No hibernating this Winter!

We are keeping ourselves busy preparing for our 6th season in Greater Boston prison gardens! The New Garden Society is looking for next year’s crop of Volunteer Garden Educators to work with our incarcerated students, and continue the positive transformation of landscapes and lives in our community. Please send us your application to join us as a Volunteer Educator by February 18, 2019 or connect with us at one of these events!

Prison Garden Workshop at NOFA/Mass Winter Conference

Saturday, January 12, 2019 | 9 - 10:30 AM | Worcester State University, 486 Chandler St, Worcester, Massachusetts 01602

Prison Gardens: Strategies for Therapy and Job Training
Prison gardens are proliferating across the US. Join TNGS Co-Founder and Director, Renee Portanova, to learn the ins and outs of developing and implementing horticulture programs in state prison yards. The workshop is open to those who are interested in therapeutic horticulture and vocational training. We’ll provide sample curriculum, best practices and approaches to providing garden training on a minimal budget. For more info on attending the conference, visit here.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service at The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Monday, January 21, 2019 | 11 AM - 4 PM | 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115

Join a hands-on planting project led by our Co-Founder and Director, Erika Rumbley, and learn more about The New Garden Society's work providing horticulture training for incarcerated students in the Greater Boston area. Craft a care package for families served by the Elizabeth Stone House, a local organization partnering with adult and child survivors of domestic violence and related trauma to achieve safety, stability, and overall well-being. Excerpts of Dr. King’s speeches will play every hour in the Courtyard. Museum admission will be free, and entrance is based on the museum’s capacity.

Please consider bringing donations of new toiletries and gardening supplies for our service projects (travel sized preferred):

• toothbrushes

• toothpaste

• tampons & pads

• lotions

• soap

• hand sanitizer

• deodorant

• baby wipes (full size or travel size packages)

• gardening hand tools - plastic only

• new men’s cotton gardening gloves

Open House & Call for Volunteer Garden Educators

Monday, February 11, 2019 | 5 - 8 PM | Crystal Spring Farm, 76  Everett Skinner Road, Plainville, MA 02672 | Snow date, February 18

Would you like to share your horticultural and agricultural know-how with our incarcerated community? If you are intrigued by the idea of teaching once a month in a prison garden in 2019, please swing by to meet with our team of Educators and find out if the experience is for you. Educators will give short presentations on the position and their experiences in the prison gardens at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30pm. Learn about how you can join the team as a full-season Educator or a one-time Presenter. There will be plenty of time for any questions and to mix and mingle with the TNGS crew. Refreshments provided! You can also read the full Volunteer Educator job description here.

Feel free to contact TNGS if you have questions or can't make the event: email info@thenewgardensociety.org or call (857) 203-0585.

Summer & Fall Happenings!

Fri 8.10.18 // Prison Food Justice Intensive at the nofa summer conference //  Hampshire College, 900 West St, Amherst, MA 01002

TNGS representatives will be participants at the NOFA Summer intensive devoted to Prison Food Justice Programs. We're excited to connect and build collective knowledge with our colleagues from throughout the region engaged in this important work!

Sun 8.12.18 @ 1-2:30pm // Workshop at the NOFA Summer Conference // Room FPH 105, Hampshire College, 900 West St, Amherst, MA 01002

As part of the NOFA Summer Conference  The New Garden Society will be presenting the workshop " Prison Gardens: Strategies for Therapy and Job Training" based on our 5 years of experience growing food & flowers alongside in prison yards our incarcerated students. 
Please join us! We will introduce participants to the work of The New Garden Society and present the context of why horticulture education in correctional facilities is critical and transformative for students and educators alike.

Tues 11.13.18 @ 9-11:30am // Transforming Landscapes, Transforming Lives: Why Prison Gardens Matter // Wellesley Main Library, 530 Washington St, Wellesley, MA 02482

Professional horticulturist and Co-Founder of The New Garden Society, Renée Portanova, will offer a multi-media presentation open to the public on her experiences gardening alongside incarcerated students for the past 5 years. The prison courtyards and classrooms that The New Garden Society works in are largely invisible to the public. Through this presentation, Renée hopes to shine a light on local prisons and share The New Garden Society's experiences with the simple, transformative intervention of prison gardens. Light refreshments will be served at 9:00am, and the presentation starts at 10:00am. This event is sponsored by the Wellesley Garden Study Group.

Upcoming events with TNGS

Open House & Call for Volunteer Horticulture Educators

A call to Green Industry professionals to join us and find out how you can share skills with our Boston-area incarcerated community by building and maintaining prison gardens. Past Volunteer Educators will give presentations each hour, followed by Q&A. Refreshments will be provided

Tuesday 2.27.18 from 5-8pm @ Haymarket People's Fund  - 42 Seaverns Ave, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. Walking distance from the Green St stop on the Orange Line.

Pizza for Prison Gardens!

Enjoy a tasty Flatbread pizza pie while providing much appreciated support to prison gardens. Flatbread Somerville is donating $1.75 for every small pizza sold and $3.50 for every large pizza sold to benefit TNGS from 5-11pm! This includes take out and delivery orders. So swing on by, say hi to the TNGS crew who will be there all evening.

Tuesday 3.6.18 from 5-11pm @ Flatbread Company - 45 Day St, Somerville, MA 02144. Walking distance from the Davis Square stop on the Red Line.

6th Annual Massachusetts Urban Farming Conference

Meet TNGS representatives at our information table at the conference anytime on Friday, March 16.

Friday 3.16.18 from 8am-6pm @ Bunker Hill Community College - 250 Rutherford Ave, Boston, MA 02129. Walking distance from the Community College stop on the Orange Line.