Gardening conference in Hartford July 27-30

HARTFORD >> Community garden enthusiasts from Connecticut and across the country will be meeting in Hartford, July 27 – 30, for the 38th Annual Conference of the American Community Garden Association (ACGA). The ACGA is committed to building strong communities and enhancing community gardening and greening across the United States and Canada. The conference will be held at Capital Community College in Hartford.

The keynote speaker is Mark Winne, formerly Executive Director of the Hartford Food System, a private non-profit agency that works on food and hunger issues in Hartford. He was also a founder of the Connecticut Food Policy Council. Winne serves as Senior Advisor to the Food Policy Networks Project at the John Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future.

Over the course of the fourday conference, experts will conduct 50 workshops on topics such as cutting edge horticulture practices; community gardening start-up and sustainability; school/youth gardening curricula; and innovative health and workplace programs, to name a few. Conference participants also will have the option to head out on all-day tours to eight major community gardening and urban agricultural programs in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

One of the options is a bicycle tour through Hartford.

Friday night will feature short films on related topics at Hartford’s City Steam, and Saturday evening, a gala event and silent auction will be held in the Gershon Fox Ballroom in the former G. Fox building.

The public is welcome and encouraged to attend the entire conference or single activities. For ACGA conference information and registration, please call 877-ASK-ACGA or visit www.communitygarden.org/conference. ACGA’s Hartford Conference is sponsored by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation.