A listing of programs, services, events and announcements for our readers in the Bronx and beyond.

The New York Botanical Garden inaugurated the vegetable planting season in its sprawling Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden on Friday. Local schoolkids from PS 205 on Webster Avenue and PS 46 on East 198th Street participated. Officials talked to the children about the importance of fruits and vegetables in a balanced diet and eating healthily, especially in a borough with alarming rates of childhood obesity and diabetes. Following the ceremony, Garden staff and elected officials traveled by van to the Garden of Happiness, a community garden on Prospect Avenue, where children from nearby PS 211 planted and tended to garden

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Hopes faded last week that a revamped Kingsbridge Armory will bring well-paying jobs to one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bronx.

During a closed-door meeting at the offices of Community Board 7 in Bedford Park, Jesse Masyr, a lawyer for the Armory’s designated developer, the Related Companies, told community representatives that the project would not go forward with guarantees for living wage jobs – $10 and hour, plus benefits, as defined by the City Council.

With an Army Reserve Center in Wakefield closing and the city controlling the redevelopment process for the building, activists see new hope for schools at the Armory.

Childcare advocates and parents across the city are upset as the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), which funds one of the largest subsidized daycare systems in the country, closes kindergarten classrooms and cuts funding for pre-K in an effort to close a $62 million budget gap.

Ruben Diaz Jr., a 36-year-old career politician from Soundview, will officially become the new Bronx borough president on Friday after winning a special election on April 21 to replace former B.P. Adolfo Carrion.

Former State Senator Efrain Gonzalez’s trial was once again moved back, this time just another week, to May 11. Gonzalez is facing nine criminal counts of fraud and corruption for allegedly funneling more than $400,000 of state money back into his own pockets for personal use.

Yorman Nuñez, a 20-year-old college student and longtime youth activist and organizer with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, is running for City Council in the 14th District. He has set up a Web site -www.nunez09.com – and is using the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about his campaign.

A listing of public and community meetings in the northwest Bronx, mostly Community District 7.