Matthew 25’s Cultivate Hope Urban Farm is hosting a Gardening Workshop Program for beginners and garden veterans alike! This new workshop program will allow you to get your hands dirty and support you in gardening all season long, from planting to harvesting and preserving.

This Gardening Workshop Program consists of five hands-on classes from May-September, held at our Urban Farm near downtown Cedar Rapids. Each monthly session will have small class sizes for maximizing time and individualized attention. During harvests, you’ll take home some of the produce, and the rest will be provided to the Cultivate Hope Corner Store, a small nonprofit grocery store with affordable groceries.

Monthly workshops will have two time slots available for each session with identical lesson plans, one from 5:30-7:30 pm on Tuesdays, and one from 10 am-noon on Saturdays. Attendees can choose whether Tuesdays or Saturdays will work best with their schedule.

Here is a breakdown of each month’s lesson themes:

• Tuesday, May 16 and Saturday, May 20: Seeding and planting
• Tuesday, June 13 and Saturday, June 17: Planning and preparation
• Tuesday, July 11 and Saturday, July 15: Crop management
• Tuesday, August 15 and Saturday, August 19: Soil management
• Tuesday, September 12 and Saturday, September 16: Preservation

This Gardening Workshop Program is $150 for all five classes. Click here to register!

What you’ll get out of this program:

• Hands-on instruction from a seasoned grower
• Tips and tricks to take home for your own garden
• Produce to take home from plots you’ve cultivated
• Interactions with other gardening-minded individuals

Register now!

Meet the instructor: Matt!
Matthew Arndt is a farmer and educator based in Cedar Rapids. A lifelong plant enthusiast, he joined Cultivate Hope in 2021 after years of working on land management, restoration and research projects across North and South America. When he’s not growing food at the Urban Farm you can find him admiring the Midwest landscape, laughing with friends and drinking entirely too much coffee.

Email us with questions at [email protected], or give us a call at 319-362-2214.