Imagine Water Works

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Imagine Water Works

Reimagining the future through art, science, and connection. Focused on climate justice, land stewardship, and disaster readiness and response.

Stewards of The Imagination Farm & Mutual Aid Response Network. Learn about our team at imaginewaterworks.org.

04/13/2026

Next Call-A-Thon and Farm Volunteer Day is TOMORROW, Tuesday 4/14, from 10am to 4pm at The Imagination Farm (2718 Painters Street).

Scroll through for vids taken by at the last event, and for a look into what some farm tasks might be if you’re interested in those!

We’ll again have tshirts and plant starts to offer to those who volunteer, as well as seeds in our Seed Exchange. When you arrive, let us know if you’re interested in starting with resource guide support or farm support, and we’ll plug you in!

If you scroll through this post and wonder “Why so many zinnias?”… The answer is lotsss of reasons:

🌱 Zinnias remove heavy metals from the soil, including lead, so we plant them especially in our new beds for a season before planting any veggies.

🌱 Zinnias are hardy and love our sun and heat.

🌱 Zinnias grow FAST and easily from seed (inexpensive!), and they give us visual encouragement while some of the slower growers make their way.

🌱 Zinnias aren’t native to Louisiana but that’s chill with us! They’re from the Southwestern U.S., Mexico, and Central America. They’re not invasive and instead help repair the soil and protect plants around them. Much like human immigrant families, they make great neighbors.

🌱 Because of their reliability and bright colors, Zinnias are fantastic host plants for pollinators.

🌱 They’re edible!

🌱 They’re cute, obviously.

To join the Call-A-Thon and Farm Volunteer Day tomorrow for any amount of time (come when you can, stay however long ya can!), RSVP at bit.ly/callathonrsvp

04/10/2026

Today was beautiful. 1000x THANK YOU to all who came out. Together in just one day we made a buncha phone calls for the Resource Guide and (in picture order)…

🌱 planted a satsuma tree
🌱 cleaned kayaks (more to come on this new offering)
🌱 planted a variegated lemon tree
🌱 released hundreds of lacewings to fight the aphids
🌱 made pinwheels to keep birds off the low fruit
🌱 did we mention made a lot of phone calls…
🌱 removed suckers from the sweet viburnum and pears
🌱 saved seeds from the arugula to replant and share
🌱 created a new pollinator garden bed
🌱 removed invasive/toxic chinaberry tree limbs
🌱 sorted seeds for the seed library and exchange
🌱 traded soil and so many plants with each other

This is weeks of work for one person but a single day collectively. A reminder of how powerful we are together.

And we’ll be doing it one more time next week: Tuesday, April 14, 10am-4pm, come for any amount of time during those hours! RSVP at bit.ly/callathonrsvp

Much love to the many hands who made today chill, productive, connected, and all around awesome 💚

04/09/2026

Tomorrow’s the big day! We need your help!

The New Orleans Community Resource Guide is awesome because we all get together every year to verify the info (100 pages!) is correct and up to date. Join us tomorrow to make calls and send emails for the 2026 update.

If you aren’t a caller but areee a gardener, painter, assembler, or anyone interested in those things, we need you too. We’ve got a whole buncha Spring tasks to get done around this place.

Come to call, come to farm, come to hold chickens… leave with a tshirt, seeds, and plants for your own garden.

RSVP at bit.ly/callathonrsvp

⬆️ Use this link to sign up for tomorrow’s event AND/OR our next one on Tuesday, April 14th, same time same place.

🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Childcare not provided, but kids are welcome! This is a substance free event, and we have hard games and books for all ages.

👟 Wear closed toe shoes.
🍌 Light snacks and drinks provided.

03/27/2026

Exciting things are on the way. Applications for the Imagination Farm Indigenous Youth Program open next month!

This will be a paid opportunity for Indigenous Youth, ages 16-24. The program will run between August-November of this year, with the option to continue as an Imagination Farmer and/or Responder at the end of the program.

The program will include 6 different workshops (to be announced!), as well as field trips and farm training/land stewardship on site at our mutual aid hub. Mentors from our team will be available to help, and collectively we hold many identities — Indigenous, Creole, Afro-Indigenous, farmer, herbalist, q***r, trans, artist, activist, two-spirit, nonbinary, shrimper, weaver, disabled, determined — that inform our life experiences and how we move about this world.

We can’t wait to see you!

Check back here, on our website, and in our newsletters for the application link, coming soon. ✊🌱

03/26/2026

CALL-A-THON UPDATE: Tomorrow is now a FARM VOLUNTEER DAY!

