GARDENING CLASSES 2025
GARDENING CLASSES 2025
Walk through a full season of gardening with us, from prepping and planning to the harvest. Whether you are working with a balcony, containers, a backyard, or a larger shared space, you can join us for these informative sessions.
Expect experiential learning, group discussions, targeted guidance from experienced gardeners, and opportunities to apply your learning in the Capital Area Food Bank’s demonstration garden and outdoor kitchen.
Register for sessions here.
yoga classes
yoga classes
Come explore different styles of Peace & Chain yoga flows.
All levels.
Summer into fall.
In partnership with the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens Wellderness Series.
Explore yoga offerings.
what we do.
Urban Agriculture
Therapeutic Horticulture
Plantscapes
Demonstration Gardens
Wellness Practices
Sovereignty Seeding
USE LOVE Services Offered
Community Programs
USE LOVE offers workshops, classes, and class series to the community. In 2022, we partnered with Charles County Recreation and Parks Department to serve all ages with memorable experiences including: a Teen Photography course, Grandparent & Me Nature Escape, and the Phonics Trail. In previous years, we have also offered the Writers’ Restaurant, a class series for elementary students to learn the writing process out in nature. Keep up with us here at uselove.org and on Instagram @uselovegarden to stay up to date on our future offerings.
Garden Projects
Use Love Group LLC was formed by teacher-artist-gardener, Erika Smith. She practices “maximum beneficial” gardening, creating environments tailored to your specific wants and needs. USE LOVE GARDENS center beauty, culinary crops, herbal support, regenerative land practices, and honoring ancestral practices. Gardens hold untold power to heal and realign. Our consultation, design, implementation, and maintenance services provide an avenue to share knowledge and support the health of our community, small and large.
Garden design and consultation services may be rendered to individuals, schools, businesses, and communities at appropriate rates depending on the circumstance.
Taking appointments for consultation and implementation for Spring, Summer, and Fall 2022 gardens.
**We center the experiences and knowledge ways of Black people, Indigenous people, Queer people, and other “people or culture/color”. We welcome everyone with respect and safety.
“Using love changes the learning experience into something
REVOLUTIONARY.”
New Blog Posts
New Blog Posts
Read a little about our summer so far from “Taking Care of Us” with the CBN family, to expanding our HQ garden, to summer camps, to D.C. gardens and more. uselove.org/journey
Better together
It was so nice to be with the community back in April for the Summer Activities and Camps Fair for our first sort of official meeting. Thanks to everyone who came to the tent to look around and learn a bit about what we do.
Summer camps are open for registration! Kids will be developing their gardening IQ and arts vocabulary, gaining more means to express themself and make sense of the interconnected world around them and the natural cycles they are also a part of. They will leave with their own plant and several art works. I do hope you will join us!
Until then…
Big Love, Real Love,
Ms. Erika
April Garden Moments
Fall 2022 with Use Love
Grandparent & Me Nature Escape
1 Elder + 1 Child, Ages 3-12
@ Waldorf Senior & Recreation Center
September 10 and October 8 from 10-11:30 AM
@ Nanjemoy Community Center
September 26 from 1-2:30 PM
October 19 from 5:30 - 7 PM
Phonics Trail
Ages 4-6 (Guardian welcome)
@ Port Tobacco River Park
October 6, 13, 17, and 24 from 5-6PM
Summer 2022
Learn more and register with Charles County Parks Department by clicking the titles above.
Support
Spring and Summer 2022
Youth Programs for Art & Nature
Use Love’s youth offerings are in full effect, and man, do we have something special for the kids!
This spring and summer, we are partnering with Charles County Recreation and Parks to offer fresh and powerful workshops and summer camps.
You will find all our offerings here, but you must register with Charles County Recreation and Parks using the links provided
— Erika Smith, founder/operator
“Grand little Garden” is a space for the youth and elder communities to reconnect and exchange. One part crafting, one part gardening, and one part day party, this initiative aims to set the stage for free exchange of good feelings and useful knowledge between two of our most precious populations.
Building Strong Foundations
We know that strong foundational knowledge and skills come from repeated academic exposure in engaging experiences. We know that practice makes perfect, but learners are often times most resistant to practice. So, we do our practice awesomely.
We design unique and lasting learning experiences for your individual child and for the community we build in each and every group session.