The Santa Cruz area is home to robust, long standing school food and garden programs. Join us to visit resilient school gardens and innovative scratch cooking school meal programs that are exemplary of the programming that has been running for decades.

The 2024 Harvest Festival will feature live music, an apple pie baking contest, kids' activities, pumpkins for sale, delicious food, and more!

$5 admission / Free admission for kids under 12, UCSC, Hartnell College, and Cabrillo College students with a student ID, Semillas program families, and Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden members. Please pre-register with credit card or pay cash at the gate.

Bicycling, car pooling, ridesharing, and public transportation are encouraged as parking is limited. If you drive to the event, please plan to park in UCSC Lot #104 (East Remote parking lot) and walk or take a complimentary shuttle to the farm. There will be directional signage to help you get to the correct parking lot and farm entrances.

Please bring a reusable water bottle to save plastic and stay hydrated! Pets are not allowed on the UC Santa Cruz campus (with the exception of service animals).

Learn to facilitate engineering experiences for students in the garden! Participants will engage in a 3rd-5th grade unit designed for Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), in which students design and build trellises for peas in the school garden. We will make observations; design, build and test prototypes; and then build full-size trellises to grow peas. By unpacking this unit, we will learn how to facilitate engineering experiences that address real problems or needs in school gardens. You will leave with resources to lead this unit, and also a framework for designing your own engineering in the garden unit.

Building on Life Lab’s 40+ years of experience in the school garden movement, we’ve put together a virtual course that will guide and support educators in becoming a Life Lab-Certified School Garden Educator!

Cohort 9: 8 Week Program

• Live classes will be held on Zoom, every Monday and Wednesday, from 3:30 - 5:00 PT.

• September 9, 2024 - October 30, 2024

• Register Here.

Building on Life Lab’s 40+ years of experience in the school garden movement, we’ve put together a virtual course that will guide and support educators in becoming a Life Lab-Certified School Garden Educator!

Cohort 8: 16 Week Program

• Live classes will be held on Zoom, every Tuesday, from 3:30 - 5:00 PT.

• August 27, 2024 - Dec 10, 2024

• Register here

Spend a day looking at the garden through the eyes of a young child. Using Life Lab's Sowing the Seeds of Wonder activity guide for preschool and kindergarten, participants in this workshop sample activities designed to encourage young children to learn about the world using their senses; practice basic gardening skills with a focus on gardening with young children; discuss safe and age-appropriate garden design; and learn garden art projects and songs for preschoolers. Graduate education unit available.

Join Life Lab at Earth Day 2024. Stop by the Life Lab table to learn about planting seeds, taking care of plants, and for free seeds, soil and starters!

How can we possibly manage 30 students in an Outdoor Classroom?! Participants in this workshop will explore best practices for establishing and maintaining a positive, engaging culture of learning and fun in a garden setting. Together we will experience and discuss setting the tone for equitable and inclusive instruction; garden class routines; station rotations; and specific techniques to maximize student engagement and participation.