It is simply the nature of being lead by graduate students. This time gave our seasoned leaders Maisie and Allan the chance to not only share their knowledge of a CGC with the new student leaders, Caity and Karen, but also to contribute the dreams and ideas that they have developed through their countless hours digging in the dirt, leading educational workshops, and planning for a healthier community.
While we knew that what we were discussing was indeed important, we were all eager to jump into the wild unknown of all the of the possibilities for our beloved CGC.
What was it doing well? What did we want to continue? What needed to end? Better yet, where did we want to see this endeavor go 5,10, 20 years down the road? How did we envision CGC growing, both figuratively and literally?
Well, what better way to encourage the surge of possibilities than with crayons and blank pieces of paper?
We want to see more gardens. At more places. In more communities.
We dream of:
Of course the dreams did not stop here. However, smelling the metaphorical aroma of mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, the little time we had left we allotted to brainstorming just HOW we were going to go about making these dreams a reality. Especially if we are to successfully implement another season.
For what did we realize was our greatest roadblock to the creation of these new dreams?
We are growing. In fact, we are growing so fast that we don’t (yet!) have the infrastructure to support our success. While at times it certainly feels like growing pains, we cannot help but cheer with glee over the immediate reactions to this non-traditional approach to enacting food security.
But…just how are we going to go about this? Just how are we going to give wings to these young ideas?
Ready…set…write all of the ideas that rush to your head on as many post-it-notes as you can…and…go!
Here’s just a taste of some of the ideas we came up with:
Alas, the clock had struck “time-for-thanksgiving,” we left with our minds a’buzz, our mouths a’clatter, and our hearts full.
Do we have a lot to do in front of us? You bet. Absolutely.
But do we have eager hands and passionate hearts to eradicating hunger and nutritional deficiencies in our communities?
Most definitely.
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Want to know more about our ideas? Want to contribute in any way you can to this community effort? Feel free to contact us at communitygardenconnections@antioch.edu.
Know someone in Keene that might want to apply for gardens and education from CGC? Check out this link here for more information.
It is that time of year! Is your organization or another group that you know interested in growing a garden? Interested in contributing to food security? Interested in raising delicious, sustainable food?
Well you’re in luck. Applications are ready! Click on the link below, fill it out (or share with a friend!), and be sure to turn in by December 1st. Questions? Be sure to leave them here or email us at communitygardens@antioch.edu.
We look forward to gardening with you!
Not only did we get to go to one conference on the west coast….we went to two!
flying over the Shenandoah Mountains
Not even a week after our Oakland conference, we sent off another of our current student coordinators to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in LA. Mouthful, right? That’s why we call it AASHE (a-she). While most people who attend this conference are interested in learning about how to start or enhance their sustainability presence on campus, we went for a slightly different reason.
The Staples Center – where the conference was held. Also the home of the Lakers.
We here at CGC are excited about the structure and mission of this group and are just as eager about sharing what we do with as many people as possible. So why not at one of the largest conferences on sustainability?
What did we learn? Well, CGC is pretty unique. During this informal, 2-hour poster session, attendees have the chance to walk around the various professional posters and ask questions about the content shared. The most common question that we got was this: “How can we best start a campus garden at our institution?” Well, um… Not many people have thought about turning around and creating gardens for other people. It seems as if CGC is pretty cutting edge on discovering what it truly means to be “sustainable.”
Student coordinator, Caity Stuart, proudly representing information about CGC at the AASHE conference poster session.
Luckily for us, the poster session wasn’t the only thing we got to take part in. There were numerous sessions and breakouts that we, as students, got to attend and learn from. Here were some of our favorites:
- Suburban Composting: Learning how to manage LARGE amounts of compost in just a small space. Talk about smelly! But a great resource if managed properly.
- Sustainable, Student Run, and Delicious Cooperative at your Campus: A neat concept of beginning a food co-op on a campus. Raises the discussion of just how to get healthy, sustainable to students on a campus.
Session with Billy Perish as he talks about receding glaciers
- Keynote Speaker: Billy Perish, Energy Action Coalition(founder), Solar Mosaic (co-founder): An excellent presentation on how he has gotten to where he is. A mover and shaker in the sustainability world, Billy encouraged all of us to Follow our Purpose, Build with the Best, and Go to the Root (of the cause).
- Keynote Speaker: Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism Solutions (president and founder): As an energy consultant for businesses and governments worldwide, Hunter came to AASHE with a zeal to share about radical changes universities can make to become more energy sustainable and more accessible to others.
- Social Justice and Sustainbility, Jordana DeZeeuw Spencer: In this session, we were all challenged to double check how exactly we are going about sustainability in our communities. Are we being fully conscious of those we’re serving? Are we being fully inclusive?
- Permaculture at UMass Amherst: What an excellent look into developing permaculture gardens! (perm=permanent; gardens=act as landscape, fruit trees, berry shrubs, etc.)
- Keynote Speaker: The Crossroads Project: A unique presentation of physics, storytelling, art, and live orchestral music. Robert Davies, the leader of the group, artfully designs this sensory presentation to evoke all emotions regarding sustainability and where we should go in the future. Riveting.
All in all, we had a fantastic time in the warm city of LA. However, while we learned lots, we were anxious to get out of the smog and back into the pine-laden hills of New Hampshire.
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