Stock your garden with beautiful vegetable seedlings at Backyard Growers’ annual Community Seedling Sale. All seedlings are grown by our friends at Cedar Rock Gardens in West Gloucester. Proceeds support Backyard Growers’ work cultivating equitable access to the resources, space & knowledge people need to grow their own food in our community.
Plus, this year’s event will feature an early season pop-up Backyard Growcery, downtown Gloucester’s farmers market. In addition to seedlings, attendees can shop fresh, high-quality produce from local farmers, enjoy prepared foods and live music, join kids’ activities, enter exciting raffles, and celebrate growing food together in community.
Join us this week, through Friday afternoon, as we welcome school-aged children, ages 12 and under, for free with a reserved ticket.
Guests will also be able to view our fourth annual Eric Pape fine art exhibition at the Hammond Castle Museum, featuring a significant collection of pen and ink illustrations by Eric Pape (1870 to 1938).
Flexible Arrival Times for Self-Guided Tours: Experience Hammond Castle Museum at your own pace with our flexible arrival times for Self-Guided Tours! Your ticket grants you entry anytime within the Morning or Afternoon session times, based upon your selection, ensuring you can arrive stress-free and enjoy your visit to the fullest.
Morning Session: 9:00 am – 11:45 am Afternoon Session: 11:45 am – 2:30 pm
Please note: the last entrance into the Museum is at 2:45 pm sharp. The Museum and Grounds close promptly at 3:30 pm. We recommend planning at least 60 minutes to explore the grounds and interior galleries of the Museum.
Join us for a special Presentation and Exhibition Preview introducing our two new Spring and Summer exhibitions: Inside the Faraday Cage: The Science of Things That Aren’t So and A Tale of Two Pianos.
Be among the first to experience these new installations ahead of their public opening. Curatorial Director John Leysath will present on Hammond’s 1951 Faraday cage experiments, while Assistant Curator Donovan Lafontaine offers an introduction to the piano exhibition.
Inside the Faraday Cage features a life-size, non-working replica of the experimental apparatus, inviting guests to step inside and explore Hammond’s investigations into ESP alongside physician and parapsychologist Andrija Puharich and psychic medium Eileen Garrett.
Museum Members and VIP guests enjoy complimentary admission. A $15 fee applies to the general public. Reservations are required. Space is limited.
🥕 how to pick a location for your vegetable garden
🍅 what to sow directly in your garden vs what to plant as a seedling
🥬 how to handle seedlings
🍓 how to read a seed packet and plant seeds
🌽 how and when to water your garden
🥦 when to harvest and when to remove a plant
and more!
🎟️ Tickets are free for Backyard Growers Program Gardeners (e.g. those who grow food with us in our Community Garden, Backyard Garden, or GrowBag Garden Programs.)
🎟️ General admission tickets are $20. Proceeds from general admissions tickets to our spring gardening workshops are essential to support our work throughout the year connecting communities with equitable access to the resources, knowledge, and space to grow their own food.
If you are a SNAP EBT, WIC, or ConnectorCare cardholder, you are eligible for a 50% discount on General Admission to our workshops, thanks to Massachusetts Card to Culture. Please use the following discount codes:
If you’ve been thinking about joining Wellspring House for CELESONG on Friday, May 1, now is the time to act.
This unforgettable evening at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport features Darrell Scott, Beth Nielsen Chapman, and Marcus Hummon — three extraordinary songwriters sharing the stories and songs that have made them legendary.
Celesong is not just a concert. It is an intimate, one-of-a-kind experience that fills the room with warmth, energy, and the kind of magic that only happens when artists share the stories behind the songs.
What: Celesong 2026 to benefit Wellspring House When: Friday, May 1, 2026 Time: Concert at 6:45 – 9:00 PM | Doors open at 6:15 PM Where: Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA Tickets: Purchase tickets today at wellspringhouse.org
Looking for a unique and engaging summer program? GMGI’s Summer STEM programming is now accepting registrations!
Our Summer STEM programs are one-week courses designed to give students hands-on science experience in a biotechnology laboratory.
We are thrilled to announce that this year, we are partnering with Maritime Gloucester for our new program, From Harbor to Helix: Training in Environmental DNA. During this one-week course, students will dive into authentic marine science by collecting environmental samples using hands-on sampling techniques. Back in the lab, students will analyze their samples using industry-standard biotechnology methods, including micropipetting, DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis, PCR, and DNA metabarcoding. This immersive experience connects fieldwork to cutting-edge molecular biology, giving students a firsthand look at how scientists study biodiversity and marine ecosystems from sample to sequence.
The course is taught by Gloucester Biotechnology Academy and Maritime Gloucester staff, and does not require any previous science or lab experience. Each student will have ample guidance and support in these real-world investigations.
Registration is open to rising 9th graders through seniors who graduated in 2026 who are interested in real-world science and learning in a hands-on environment.
Cape Ann Community 