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3/14/26: Fruit Tree Pruning & Grafting, John Wilson

3/28/26: How to Grow a Vegetable Garden Even If You’ve Never Planted a Seed in Your Life, Elia Woods

4/11/26: Gardening for Oklahoma’s Native Bees

4/28/26: Hoots, Croaks, Warbles and Whistles; Birding by Ear, Matt Parks

5/16/26: Herbs & Wildcrafting, Timothy Trujillo

5/30/26: Tour of Native Yards (TONY)

6/13/26: Sustainable Practices for Backyard Gardening, Travis Andrews

6/27/26: Home Brews for the Garden, David Braden

7/25/26: Moth Night (Evening class), Zack DuFran

8/15/26: Plant a Fall Salad Garden, Elia Woods

8/27/26: Native Grasses for Your Yard, Josh Platter

9/12/26: Home-Grown Bug Zoo, Steph Jordan

9/19/26: Food Preservation: Preserving Abundance with Canning & Dehydrating at Home, Red

9/26/26: Nursery Crawl

10/3/26: Butterfly Bingo (afternoon program), Lia & team

10/10/26: Overwintering the pollinator garden, Keri

10/24/26: Potluck in the Garden

11/28/26: The Great Pumpkin Send-Off

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March 14^th: Fruit Tree Pruning & Grafting

11 am – Fruit Tree Pruning

Noon – Fruit Tree Grafting

In this hands-on workshop, participants will be introduced to basic principles for pruning fruit trees. Weather permitting, John will also demonstrate how to graft onto existing trees using methods of spring grafting. These techniques are ideal for urban gardeners who wish to include more fruit variety and better producing trees that save precious space. John also offers grafting classes, starting in the spring; talk to him after the class if you are interested in participating.

Note: If you wish to do your own grafting during class, bring a sharp knife with you.

Instructor: John Wilson has been an organic gardener for over fifty years. He began his adventures with grafting over a decade ago, after he attended a workshop sponsored by the California Rare Fruit Growers, and now enjoys sharing his knowledge and love of his craft with others.

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March 28^th: How to Grow a Vegetable Garden Even If You’ve Never Planted a Seed in Your Life

It’s actually pretty simple! Elia will cover the basics – soil, water, seed – that guarantee your first garden will be a delicious success. Participants will help plant a container garden that can be scaled up or down, and is suitable for backyards, front yards, decks or patios. Each person will also have the chance to start several pots of seeds to take home. Here’s to a successful first garden!

Veggie seedlings will also be available for sale. 

Instructor: Elia Woods is a co-founder and partner-farmer at CommonWealth Urban Farms. She has been gardening and farming for over 30 years, and loves introducing beginners to the delights of growing food. 

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April 11^th: Gardening for Oklahoma’s Native Bees

Native bees are some of the most important pollinators in the world. Urban gardens present excellent opportunities for allies of nature to help protect these key ecosystem service providers. This class will provide an overview of basic native bee biology, conservation concerns, and gardening recommendations in support of native pollinators. 

Instructors: Jasmine Cates and Ben Turnley are both PhD students working with Dr. James Hung at the University of Oklahoma. Jasmine’s research focuses on road ecology, native bee community ecology, and landscape genetics. In collaboration with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, she is currently evaluating the impact of roadside management on native bee biodiversity and genetic connectivity among populations. Ben’s research focuses on native bee community ecology in Oklahoma’s grazing lands. He is interested in assessing how different cattle grazing practices impact native bee abundance and diversity.

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April 25^th

Hoots, Croaks, Warbles and Whistles – The Basics of Birding by Ear

Learning to recognize bird songs and calls helps you to develop a new connection to the outdoors, and increases your appreciation of the diverse bird species that reside in and travel through our area. In this introductory class, Matt will cover many of the basic categories of bird vocalizations, and introduce the songs and calls of a number of common Oklahoma bird species.

Instructor: Matthew Parks is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Central Oklahoma and has been a birding enthusiast for over 30 years. He rarely leaves home without a pair of binoculars, and never leaves home without his ears.

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May 16^th: Herbs & Wildcrafting

Learn the medicinal properties of common and culinary herbs. Timothy will
share simple ways to incorporate these benefits into your daily life.

