Every year, the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) hosts a conference for gardeners and garden advocates to come together from across the country (and world).
This year, DUG joined the planning committee alongside NYC Parks GreenThumb to create a spectacular 4-day 2025 National GrowTogether Conference: Planting Seeds of Resilience in New York City at the CUNY Graduate Center.
To bring the year’s theme together, we invited world renowned botanist + author, Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer to speak on the importance of reciprocity and giving in the natural world and in the work we do. Attendees were able to enjoy Dr. Kimmerer’s keynote speech, followed by a panel discussion focused on land acknowledgement.
This year’s conference welcomed 1,800+ registrants from as far as Australia to engage in discussion, ask questions, and connect!
Workshops and panels involved topics across the board including fundraising, inclusive marketing, and holistic wellness. A number of these offerings were presented by the DUG team, including:
Gardens and Food Forests: A Match Made in Nature
Existing community garden networks can be leveraged to support food forest projects complementary to gardens and can be easier to install and raise money to support. With Denver Urban Gardens’ Food Forest Program as a case study, we’ll learn the advantages and challenges of creating food forests, and how they can serve a diverse set of goals and contexts. Using an observation and analysis of natural systems we’ll show why food forests are an essential part of a local food ecosystem. Includes designs, budget sheets, plant lists, and images of food forests, with a Q&A session.
The Centralized Community Garden Organization – Cultivating a Sturdy, Durable, Thriving Community Garden Network
Learn more about Denver Urban Gardens’ centralized organizational structure. From securing land, water and insurance to recruitment and support of garden leaders and tree keepers to tracking plot assignments and plot fees to centralized fundraising for all gardens and all food forests in the network. We’ll make the case for pulling back management of complicated and burdensome administrative tasks to HQ – tasks that “sink” community gardens
Durable Models: Governance, Funding, and Resource Management for Community Garden Support Organizations
Community garden support organizations come in all shapes and sizes. Some are all volunteer while others include a robust full-time paid staff. Some are embedded in governmental agencies while others are independent nonprofits. Some are centrally governed, funded, and resourced while others have decentralized some or all of those functions. Hear from leadership of four organizations from across the country with various configurations about the considerations and influences that went into their current structure, the pros and and cons of each, and the synergies across the different models. This panel will demonstrate that no single model is right for every city, highlighting the wildly different on-the-ground realities that must be taken into consideration in every city.
Unite, Uplift, and Amplify an Abundant Community Garden Movement
With over 30,000 community gardens across the United States, supported by an estimated 3.6 million gardeners who produce 98 million pounds of food, this is a movement of scale and impact. As with all movements, collaboration, thought partnership, capacity building and advocacy are essential ingredients for success. Hear from key organizations supporting community gardens across the country.
Money, Money, Money: Corporate Funding Strategies That Work
Drawing on real-world successes from the Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) playbook, this workshop will offer practical insights into how garden organizations can secure unrestricted corporate funding and leverage local partnerships to maximize long-term success. Through proven successful programs such as Garden and Food Forest Adoptions, Event and Educational Sponsorships, Paid Volunteer Opportunities, and Community Collaborations, participants will leave with actionable strategies to strengthen their organizations’ financial sustainability.
Communicate your Garden: Tools for Sharing your Organizational Impact
Participants will explore various tools for communicating the impact of their gardens or organization. From trending digital resources to traditional outlets, we’ll explore the merits of various options to ensure inclusivity.
Ritualizing Your Time in Your Garden
Learn about the ways gardeners and community members can engage with their garden or growing space year-round. Explore holistic approaches to meditation and movement using the senses, including a tea meditation and chair yoga. Participants will learn about garden journaling and how writing/drawing can enhance their experience in nature.
Belonging in Community Gardens: Supporting Diverse Growing and Culinary Traditions with Specialized Seed Collections
Learn about the case study of DUG’s Culturally Inclusive Seeds programs as a model for supporting diverse growing and culinary traditions in our community by crowd-sourcing plant variety requests to form a catalog of hard-to-access or afford seed varieties appropriate to the local climate.
