Community Outreach
We believe in growing more than just plants—we grow connections!
The Lenox Garden Club supports educational and environmental efforts around the Berkshires through programs and grants. Through workshops, volunteer projects, and partnerships, we cultivate a deeper appreciation for nature, foster community engagement, and inspire the next generation of gardeners and environmental stewards.
2026 Greenagers and Roots Rising
The Greenagers grant will help fund its summer youth farm program, which encourages area teenagers to develop agricultural and gardening skills. With Lenox Garden Club support, program participants will be paid as they learn to grow and harvest produce at Greenagers’s April Hill Education and Conservation Center in South Egremont.
The participants will learn about soil health, composting, pollinator-friendly garden design, and no-till farming techniques. They will also help to distribute the fresh produce at a local food pantry and team up with middle schoolers to prepare farm-fresh lunches.
In 2024, the Club supported Greenagers Women in Conservation, Agriculture, and Trades Conference for high school students. Continuing the partnership, the Club is applying for a major grant from the Garden Club of America for equipment in Greenagers proposed teaching kitchen.
The grant to Roots Rising, will help fund an automated climate and water control system in Roots Rising’s energy-efficient high-tunnel greenhouse, a 90’ x 30’ structure that protects seedlings and plants in the ground from adverse weather, thus extending the growing season. The tunnel will be located at Roots Rising’s Farm and Education Center, which is under development on Barker Road in Pittsfield.
Roots Rising’s spring and summer programs pay local teens to learn to steward thriving, resilient ecosystems while helping produce affordable fresh produce for local residents facing food insecurity. Previously, the Lenox Garden Club helped Roots Rising secure a $10,00 grant from the Garden Club of America that helped to purchase the Barker Road property.
The Lenox Garden Club was founded in 1911 and is one of the country’s oldest garden clubs. It supports educational and environmental efforts around the Berkshires through programs and grants, workshops, volunteer projects, and partnerships.
The Lenox Garden Club is a member of the Garden Club of America and the Nature for Massachusetts coalition.
Heart and Soil Collective, 2025
The LGC Grant for 2025 has been awarded to Heart and Soil Collective in the amount of $3000.00. This groups stated mission is to connect people to the land where their food grows, making healthy local food and overall hands-on agricultural experiences in all areas accessible to all, particularly communities most in need. They have been recognized for these efforts by several community groups, USDA, Berkshire Taconic, Mass Cultural Council Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, etc.. The funds will be used to enhance two community gardens one in Pittsfield on the campus of 18 Degrees, West St. The other in Adams, located on the campus of the Old Stone Mill. Gardens in both these locations will be expanded and enhanced with Native pollinator plants this spring and Summer.
The gardens will be open and largely developed and supported by the communities in which they live. Workshops and educational tools will be provided by Heart and Soil in support these efforts.
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In 2024 the LGC full funded the Hebert Arboretum at Springside Park to restore the front entrance garden to the arboretum. This Pittsfield gateway will enhance the community and will be restored through educational programs and volunteer efforts. See the article below from the Berkshire Eagle:
Primping for pollinators
|BerkshireEagle.com Wednesday,
Elizabeth Kulas tends to the Vincent J. Hebert Arboretum’s pollinator flower garden, populated with perennials purchased through a grant from the Lenox Garden Club, at Springside Park in Pittsfield. Kulas runs pollinator garden design workshops every Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at the arboretum.
