Events

The Friends of The Frelinghuysen Arboretum and Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Morris County are teaming up to present their Annual Community Garden Conference for the 16th year in a row. This year we are very excited to have Christopher Bolden-Newsome and Owen Taylor, Founders of Truelove Seeds in Philadelphia as our keynote speakers. We have an impressive list of session speakers too, all experts in their field.

They will cover topics relevant to not just community gardeners but backyard vegetable gardeners as well as garden managers, and those trying to establish a new community garden.

The topics for the 2026 conference are:

 Keynote Speakers: Christopher Bolden-Newsome and Owen Taylor, Founders of Truelove Seeds

Truelove Seeds is a farm-based seed company offering culturally important and open pollinated vegetable, herb, and flower seeds. Their seeds are grown by more than 50 small-scale urban and rural farmers committed to community food sovereignty, cultural preservation, and sustainable agriculture. This collaboration is an opportunity for growers to share their own ancestral seeds and stories and to bring in extra financial support for their food sovereignty and agroecological projects.

Chris Bolden-Newsome, originally from the Mississippi Delta, is the oldest son of farmers and justice workers, and a fourth generation free farmer since emancipation in 1865. In 2010, Chris joined Ty Holmberg in creating the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden where Chris co-directs a three-acre crop field, orchard, and 60-bed community garden. Sankofa Farm is a spiritually rooted, African Diaspora urban-centered farm and youth development program. Following natural agriculture practices, Chris focuses on cultivating healthy soil for life-giving crops while learning and teaching Pan-African practices in farming and foodways.

Owen Taylor is a seed nerd who loves growing Southern Italian and Irish heirlooms and supporting the community food sovereignty movement through seed keeping. Owen is the co-founder and co-owner of Truelove Seeds. The company stemmed out of the food justice movement and is committed to food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, and the preservation of culture. Previously, Owen had worked with Dr. William Woys Weaver, our keynote speaker in 2023, for four years at his private seed collection. Since 2003, he worked within the food sovereignty and environmental justice movements in San Francisco,
New York, and now, in Philadelphia.

 Morris County Agricultural and Natural Resource Agent, Rutgers Vegetable Expert and Conference Co-sponsor Peter Nitzsche will discuss the findings from the season-long community garden demonstration plot trial on the Cucumber Beetle Trap Study.

The purpose of the trial was to determine whether trapping the beetles before cucumber plants are in the ground would lessen the number of beetles that could cause damage to the crop. Learn all about this super fascinating trial, what we discovered and whether it managed to mitigate the significant damage the beetles cause.

 Claudia Urdanivia, Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent of Essex and Hudson Counties presents her talk on Honoring Cultural Crops and Traditions in Community Gardens.

Claudia is a community development practitioner, educator, and Agriculture County Extension Agent focused on sustainable food systems, urban agriculture, and community horticulture with over ten years of experience in the field working with a wide range of communities. As a trained anthropologist and current graduate student in public health, Claudia approaches her work with an analytical and collaborative framework. Over the last decade, Claudia has worked to improve our local food system by supporting programs, projects, and other interventions that uplift community gardens and urban farms through her roles at City Green, NYC Parks GreenThumb, and now Rutgers Cooperative Extension.

Through her work in 4-H, Claudia developed robust programs connecting youth from urban areas to their local environment and food systems. Claudia sees urban agriculture as a powerful tool to provide healthy, fresh food access for communities and is passionate about supporting our next generation of gardeners
and farmers in the Garden State.

 Jennifer Salt Taylor, Family and Community Health Sciences (FCHS) Educator for Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Passaic County will present her talk on Preparing to Preserve: Make the Most of your Harvest.

In this session, learn the basics about food preservation and how you can plan to preserve your produce to enjoy throughout the year. She will highlight the best ways to preserve common New Jersey crops, whether drying, freezing, pickling, or canning.

Jennifer’s master’s degree is in Health Education and Promotion with a specialization in Health Policy and Advocacy from Walden University. She is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) focused on nutrition security and food systems.  She provides nutrition and wellness training for all ages in her community, conducts research on federal nutrition programs, and collaborates on local coalitions.

 The Coordinator’s Round Table moderated by Ned Gardner, Manager of the Ted Largman Community Garden in Morris Township and Mike Dziomba, Manager of the Randolph Community Garden. This is a chance for managers of community gardens to connect with other managers and get questions answered and share successes and perhaps not so successful endeavors they’ve encountered.

Please bring a donation for the Interfaith Food Pantry. You can see a list of their current needs here: https://www.mcifp.org/donate/donate-food/

This program is eligible for 5.0 Rutgers Master Gardener CEU’s.

Registration for this program will close at 12:00 Noon on Friday, March 6

For questions, contact: mennist@arboretumfriends.net or lbencivengo@arboretumfriends.net

Please register below:

PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION IS $70.00 FOR MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS ALIKE.

THE OPTION TO REGISTER INCLUDING LUNCH IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AS WE HAD TO PROVIDE THE CATERER WITH A FINAL COUNT.

Please feel free to bring your own lunch.

Fun cooking with Asian Flair. Let’s take the local Chinese/Asian take-out and pump it up!

Homemade Hot and Sour Soup, Crunchie Thai Spring Rolls (vegan), Char Siu BBQ Pork and Serious Fried Rice. And we’ll make a true Vegetarian Stir Fry with Tofu for our vegan and vegetarian friends.

Healthy, tasty and really fun to make!

Questions?, contact mennist@arboretumfriends.net or lbencivengo@arboretumfriends.net

Please join us as David Culp describes how choosing native plants for your home landscape need not be a struggle between wanting to create a healthy and robust ecosystem and yearning for gorgeous plant combinations to create seasonal interest all year long. David will show us how to have the best of both worlds, building a perfect world of beauty for you and the essential wildlife around you to share.

David Culp is Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Cavano’s Perennials. He is also the creator of the gardens at Brandywine Cottage in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, which are listed in the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Gardens. The gardens have been featured on television and numerous magazine publications. David is the principal of David L. Culp Designs, owner of the Galanthus Nursery, Brandywine Snowdrops, and the developer of the Brandywine Hybrid strain of hellebores. He has been lecturing about gardens nationwide for over 25 years, and teaches herbaceous perennials at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Culp is the author of The Layered Garden (Timber Press), which won a Gold Medal from the Garden Writers Association for Best Overall Book of the Year. His second book, A Year at Brandywine Cottage: Six Seasons of Beauty, Bounty and Blooms (Timber Press), takes us further, detailing how more than 30 years creating this sensational year-round garden provides an abundance of joy, both indoors and out, whether it’s choosing plants for twelve months of interest, weaving edibles into the mix, or bringing the bounty indoors with simple arrangements and homegrown recipes.

A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

Light refreshments will be served.

This program is eligible for 1.0 Rutgers Master Gardener CEU.