Unfortunately, our mighty Resource Guide organizer Coleen is out sick. We’re holding space for her to rest, while still looking forward to seeing yall tomorrow for farm-related activities only. If you’re not a huge fan of phones, but you *are* a fan of dirt or crafts, now’s your time to shine.

Please note we’ve also adjusted the time to 12-4pm and no longer need an RSVP. Show up any time in that window, and we’ll plug you in.

What to expect:
We’ll have various activities requiring different physical levels so that everyone can fully participate. Swipe to see some examples from our Imagination Farmers task board. We’ll also still have okra and marigold starts for you to take home, as well as a freshly stocked Seed Exchange.

For more info about the space, check out the FAQ on our website: https://www.imaginewaterworks.org/the-imagination-farm/

See you tomorrow at The Imagination Farm - 2718 Painters Street!

P.S. You can also still register for the April 10th Call-A-Thon at bit.ly/callathonrsvp

03/18/2026

We’re proud to announce that we’ve been chosen as an Indigenous Library Program Grantee! Soon we’ll have our own location on the map, with a book library and seed library and a little spot to sit for a bit at the farm. Still, always free, never for sale.

IWW history: From 2019 to 2023, we co-created and stewarded the Little Library of Water in partnership with Waggonner & Ball and to connect children and adults with what “living with water” means in a city like New Orleans, in which flood risk and climate change require adaptation and a nuanced understanding of our environment. Since then we’ve continued to seek opportunities to provide “literary, musical, artistic, and reference materials for use but never for sale”.

This year we’re grateful for this opportunity from to continue stewarding a new kind of library — combining our literary and seed exchange dreams, expanding access not only to environmental education but also to healthy food, pollinator gardens, and native plants.

Scroll through for pics from the original Little Library of Water’s programming.

03/12/2026

FREE PLANT FRIDAY DROP: Tomorrow starting at 11am, come scoop some oregano from the driveway, til we run out. Please no more than 2 per household.

We’ll comment on this post when there’s no more left.

The Imagination Farm
2718 Painters Street

UPDATE: All out for this round!

03/10/2026

RESOURCE GUIDE / FARM VOLUNTEER DAY: The resource guide is only awesome because we update it regularly, and we can only update it regularly with the help of a whole bunch of yall.

This Spring, we’re doing update calls on MARCH 27th and APRIL 10th (both Fridays).

We’ll be at it from 10-4pm at The Imagination Farm - 2718 Painters Street.

If you also enjoy farm work, we need volunteers for that too! Help us chop bamboo and ask us questions about any of the plants around the farm, or get advice for your garden.

Callers will take home a free t-shirt and plant (likely okra and marigolds this year). This is a substance-free, all ages event. Light snacks provided.

RSVP @ bit.ly/callathonrsvp

02/23/2026

At the farm we’ve been practicing making the most of everything we’ve got. Feels like we need to get really good at that these days especially.

We had a bunch of citronella that wasn’t going to make it through the freezes, so we harvested it and some other herbs around the farm, and made our first very own mosquito repellent! Introducing... REPEL DAT! Hope it works, lol. Will keep yall posted.

We’ve always been unafraid to try things and see what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes it’s a homemade tincture, sometimes its a big wild post-disaster idea, many times it’s internal processes that yall never see, and every time it’s worth it. Stay courageous and curious in these wild times, friends. Keep getting it wrong and then right again. That’s how we get through it.

02/21/2026

Grateful. Thank you for dreaming and walking with us in Krewe of Zeitoun, and to for the invite. C’est l’heure de la joie de vivre en Palestine, à la Nouvelle-Orléans et au-delà. 🇵🇸🦞

📷:

Ofrenda by 💚🦋

02/19/2026

FREE fennel plants in the driveway now for pickup @ The Imagination Farm: 2718 Painters Street

Use them to cook with, make tea, as ant repellent, or plant them in a pot to keep growing your own fennel 💪

**Heads up that if you walk further onto the farm after hours, the alarm goes off!

02/13/2026

Looking for info about the Loup Garou Boat Parade on Bayou Choupic? Here’s the flyer!

LUNDI GRAS. Gather at noon, launch at 1pm. Call 504-233-9119 for the route and where to put in, or look for folks gathering between Desaix and Toussaint.

Address

2718 Painters Street
New Orleans, LA
70122

Telephone

+15048580200

Website

http://www.imaginewaterworks.org/

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