National Garden Month
National Garden Month is one of the many holidays that you can celebrate in April. This holiday is dedicated to bringing gardeners and their communities together, while also spreading the message to those indirectly involved in gardening.
According to the National Garden Bureau, they, along with 23 other organizations, established National Garden Week back in the 80s. Fortunately, Ronald Reagan signed the proclamation to make it official. In 2002, the National Gardening Association extended the holiday to the whole month of April. Now, people celebrate the holiday all month long with activities like local plant sales and swaps, as well as garden center seminars and classes.
The NGB also has several resources listed to help people start gardening!
Take a Gardening Class
Another way to get involved locally for Garden Month is by taking a gardening class! Many libraries and colleges host gardening classes scheduled throughout the year. For instance, the Clark County Library District has several gardening and plant-related classes throughout May at various locations!
In addition, the Obodo Collective, a local non-profit focused on bringing structural, ongoing support to communities, is offering classes on some select Saturdays throughout the next two months!
The classes will be held in the Obodo Garden at 1300 C St, Las Vegas, NV 89106. The organization uses the garden to grow food for the community and address food insecurity.
They also opened their own grocery store in February 2025, offering fresh, local produce and essential goods right in the heart of the Historic Westside! Partnering with local farms, they provide nourishment to underserved communities.
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Why Gardening is Great
Garden magazine publisher, The Northern Gardener, provides a list of positive reasons why gardening matters.
For one, it’s good for one’s health as it provides both Vitamin D and exercise. Gardening is considered a positive hobby, and there’s even a study that found serotonin-releasing bacteria in soil. So it is linked to improved mental health as well.
It’s also great for the planet. With more gardens, more water gets filtered, and trees can sequester more carbon. There’s also a very strong relationship between native plants and the health of animals like birds and insects. Of course, gardens especially matter to pollinators, like native bees and migrating butterflies.
And, community gardens also bring the community together, allowing us to connect with nature and each other. This is especially true by providing space for people to work through grief or trauma, as seen with the Las Vegas Healing Garden.
The Community Healing Garden
Located right in the Arts District, at 1015 S. Casino Center Blvd., is the Las Vegas Healing Garden.
After the October 1 shooting in 2017, Vegas came together to build this community healing garden. Its history runs deep, as it all started from a napkin sketch by Jay Pleggenkuhle and Daniel Perez of Stonerose Landscapes on October 2, 2017.
By the following Wednesday morning, hundreds came to bring that idea to life. People from all over donated supplies, including trees, bricks, and even an irrigation system. The park officially opened to the public four days later, on October 6th.
In the garden now reside 58 trees, each one to remember the 58 victims who tragically lost their lives that day. And all of those trees circle a beautiful oak tree, or “Tree of Life,” donated by Siegfried and Roy. A remembrance wall also stands there. Originally made out of wood pallets, it was later upgraded to a permanent steel wall with a water feature and angel wings.
It’s wholesome to think so many kind people spent time and resources to properly honor those who lost their lives on that day. And this garden, full of so much beauty and life, not only memorializes them, but it also provides space for their loved ones and other members of the community to grieve the tragic event.
#GetinMotion for Gardening Month
We have a special relationship with plants, and with April being National Garden Month, it’s the perfect time to rediscover that for yourself!
Whether you’re looking to reconnect with nature or community, help your mental health, or feed your loved ones, gardening is a great way to do all that and more.
And there’s nothing like the joy of harvesting the fruits (or veggies/herbs) of your labor that you watched grow and cared for.
So, start small, go garden, and see what you can accomplish (and how much better you’ll feel) by going out in the sun and getting your hands dirty!
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