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Resources for Community Gardeners:
Growing Food

plant beds in a garden

Learn about composting, crop planning, building raised beds, starting seeds, and everything else you need to know to get started growing your own food in the city!

Composting

Turn food scraps and garden clippings into nutritious fertilizer for your plants.

  • How to Compost: Learn the basics of composting indoors and outdoors through the NYC Department of Sanitation NYC Compost Project. Download posters, tip sheets, and guides on composting
  • Vermicomposting at Home: Recycle your food scraps into nutritious compost for your plants with the help of redworms! GreenThumb staff demonstrate how you can build a small vermicomposting system at home. Watch the webinar recording
  • Scaling Up Community Garden Compost Systems: Join expert composters for a demonstration of a variety of tools, strategies, and considerations for scaling up your community garden's composting system. To compost more garden material and accept more food scraps, gardeners must consider whether to use a tumbler or 3-bin system, space and storage, and coordinating the work as a team. Watch the webinar recording
  • Managing a Community Garden Public Food-Scrap Drop-Off: Composters from Q Gardens in Brooklyn share the secrets to their success. Watch the video
  • Troubleshooting for Advanced Composting: In this webinar, gardeners shared their questions with GreenThumb staff, who assisted with some troubleshooting basics to improve their composting skills. Watch the webinar recording

Crop Planning

Grow more vegetables by planning ahead. Learn how to map out more than one season of bountiful harvests using planting calendars, knowledge of plant families, and plant spacing charts.

  • Crop Planning 101: Grow more vegetables by planning ahead. Learn how to map out more than one season of bountiful harvests using planting calendars, knowledge of plant families, plant spacing charts, and more. Watch the webinar recording
  • Cover Crops: Cover crops such as field peas and rye are often called “green manure” because they offer many of the same benefits of other natural fertilizers like compost or manure. Download a PDF about cover crops
  • Mushrooms: In this video, learn how to grow wine cap mushrooms in your raised bed from start to finish. Watch the video
  • Plant Families: Plants from the same botanical family attract similar pests, contract similar diseases, and use similar nutrients from the soil. Diversifying your garden and using crop rotation to move different plant families around the garden each season can help your organic garden thrive. Download a chart of crop plant families
  • Season Extension: Learn how to extend the growing season by using high and low transparent tunnels. Watch the webinar recording
  • Seed Starting: Learn how to start seeds indoors. Watch the webinar recordings
  • Seed Saving - Garden Planning: Learn tips and strategies on saving the seeds from the crops you grow to help save money, preserve heirloom varieties, and more. Watch the webinar recording
  • Seed Saving - Basics of Saving Dry and Wet Seeds: Learn the basics of how to save both dry and wet seeds of common garden veggie crops and herbs. Watch the webinar recording
  • Seed Saving - How to Build and Manage a Community Seed Library: Get an overview of urban seed keeping practices, including strategies and best practices for starting a small, local seed library and how to plan your garden around your seed saving goals. Watch the webinar recording
  • Square Foot Gardening: A great strategy for beginner gardeners, square foot gardening illustrates how many veggie or herb plants can fit in one square foot of your raised bed. Download a square foot gardening plant spacing chart

Pest and Disease Management

Learn more about organic pest and disease management techniques.

Soil Health and Safety

Know the health risks of contaminated soil and follow these tips to safely grow and eat plants.

  • Soil and Gardening in NYC: Learn more about practices to minimize the risk for safe gardening and growing food that is healthy to eat. Learn more about safe soil gardening practices
  • Growing Healthy Soils: Gardeners’ Roles in Protecting Human and Environmental Health: Discover some trends across the U.S. in community-engaged research on soil contaminants, and the roles you can play in better protecting your community and environmental health. Watch the webinar recording

Windowsill Gardening

  • Reclaiming Ancestral Knowledge: Hydroponic Window Gardening: Learn how to extend your growing season using one of the oldest methods of window farming: hydroponics, a method of growing plants using only water and nutrients. Watch the webinar recording
  • Growing Microgreens: Learn how to grow microgreens on your windowsill or under a desk lamp using household items. Watch the tutorial
  • Grow Greens on your Windowsill: Learn how to grow edible greens and herbs at home on your windowsill. Watch the webinar recording