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SPRING PLANTING

Spring Planting is our annual get greener event where we help folks learn how to grow food at home.

 

             Spring Planting is co-sponsored by the                                                            

http://www.foundationforagreenfuture.org

 

Vendors provide information; answer questions; hold demonstrations; give workshops and some have useful material that they give-a-way.

 

The Green Neighbors hold Spring Planting in a different part of Boston each year.

Our first event was in Jamaica Plain at the Pond near the bandstand.

The second event was at Harambee Park (AKA Franklin Field) in Dorchester.

The third event was on Meeting House Hill at The First Parish Church in Dorchester. The fourth event was in Grove Hall at St. Katherine Drexel Church. The fifth Spring Planting was at the Menino Community Center in Roslindale.

 

This is a free, fun family event with great activities and information for all.

Spring Planting 2018

Spring Planting 2018

Special thanks for the snacks and materials from our donors including:

Dutch Maid Bakery

Honest Tea/Honest Beverages

Lambert's Rainbow Fruit

Mt. Washington Bank

Unreal Candy

BNAN

The Food Project

Agricultural Hall

Home Depot

Victory Programs - Revision Urban Farms
Mather Parent Council

Stop & Shop

Shaw's

Cabot Cheese

Mike's Donuts

TD BankNorth

Sociedad Latina

Share Food

 

Our Wonderful Volunteers:

Austin Lane

Trevor Harrigan

Pacita Bradford

Ralph Walton

Owen Toney

Lisa (Graclyn) Smith

Lenore Pereira

Jody Morris

Pat Blakeney

Robert Morris

Karen Weber

Holly Proctor

Ricardo Anderson

Edwin Rosario

Ranalda Hazell

Alan Booth

Spring Planting 2018

When:     March 31, 2018

Time:       12:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Where:    Shelburne Community Center,                   2730 Washington Street, Roxbury. Near Intersection of MLK Boulevard and Washington St. Park on Washington Street. 

   #42 bus from Dudley or Forest Hills Stations.

Free to the public.

Your new GREEN friends in attendance include:

 

The Green Neighbors Education Committee, Inc. is a small group of volunteers who bring GREEN information to Boston’s communities through a variety of methods. These methods include our annual Spring Planting wherein folks learn from master gardeners and others, how they can grow food at their homes; our Green Entrepreneur Small Business Network wherein we bring expert speakers from small business together with interested parties and include information on keeping your business GREEN. We have also begun a Sustainable Development Project for Liberia, bringing GREEN techniques and technology to the people of Liberia.

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The Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. provides opportunities to build an environmentally-friendly world from the rooftop down and the ground up.

Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. is a Boston-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to providing environmentally focused programs to the Greater Boston community. Throughout the year, we run a series of programs focused on greening our urban spaces through gardening, green roofs and living walls. We also provide green jobs training and promote environmentally friendly business practices. Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. works with local schools, community centers, and neighborhood organizations to educate young and old about the many dimensions of green technologies and design interactive curricula to suit their needs. This year, beginning Sunday, May 7, 2017, the Foundation will start a Green Learning Center located at the back of the Arboretum to provide hands-on learning and training experiences in green roofs, living walls, sustainable landscaping, gardening and urban farming. 

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Boston Building Resources will bring a compost bin and rain barrel to help you keep your garden nourished and hydrated. You can also learn about upcoming BBR workshops and products for home improvement

 

SolarCity is America's #1 full-service solar provider. We make clean energy available to homeowners, businesses, schools, non-profits and government organizations at a lower cost than they pay for energy generated by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Our approach is to install systems to the highest engineering standards while making the switch simple for our customers. We've revolutionized the way energy is delivered by giving customers a cleaner, more affordable alternative to their monthly utility bill. Andrew Breiter-Wu is the local Boston based Energy Consultant. He helps both homeowners and renters benefit from solar energy. Please reach out to Andrew to learn more about your solar options. His email is abreiterwu@solarcity.com and direct phone number is (401) 954-6450.

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Boston Vegetarian Society:
By adding more plant foods to our diets and reducing or doing away with animal foods, we are doing a great thing for our health, the environment and the animals.  The Boston Vegetarian Society will offer free veg starter kits with information on nutrition and meal planning as well as recipes for delicious plant-based meals.  Learn about the annual Boston Veg Food Fest which happens each fall at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center at Roxbury Crossing.
www.BostonVeg.org

 

The Massachusetts Master Gardener Association is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to share knowledge and experience with the public through outreach programs in education, horticulture and gardening; to provide the Master Gardener Training Program to interested members of the public; and to provide graduates of the Master Gardener Training Program with educational and practical opportunities to extend their knowledge and interests in gardening and related topics.  At Spring Planting, we will be demonstrate how to make a container garden out of spring edibles as well as pretty plants. For the children, we will be planting sunflower seeds in little cups.

 

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Agricultural Hall is an urban agriculture supply and resource center that caters to the unique challenges of farming in the city.  Ag Hall carries beekeeping and chicken supplies, an assortment of gardening supplies, mushroom kits, maple sugaring supplies, and more. 

Many homeowners without garden space or clean soil have been using 5-gallon plastic buckets to grow vegetables ('container gardening'), and some even hang the buckets or cover their second/third-floor porches in order to take advantage of vertical space (an effective form of 'vertical gardening').  With this in mind, Agricultural Hall staff will hand out clean, food-grade 5-gal pails at the Spring Planting 2015.  Drainage holes will be drilled on-site. Recipients are encouraged to add soil and their choice of seeds/seedlings.  In just a few months they will be harvesting their home-grown bounty.

