With chaotic rain, heat waves, and dry soil in 2024 and now 2025 — how will we keep our gardens growing strong this season?

These sessions are designed for gardeners of all levels, from beginners to seasoned growers. Whether you’re tending raised beds in your community garden or just starting out, you’ll learn practical strategies to strengthen your garden against drought and extreme heat.

What you’ll learn:

Choosing drought and heat tolerant crops for urban gardens
Establishing plants and then weaning them from excess water
Water retention techniques: intercropping, mulching, and more

By the end, you’ll leave with tools and techniques to keep your garden thriving in the face of climate change.

Dates, Times, Locations:

Tues 9/23, 6-8pm, virtual on Zoom
Tues 9/30, 6-8pm, virtual on Zoom

A Zoom link will be shared after registering. Recordings of each session will be made available to registrants for 6 months after the course ends.

Community Engagement Practices:

Care for ourselves and each other. At the beginning of each class, we usually take a moment to step out of our busy lives and "ground" ourselves. This may look like stretching, breathing, or a similar activity.
Embrace difference and diversity. One way we do this is by sharing our gender pronouns when introducing ourselves. By doing this, we respect the breadth of gender and the way everyone identifies.
Lean into growth. It can hurt. Students are encouraged to engage with open hearts and minds. Transformation requires expanding our growing edge by sitting through discomforts that may arise in learning spaces.
Pass on the gift. Knowledge and expertise do very little if kept to yourself. Because our model is popular education, we expect everyone to continue sharing with their wider communities. We are all teachers and learners.

To reserve your ticket, click the “Register here!” button. See the Programs Tuition page on our website to guide your contribution. For every SOLIDARITY ticket purchased, a scholarship becomes available. Email programs@farmschoolnyc.org if cost is a barrier.

Meet the Facilitator!

Sea Matias (they/them) is a queer, Borikén-descended farmer, environmental educator, and land steward born and raised in the Bronx. They first joined Farm School NYC as a student in 2017, later becoming a facilitator in 2020, where they taught carpentry, preparing for winter, and small farm planning. With a background in environmental education and land-based mutual aid, Sea has worked with the New York Botanical Garden’s Bronx Green-Up and various urban gardens, deepening their commitment to food sovereignty. Now rooted in Delancey, NY, they steward Serra Vida Farm, a Queer and BIPOC-led microfarm dedicated to growing culturally relevant crops and strengthening connections between rural resilience and urban food justice. When not farming or organizing, Sea finds joy in building, storytelling, and dreaming of abundant futures.

Drought Resilience