Garden Stories Workshop: Fall 2019- Spring 2020

In partnership with the New York City Council’s Cultural Immigrant Initiative (Many thanks NYC Councilmember Carlina Rivera) and Citizen’s Committee of New York City.

Art Loisiada Foundation &  Campos Community Garden produce Garden Stories Workshops for Childrens Workshop School and A Dia De Los Muertos event in Campos Community Garden. There are four workshops in the garden in each fall and spring semester, culminating in a  pizza class or harvest feast. Because of COVID-19  Pause, we had to videotape the spring module as schools and community gardens were closed.

The  Fall workshops were taught by Adrian Van Der Nes, Gary Meyers, Carolyn Ratcliffe & Gladys Feliciano. The spring gardening workshops were taught by master gardener, Christopher Batenhorst and Gladys Feliciano. The first focusing on soil, compost and insects while the 2nd workshop focused on planting vegetable seeds and seedlings in the garden for this spring.

Then a traditional Native American 3 Sisters Garden with a focus on planting Lenape Corn, squash and beans which will be harvested in the fall by the incoming 3rd grade class.

The 3rd workshop was on harvesting  which was turned into a community Food Safety program with the vegetables donated to Trinity LES Lutheran Soup Kitchen.

The first 2 gardening workshops were followed by an environmentally themed art class taught by Gladys Felciano where the children created an art work using plant materials harvested from the garden and in the spring video the children are shown how to create a mandala using plant based materials easily found in their kitchens at home.

Dia De Los Muertos is an annual Mexican holiday event where neighbors build an altar decorated with marigolds and Aztec symbols  to commemorate loved ones by bringing images, writing poems/letters and leaving offerings.

A film classic, “Coco” which explores the underlying cultural significance behind the event was shown the next evening.It is a  3 day event and is culminated with a performance by Aztec Dancers who perform ritual Dance ceremonies to bless the land as harvest for the coming year. Traditional Mexican fare is served.