 

 

The Landless Garden allows you to grow greens and other vegetables using only 2 square feet of space! It can be done on a porch, pavement, or anywhere that gets a little sunshine. The Landless Garden Project strives to provide urbanites a low-cost, Do-It-Yourself, plastic-free way of growing food in the city, to make healthy food more accessible, and to put people back in touch with their food supply. 
At the Spring Planting event, you will learn how to build your own Landless Garden using a burlap bag; soil; and gravel, so you can enjoy fresh greens and vegetables throughout the spring and summer. 

 

Codman Square Goes Solar is a grassroots campaign committed to creating a truly accessible solar program to help residents save money and take action on climate with the install of no-cost rooftop solar panels. Codman Square Goes Solar is a coalition that includes Second Church, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, Resonant Energy, and neighborhood groups. We need everyone's voice to be a part of this movement. If you are interested in getting involved or own a roof, please contact Daryl Goldston at 857-800-6647 or visit www.Resonant.Energy/signup.

 

Victory Programs’ ReVision Urban Farm is an innovative urban agriculture project, the mission of which is to increase access to local, affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for ReVision Family Home shelter residents and our extended community. We do this by growing vegetables and herbs and donating them to shelter residents, selling them through our CSA and market, and selling to restaurants and grocery stores.  We also sell seedlings to gardeners, provide service opportunities, conduct gardening and food justice workshops, and provide job training for youth and Boston’s homeless.

 

 The Leah Collective is a group of concerned educators, parents and kids, land care professionals, health care practitioners, researchers, environmentalists, farmers, artists and film makers who care deeply about our children, our pets, and the future of our Planet! 
At Spring Planting, Ellen will help kids create healthy and organic treats and smoothies. We will learn about organic, local and permaculture foodways.  How do we grow fruit and veggies in our own backyards and community gardens.  Ellen will tell stories and get kids and kids at heart engaged in telling  their own stories about our good green EARTH!

 

Ben's Bins manufactures worm composting bins and promotes the use of worm castings as a soil amendment to increase the microbial and nutritional content of soil. Ben does workshops, and presentations for classrooms and gardening groups.

Option 2 ...  Ben does workshops, and presentations for classrooms, gardening groups, and anyone else who'll listen.

 

Boston Climate Action Network (BostonCAN) is an organization of Boston residents taking action in personal, social and political ways to build a climate justice movement.

Come by our table to learn about the opportunities for our communities to benefit from the transition from the era of fossil fuels to the era of renewable energy.  Every day we send our hard-earned dollars off to companies like Exxon-Mobil and multi-national utilities. Imagine how many jobs we could create here in our state and neighborhoods if we could switch that money to building local wind, solar and other renewable energy generation facilities. One way we can push that reinvestment of our energy dollars in through the City of Boston implementing a  "Community Choice Energy" plan that's already been approved by the City Council. Join us and sign a postcard to the Mayor asking him to stop stalling and implement Community Choice Energy this year.

 

City Compost provides a full circle compost creation service that maximizes the efficiencies of the compost process while eliminating the hassles and nuisances of composting at home. 100% of compost created is able to go back to our subscribers with service. Finished compost is tested for lead for safety and for the nutrient values that growers want to know. City Compost is excited to be signing up members of the community for service as part of a fundraiser to support the  Green Neighbors Education Committee and will be providing free mulch at the event to keep the weeds down and the tomatoes up!! www.citycompost.com or email Adam at adamj@citycompost.com

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The Community Outreach Group for Landscape Design (COGdesign) provides pro bono landscape design services to under-resourced community groups with the goal to create beautiful, resilient green spaces which meet neighborhood needs. We currently have eight projects running in neighborhoods from Roxbury to Chelsea, Dorchester to the S. End, and have worked through Eastern MA as well. 

 

Groups which apply to us for design help run from well-established non-profits to informal community groups who have a space in mind which they would like to transform into a park, playground, plaza or community garden - or simply to revitalize. COGdesign has 20 years of experience helping communities envision green projects by matching them with landscape designers/architects who work for free. Communities then leverage drawings to fundraise for the building phase. 

 

COGdesign will be accepting applications for projects next Fall. Join our email list and follow us on social media to stay informed!

Web: cogdesign.org

Instagram: cogdesignlandscape

Facebook: Cogdesign

Twitter: @COGdesignMA

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Pearl's Premium Ultra Low Maintenance Lawn Seed - will have a table where they sell the special Pearl's Premium Ultra low maintenance grass seed at a discount (Normally sold at Whole Foods Markets) and share information on how to have a lawn that takes 75% less water, time and money, without chemicals, to be the greenest lawn in the neighborhood. Pearl's Premium inventor and award winning Speaker Jackson Madnick, will be there. His work has been commended by two White Houses, the United Nations and Al Gore, among others.
Pearl's Premium's mission is to help everyone be more "People, Pet and Planet Friendly TM" . Pearl's Premium donates grass seed to causes related to children, animals, environmental education and  donates 2 tons of grass to help the important work of Habitat for Humanity. For further info come by or call 508-653-0800   or  www.PearlsPremium.com

Co-Sponsors Include:

Shelburne

Community Center

 

 

Vendors that have participated in Spring Planting include:

Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association

Landless Gardens

The Food Project

Victory Programs - Revision Urban Farms
BNAN (Boston Natural Areas Network)

Boston Vegetarian Society

Green City Growers

Dot/Rox Cooperative Gardening Center project

Agricultural Hall

The Leah Collective

Boston Building Resources

Boston CAN

Home Depot

Next Step Living

Co-op Power

Bowdoin Street Health Center

Mather Parent Council

Creek River String Band

Workshops! 

Click buttons & Pics forLinks to info. & Container Garedening Videos

2018 photos!

Print me!
My Third Floor Porch!

Spring Planting 2015 -Parts I & II

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