Sign Up for Summer Camp

Let the Garden be your child's summer playground and classroom with our exciting offering of day camps! Our series of five camps begins with the week of July 12th. With each week focusing on exciting adventures in cooking, science, art, animals, and more, your child is sure to find just the right fit in the Garden. Sign ups are underway and space is limited, so check out our Classes and Events section for more information.

See you in the Garden!

Wish List: Help Our Garden Grow

We could not be more excited to have the Gilroy Demonstration Garden open and growing day by day. As the Garden grows, so does the list of materials we need to keep the Garden and its programs up and running. We've added a Wish List to our "Support" section and encourage all of our friends and neighbors to take a look. Every item on the list, big or small, adds to the success of the Garden and those who learn from and enjoy it.

As always, thank you for your continued enthusiasm and support for this incredible endeavor!

Teens Learn Leadership in the Garden

More than plants are blossoming in the Gilroy Demonstration Garden. Garden Director Judy Hess and her Teen Interns began their month-long program yesterday, which will use the Garden as a backdrop for developing leadership skills and community involvement as well as, of course gardening and the nutrition and health lessons that go hand in hand with spending time surrounded by organic fruits and veggies.

The Interns were the first in the community to taste what the Garden has to offer as they harvested herbs and salad greens to make egg salad sandwiches. They needed to keep their energy up as they worked together to plant the first official Intern Tree, an orange tree donated by the Middagh family.

Modeled after UC Santa Cruz's Life Lab Teen Internship program, Judy and the Interns have a great deal to look forward to as they work together in the next month to improve the Garden, themselves, and the community.

Keep an eye out for what else the Interns are up to in the Garden in the weeks to come.

Art in the Garden

Crayola better watch out because there's a vegelution happening right here in Gilroy! Our first Garden artists used carrots as drawing tools, broccoli as sponge painters, and cut stamps out of potatoes to create their masterpieces. With kids ranging in age from four to ten, each artist took charge of their piece moving from the abstract to more concrete creations.

After class, we made a meal for the Garden's composting worms as we took our rinsed off veggie art tools over to the compost bins and finished with a quick trip around the Garden to talk about what future art supplies might be made from the Garden's leafy greens, corn husks, and pumpkins. Any guesses?

Story Hour a Hit

Thanks to all of the moms and kiddos who came out to our first Good Morning Story Hour on Friday. Surrounded by our growing pumpkin vines and tomato plants and with the Garden scare-crow overlooking the scene, the kids enjoyed Tops and Bottoms, Growing Vegetable Soup, and Watermelon Day. Each child went home with an heirloom watermelon seed to plant in their own garden. Can't wait to see what books will be on tap for next week.

Don't forget to come out to Arts & Crafts in the Garden Monday from 10 am to 11 am!

Let's Get Digging!: Garden Opening a Huge Success

Digging in the dirt has never been so much fun! You add together a couple hundred plants and people and throw in a great band and a beautiful day and you have the Gilroy Demonstration Garden off to an incredible start.

The community came together to celebrate the opening of the Garden and we put them straight to work planting corn, tomatoes, peppers, herbs and just about everything in between. We're now open for business and can't wait to see all of you out in the Garden for our weekend gardening classes and the free story hours and arts and crafts hours coming up in the next few weeks.

As the Garden begins to grow, so do all of the possibilities for our programs. Keep an eye out for updated calendars with new and exciting classes and events. Don't forget to sign your kids up for our Teen Internship program and for Summer Day Camp in the Garden!