Backyard Growers‘ Community Garden Applications are now open for the 2021 growing season. Come grow your own vegetables in a community garden at Burnham’s Field, McPherson Park, Pond View Village, Poplar Park, Riverdale, or Willowood. Gardeners receive a raised garden bed, access to a garden mentor, and free or subsidized vegetable seeds, seedlings, and gardening and cooking workshops.

Check your eligibility and fill out or download an application here.

Applications are due by March 15.

Prefer to grow your own food at home? Stay tuned for 2021 Backyard Garden Program Applications – coming soon!

Questions? Email community@backyardgrowers.org or call (978)-281-0480.

All curated gift sets are now 15% off in the Backyard Growers Online Holiday Pop-Up Shop! Shop pre-made gift sets for a one-stop shop for stocking stuffers for kiddos and delightful goodies for the gardener in your life.

Plus, don’t miss out on our custom coffee blend Brew Good, Do Good, brewed with our pals (and neighbors) at Breakwater Roasters.

The shop will be open until midnight on Tuesday, 12/22, for a Wednesday, 12/23, contactless pick-up. Proceeds support our school, community, and backyard garden programs.

Backyard Growers is seeking a full-time Program Coordinator to join our small but mighty team and manage our school and community gardens in Gloucester.

Are you (or is someone you know!) a dynamic people person with vegetable farming and/or urban agriculture experience who is passionate about connecting communities, bringing diverse populations together, and honoring different perspectives? If so, this role could be a great fit!

Check it out here, apply by 12/6/2020, and help Backyard Growers continue to connect seniors, kids, and families to the resources they need to grow their own food!

This year, Backyard Growers‘ annual fall fundraiser, the Great Gloucester GrowDown, has gone virtual for the safety of our awesome community. At a time when more than one in five American households is experiencing food insecurity, our mission to empower people with the resources they need to grow some of their own food is more important than ever before. The GrowDown is raising funds for our essential work putting fresh produce on families’ tables through school, community, and backyard gardens.

Join us for a “party to go”, featuring…

🍅 Three-course pick-up picnic dinners for guests to enjoy in their own homes or picnic spot of choice, prepared by the incredible chefs at Short & Main using fresh, local ingredients from North Shore producers, and featuring a take-out signature cocktail

🥕 Incredible desserts from local bakeries Sandpiper Bakery and Mayflour Cake + Confections

🎬 A digital movie premiere exploring how we’ve been responding to our community’s food access needs during the pandemic – meet our gardeners, learn the impact of Backyard Growers’ programs, and see how our team pivoted to provide gardening resources, tools, support, and more, in a rapidly changing global health crisis

Curbside pick-up times for meals, as well as information on how to access our movie premiere, will be provided following ticket purchase.

Click here to learn more and purchase your tickets.

Thank you to our generous sponsors…

🥕 Check out the latest blog post from Backyard Growers‘ founder & executive director Lara Lepionka, where she’s sharing guidance on what you should be doing in your veggie garden NOW, and the three attributes of a successful vegetable gardener during the pandemic growing season 🌿🍅🦋  Happy growing!

Here’s an excerpt:

“Don’t forget to mulch around your veggies to keep the weeds down and the soil moist. Thin your carrots. Those tomato seedlings look small now, but they will soon take over so stake or cage them now. Eat your spinach before the leaf miners wreak havoc or before it bolts in the heat. There’s nothing sadder than a bolting spinach. Nothing.

As we move forward into the heart of the growing season and into the great ridiculous unknown, I would like to share with you what I think are the top three attributes of a successful vegetable gardener during the pandemic growing season.”

Click here to read on.

🌱🌞🎺🙌🏽 Our Online Shop is BACK, selling warm weather seedlings like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and more! Don’t wait to place your order – these are super popular seedlings and they’re going to get snapped up quick! Also explore our shop for other garden supplies from Black Earth Compost and Neptune’s Harvest, garden-themed 🌺 cloth face masks, and our own coffee blend made in collaboration with our neighbors Breakwater Roasters ☕

CLICK HERE TO SHOP.

The fine print: Curb-side pick-up only, next Friday May 22, outside Maritime Gloucester at Harbor Loop. We’ll once again be observing social distancing and assigning pick-up times based on alphabetical order. Pre-orders only; no seedlings available for purchase on the day.

It’s spring, and even though it’s the zombie apocalypse out there, we have people to feed! So what to plant? What crops will produce the most food? With the most calories? And the most beneficial nutrients? With the best storage capacity? In the least amount of time?

To find out, register for the second session of our Gardening for the Zombie Apocalypse on-line workshop, which will take place on Tuesday, May 12 from 4-5:30 pm. Your workshop fee of $20 will help support our urgent zombie apocalypse work in the community. You’ll receive an overview on how to:

🌿 Plan a small urban garden for the greatest yield in terms of calories and amounts of veggies
🌿 Maximize small growing spaces with the square foot gardening method and succession planting
🌿 Sheet mulching and container gardening to grow food anywhere
🌿 Harvest water, save seeds, find free local growing resources, and be a general DIY garden ninja
🌿 Cooperate with the humans around you to support yourself and others
🌿 Kill zombies with gardening implements

Click here to purchase tickets.