Herb seedlings will be available for sale. 

Instructor: Timothy L. Trujillo is a Natural Health Practitioner and
Director of First Medicines, whose mission is to provide holistic education,
care and resources to reduce suffering and enhance health.

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May 30^th: Tour of Native Yards (TONY)

9 am to 3 pm

CommonWealth is delighted to be one of the locations on TONY, the Tour of Native Yards, for 2026! This is a self-guided tour of yards in and around the Paseo, showcasing plants native to Oklahoma and vendors selling these plants. The tour is sponsored by the Oklahoma Native Plant Society; tickets available here.

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6/13/26: Sustainable Practices for Backyard Gardening

Learn to make powerful fertilizers and pest repellent products using common items you already have in your kitchen. This class will include:

• Creative composting and worm bins 
• Propagating houseplants and food scraps 
• Homemade pest management products & microbe fertilizer enhancing recipes 

We will show you how to separate food scraps for fertilizers, how to use herbs for pest repellent, and how to use worm castings to make soil regenerating microbe solutions.

Instructor: Travis Andrews is the founder of Native Farming Solutions OKC, a local non-profit group dedicated to the preservation of American Indian seeds and cultivation techniques. Travis also enjoys educating the public on the importance of food sovereignty and food waste diversion and serves as a board member for the Oklahoma Compost and Sustainability Association.

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June 27^th: Home Brews for the Garden – Three Cheers for Lactic Acid Bacteria!

Learn about one of the components of the Korean Natural Farming method of cultivating indigenous microorganism to maintain soil fertility with no external inputs. David will show how he makes lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and uses it for faster composting, odor prevention, soil fertility and foliar sprays. David will also provide free samples of LAB to participants!

Instructor: David Braden, co-founder of CommonWealth Urban Farms

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July 25: Moth Night

8:30 pm followed by come-and-go moth-viewing

Enter the world of moths! During the first part of the class, Zach will give an introduction to moths. Learn about what a moth is and how moths are different from butterflies, their lifecycle, their functions and importance in an ecosystem, the many niches that moths fill, their broad diversity, and moth conservation. 

After-dark will be moth-viewing time! By hanging a white sheet and shining a light directly on it, we’ll attract moths and give them a place to land. Zach will lead the group in observing and identifying the moths and other nocturnal insects that come to visit. 

Instructor: Zach DuFran is a naturalist living in central Oklahoma. He is a software engineer for the National Weather Service by day and enjoys spending as much time outdoors as possible. Zach is crazy about moths and has been working to expand knowledge of moth species and distributions in the state of Oklahoma. During the warm season he hosts public “Moth Nights” near his home and around the state. He also enjoys birding and tending to his native pollinator garden. He loves traveling to state parks with his wife and two kids on weekends and much father abroad during extended vacations.

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August 15: Plant a Fall Salad Garden

Fall is a wonderful time to garden in Oklahoma. Vegetables and gardeners alike love the cooler weather, and we (usually!) get rain. Greens and roots grow well at this time of year in Oklahoma and will provide you with delicious salads all through the fall. Knowing what and when to plant is critical to success. Elia will share her fall planting calendar along with tips for veggies best suited for fall & winter gardening. 

Fall vegetable seedlings will be available for sale.

Instructor: Elia Woods is a co-founder and partner-farmer at CommonWealth Urban Farms. She has been gardening and farming for over 30 years, and loves to help home gardeners become more successful in growing their own food. 

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August 29^th: Native Grasses for Your Yard

When you hear the word grass, do you picture a lawn—maybe bermuda or fescue? We tend to imagine a simple blade of green, yet Oklahoma’s native grasses are expressive and diverse, spanning sun to shade, tall to short, clumping to mat-forming. Let’s explore how this diversity found in our prairies supports ecological function and discuss practical tips for incorporating native grasses into our landscapes. Participants will practice identification and explore key species and their roles.

Instructor: Joshua Platter is the owner of Prairie Flora Co., an Oklahoma-based native plant nursery focused on growing regional prairie species. His work centers on restoring ecological function to everyday landscapes, with a particular interest in native grasses and the quiet systems they support. With over a decade of professional experience in design, Joshua brings a systems-thinking perspective to conservation, connecting ecological function, human behavior, and long-term stewardship. Outside of his work, he enjoys spending time with his family and can often be found on long bike rides collecting seed with his 3-year-old son.

