Welcome back to the Community Agriculture Project! In episode 8, we sit down with Diego Martins, who currently works for the New York Horticultural Society as a Greenhouse and Garden Manager. Diego has started a program called Gay in the Garden.

Gay in the Garden is for queer folks and their allies to come together for both unstructured and facilitated time in the garden, and is a place to show up freely and authentically. You can expect to grow horticulture skills through collective garden work like weeding, watering, composting, and various garden care tasks followed by a communal harvest and potluck. Monthly, attendees can explore the wisdom the garden offers in the current season, and queer culture-bearers can lead communal, nature-based artmaking and ecological knowledge shares.

There is a lot of laugher and joy in this episode! At the same time, Diego has the space to share their story as a queer and trans man navigating their interest in agriculture, horticulture and gardening in New York City.The story follows his experience with Green City Force and how they came to work at the New York Horticultural Society.

Here are some follow up resources from this episode:

Green City Force website: https://greencityforce.org

The Horticultural Society website: https://www.thehort.org

Diego’s Instagram: @plantfatha

Diego’s contact for professional matters: Dmartins@thehort.org

Lastly, the genius creator Nicole Daniels: https://www.tiktok.com/@nicoleolived