Grassroots in the Garden: Growing Community

The goal of Grassroots in the Garden is to bring our community together to learn skills related to caring for the food forest and how to use the produce it provides. In a series of community work sessions, a mentor will guide you through activities in the garden! The Seymour Park Food Forest may be a collaborative project of ours, but it belongs to our community. The skills learned in this amazing community growing space can be applied to your individual gardening and growing interests making it a great opportunity to grow community and self-sufficiency! Looking forward, we are aiming to expand our Grassroots sessions to take place at other project sites including Orchards, the Brown County Seed Library, and more!

Register for a community work session

Build Your Community

Learn Gardening Skills

Grow & Harvest Food

Grassroots in the Garden 2026

  • In this session you’ll learn how to wake seeds out of dormancy with a winter sowing workshop led by Dillon Weist at NWTC

  • In this session, you'll learn about the many benefits of pruning, as well as when to do it and on what plants.  

  • In this session, you'll help cleanup and prepare the Seymour Park Food forest for the start of the growing season. We'll also be planting blueberries and learning how to start off their growth strong. This kind of maintenance is important for the plants, but your hard work wont go unrewarded as you'll get some coffee and other treats for your efforts.

  • In this session we'll be planting apple trees and our Grassroots mentor will teach you the best ways to do so and how to care for them. At New Leaf Foods we are firm believers in fruit tress because they last for many years and provide food for each of them.

  • Planting native species is crucial for maintaining our ecosystem. Join us as we plant several different species that are native to our home right here in Wisconsin. We'll also be engaging in regular plant care such as pulling weeds. The bees, butterflies, and many other pollinators will thank you if you come to this session.

  • In this session you'll learn how to identify weeds and remove them; a crucial skill for any garden. There's also lots of bee balm that we'll need your help in thinning out. 

  • In this session you'll get to reap the rewards of all the hard work that went into the Seymour Park Food Forest. There should be plenty of berries ripe for picking and ready for you to enjoy.

  • The Seymor Park Food Forest hosts more than just edible plants. Some of the species you can find there have many medicinal uses. You can learn all about them from a trusted source and get to harvest some for yourself. 

  • In this session we'll be provide lots of regular care to the Seymour Park Food Forest with things like weeding, watering, and more. In exchange for this help you'll get to take home some of the fresh and delicious produce that's ready for us to harvest.

  • In this session we'll continue to reap the delicious and nutritious bounty that the Seymour Park Food Forest has provided. As things begin to wind down with the fall we'll also be cleaning up the community garden to help prepare it for next year.

Download Flyer
Sign Up!

Special Sessions

These Grassroots in the Garden aren’t located at the Seymour Park. Each one will have its own, separate sign up sheet.

April 25th-Grafting Class

Join as the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College Garage from 10:00am to 12:00pm. In this session, you’ll learn all about grafting trees and even get to take home your own.

Sign Up

•

Check Back Here For Updates!

• Check Back Here For Updates!

Past Sessions

  • Planting Strawberries

  • How to care for bee balm & raspberries

  • Harvesting Herbs and creating Hügelkultur raised beds

  • Learning About medicinal herbs

  • Preparing your garden for winter

  • Seed harvesting

Meet your Mentors

  • Crystal Brown

    Mentor

    Crystal is an ethnobotanist, bio-regional herbalist, and writer/creative, focusing on wild edible food and medicinal plants and fungi. She has a background working as a psychiatric mental health nurse with children, adolescents, and adults.

  • Josh Kufahl

    Mentor

    Josh is the team manager for the Seymour Park Food Forest project and neighborhood garden. He has been managing the garden as a volunteer in the neighborhood for over 10 years, and helped install the edible walkway several years ago.

  • Dillon Weist

    Mentor

    Dillon is the Lab Assistant & Garden Manager for the Sustainable Agriculture Program at NWTC. He’s also the team lead for the Brown County Food Forest Coalition. For years, he has been a key volunteer for our Bountiful Branches Project!

Sponsored by