Children and Youth Gardening

Ages 18 mo. to 3 years, and their caregivers.

Little Sprouts provides young children, toddler to early ages, and their parents/caregivers with hands-on, garden-based learning opportunities in a community food growing garden, including planting, tending, harvesting and cooking locally-grown foods. For families that have limited access to green spaces, Little Sprouts provides important first experiences and first lessons about growing foods and caring for our environment.

Seasonal - Monday mornings.

Ages 4 to 6 years. Drop off and multi-generational programming available.

Imagination grows at RBG where our Kinder-garden-ing programs support outdoor garden-based learning for children aged 3.8-5 years of age. Through our fun programs we like to encourage children to get involved with plants through hands-on garden activities and art. Each family will receive a 3'x5' allotment to share and grow during their time as an RBG gardener, with lots of opportuntiy to harves fresh vegetables to take home.

Seasonal - Tuesday evenings or Wednesday mornings.
(previously Cockleshells and Silverbells)

Ages 6 to 8 years, drop off.

We are all about building relationships and strong foundations in the garden. This weekly drop-off program digs deeper into the practice and theory of gardening focusing on the ground up: soil. From building mud castles to mucking around in the mulch, Sow and Grow provides gentle (and sometimes dirty) independent learning to discover the world beneath our feet and the organisms that call the Green Thumb Club home. Children will garden and grow in a 5'x6' in-ground allotment honing their early gardening skills before joining the Junior Gardeners Club.

Seasonal - Thursday evenings.

Ages 9 to 13, drop off.

For over 75 years RBG has been cultivating new gardeners in this youth-led gardening program. Located in the 1.3-acre RBG Teaching Garden, our Junior Gardeners have the opportunity to grow in raised-beds or the in-ground. We'll practice advanced garden techniques such as no-till gardening, integrated pest management, crop protection and more! We've designed this program to model our local community gardens where our garden ``committee`` of youth drives our program goals creating a place that is uniquely their own: a youth community garden. Come winter we shift indoors to the “secret greenhouses” to focus on plant propagation and cooking.

Year-round - Saturday mornings.