Descanso Gardens

Located in La Cañada Flintridge, Descanso Gardens is a 150-acre urban retreat of year-round natural beauty, internationally renowned botanical collections, and spectacular horticultural displays. Young visitors can experience nature up-close through enrichment classes, public programs, and annual festivals; trained docents are available to lead in-depth tours for school groups. The Harvest Garden provides a setting for special-needs students who participate weekly in a therapeutic gardening experience.

Garden School Foundation

A coalition of citizens, businesses, and community organizations, the Garden School Foundation is dedicated to bringing verdant traffic buffers, sports facilities, and a variety of gardens to Los Angeles Unified School District public schools. The prototype for the Garden School concept is 24th Street Elementary School in central Los Angeles. The three-quarter-acre school yard now includes a fully-operational kitchen garden and orchard with an outdoor teaching area, allowing students to plant, harvest, and learn how to prepare vegetables for healthful meals. A kitchen classroom will be created during the 2009-2010 school year.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

The Huntington is an educational and cultural center renowned for its collections of rare books and manuscripts, priceless works of art, and botanical specimens from around the world. Twelve themed gardens on the 120-acre estate in San Marino in the San Gabriel Valley delight visitors young and old. Among the highlights is the Children's Garden, a whimsical space where youngsters can explore the four elements: earth, air, light, and water. Gardening classes for kids, workshops for families, school tours, and training classes for teachers are among the Huntington's regular educational programs.

Kidspace Children’s Museum

The three-acre Kidspace Children’s Museum in Pasadena provides hands-on science exhibits, gardens, and outdoor learning opportunities for young children and their families. Children can engage with nature by investigating a miniature representation of the Arroyo Seco (Pasadena's most famous geological feature), hiking among California native gardens, tending the vegetable garden, and taking part in interdisciplinary programming that inspires creativity and ignites wonder.

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden

The Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden is a 127-acre botanical garden and historical site in Arcadia. Home to plant collections from all over the world, the Arboretum also features outdoor historical landmarks representative of the major phases of California history—from a Native American brush shelter to a Victorian-era cottage and train depot. The Arboretum’s mission is to cultivate our natural, horticultural and historic resources for learning, enjoyment and inspiration. The Arboretum is a living classroom that offers a variety of activities and learning experiences for families and kids of all ages.

Rancho Santa Anna Botanic Garden

Founded in 1927, the 86-acre Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG) in Claremont is the largest botanic garden dedicated exclusively to California's native plants. RSABG’s mission is to promote botany, conservation, and horticulture to inspire, inform, and educate visitors about California’s native flora. To achieve this mission, RSABG offers a variety of interpretive programs, classes, tours, field trips, special events and activities throughout the year to connect children to their natural surroundings.

University of California Common Ground Garden Program

Since 1978, the Common Ground Garden Program - part of the University of California Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County - has helped residents to grow their own food and healthfully prepare their harvest. Serving low-income, limited-resource residents and those traditionally underrepresented, the program empowers neighborhoods to create their own solutions to myriad social challenges by training community volunteers in the fundamentals of gardening. In 2009, 192 Master Gardeners in this program volunteered 9,955 hours serving 63,624 low-income gardeners in Los Angeles County at 41 community gardens, 71 school gardens, 14 homeless and battered-women's shelter gardens, six senior housing facility gardens, and 14 fairs and farmers markets.

Have questions or need more information?
Visit http://www.ahs.org, e-mail youthprograms@ahs.org, or call 703-768-5700 x 132.