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Sept. 12: Home-Grown Bug Zoo

Who wants to live in a bug zoo? I do! You too? Woohoo!

Let’s talk about the unique relationships between bugs and plants – particularly larval host plants and get ideas about what to plant to increase the buzzy traffic in your yard or growing space. You may already know about pairings like monarchs and milkweed, or the plants that host our swallowtails, but there are many, many more that bring in a diversity Oklahoma insect life in and can transform your ho-hum lawn or garden into an endless source of discovery and wonder. Many of the plants we will discuss will be available on site for purchase and this time of year is a great time to get them growing.

Instructor: Stephanie Jordan is a pollinator educator and advocate. Before recently returning to school, she served in this capacity for several entities, including the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Monarch Society, galvanizing communities across Oklahoma to engage in pollinator conservation and create habitats for monarchs and other pollinators. She is a Certified Pollinator Steward through Pollinator Partnership. When not engaged in community outreach or endlessly reading law textbooks, she can be found visiting the extensive pollinator gardens in her urban farming neighborhood, in search of cool bugs.

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Sept. 19: Food Preservation: Preserving Abundance with Canning & Dehydrating at Home with Red

Come learn in community about the foundational terms, techniques, and tricks for preserving abundance through canning & dehydrating. You will be able to lay eyes and hands on basic equipment, ask questions about specific fruits and vegetables, and leave with knowledge that can be applied to a wide range of home preservation projects and recipes.

Instructor: Red is an ex-bartender, former wine-snob, and present menace to society who still enjoys making tasty things for their community, but also going to bed by midnight. They would like you to know that yes, you can probably pickle that.

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9/26/26: Nursery Crawl

4 to 9 pm

Join us for a self-directed tour of 3 native plant nurseries in central OKC; Blue House Urban Farm, Native Plant Nursery and Lia’s Garden at CommonWealth. Several other native plant growers will also be set up at these sites, along with food booths and other fun and games! More info coming soon.

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10/3/26: Butterfly Bingo – afternoon program from 3-4 pm

Family friendly event. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

September is Butterfly Month at CommonWealth, when we are awash in butterflies and wonder. We’d like to share that great pleasure with others! Participants will receive a Bingo Card picturing butterflies common to central Oklahoma. We’ll divide into teams, with an experienced guide for each team, and roam the block, looking for butterflies and caterpillars. Prizes for everyone who gets Bingo! Refreshments will follow.

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10/10/26: A Fall Garden That Will Support the Bugs You Love 

Many gardeners think of fall as cleanup season, but it’s also a critical time to think about overwintering pollinators, as well as other insects, and wildlife. In this class, Keri will explore practical ways to support them in your garden, including how to leave stems, seed heads, and leaf litter in the most beneficial places. She’ll also share some tips on collecting and saving seeds.

Instructor: Keri Wilson is a horticulturist with a degree from Oklahoma State University, where she also studied ecology and entomology. She is passionate about wildlife-friendly gardening and helping gardeners create landscapes that celebrate the natural cycles of life. 

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October 24th: Potluck in the Garden, Noon to 2 pm

This celebration of life in community at an urban farm is one of our favorite events of the year. Homemade music, tours of the farm, great food and hanging out with the community. Bring your favorite potluck dish and join us noon to 2 p.m.

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November 28th: The Great Pumpkin Send-Off

9 am to Noon

This family-friendly event is free. Drop in between 9 am and noon.

What to do with all those pumpkins, once Thanksgiving is over and cold weather sets in? Bring them and the kids to CommonWealth for a celebration of all things pumpkin! Pumpkins are an ancient source of nourishment, cultivated by Indigenous people for thousands of years. Pumpkins are a reminder of the earth’s generosity and our connection and responsibility to the land and each other. CommonWealth volunteers will be sharing pumpkin stew and pumpkin bread made in our new cob oven, a portable rocket stove and a solar oven. Leftover pumpkins will find a new life in the compost bin in our compost-heated greenhouse. You can bring your leftover hay bales, too, and we’ll add them to the compost mix as well.