Summer Garden Camp

School Garden Network's summer garden camp provides a safe and inclusive space for children to be outdoors and immersed in the delights of a school garden. Each week offers different themes and is full of creative, hands-on activities that will nurture a life-long appreciation of nature, build healthy habits, and create lasting friendships!

We welcome children 6-17 years old. We also welcome five year olds who have been through one year of TK or Kindergarten.

Leadership and service learning opportunities are also available for teens 12-17 years old. See Junior Educator information below.

Questions? Please contact SGN's Summer Camp Manager at summercamp@schoolgardens.org

Fees (per week)

Early Registration: $325
Open Registration (begins May 1):

Regular rate: $400
Sibling rate (per child): $350
Multiple week rate (per week): $350
Salmon Creek or Lucas Valley student rate: $350

*Only one discount can be applied
Junior Educator (12-17 y/o) rate: $275

Locations

Salmon Creek School
1935 Bohemian Highway
Occidental, CA 95465

Lucas Valley Elementary
1175 Idylberry Road
San Rafael, CA 94903

Scholarships Available!

Apply for a Scholarship

Cancellation and Change Policy: You are eligible for a full refund minus a $50 processing fee if your Garden Camp cancellation is made at least six weeks before your program start date. Cancellations received with less than six weeks notice WILL NOT be eligible for a refund unless a replacement is available to take your spot. If you would like to reschedule to a different week, a $50 processing fee will be charged and changes will be accommodated only when there is space available.

Each week is Monday through Friday, 9am to 3pm

Week 1 - June 29 - July 3: Imaginative Explorers @ Salmon Creek School

Week 2 - July 6-10: Buzzing Botanizers @ Salmon Creek School
Week 3 - July 13-17: Thinkers and Tinkerers @ Salmon Creek School
Week 4 - July 20-24: Critters and Crawlers @ Salmon Creek School
Week 5 - July 27-31: Fun in the Sun @ Salmon Creek School
Week 6 - Aug 10-14: Farm-to-Market @ Lucas Valley Elementary

~Detailed theme descriptions below~

Dates & Weekly Themes

Weekly Themes

Week 1: Imaginative Explorers

Unplug, imagine, and explore!

Join us for a fun-filled week of recreation in the great outdoors! This week is perfect for the high energy, adventure seekers. We will focus on fun ways to keep our earth and our bodies healthy, with an emphasis on exploration, play, and gardening activities. This camp session will incorporate a live-action role-play approach to garden education, where campers will develop an imagined character, storytelling, and problem-solving skills. While keeping in line with the core curriculum, this week will focus on kinetic activities that connect us to the themes we see in nature and embolden our imaginations. We will also be cooking everyday with food from the garden. Participants should be ready to spend the entire time outdoors. Let’s get moving!

Week 2: Buzzing Botanizers

What's the buzz about botany?

Join us for a plant-astic week of nature exploration in Salmon Creek and the redwood forest! This week is perfect for kiddos who love to explore plants, pollinators, and all that they offer us. We will focus on fun ways to learn about the power of plants, with an emphasis on identification, historic and cultural uses, natural dying, and much more! This camp session will also feature gardening as an everyday activity. While keeping in line with the core curriculum, this week will focus on creative activities that connect us to the ways we use the plants in our local environment. We will also be cooking everyday with food from the garden. Participants should be ready to spend the entire time outdoors. Plant-power activate!

Week 3: Thinkers and Tinkerers

What can we build together?

Join us for a wonderful week of STEM exploration in the vast school garden of Salmon Creek Middle School! This week is perfect for kiddos who love to build, tinker, and wonder. We will focus on building our skills in engineering, understanding environmental structures and gardening activities. While keeping in line with the core curriculum, this week will focus on activities that focus around Science, Engineering and learning fun skills like woodworking and utilizing solar energy. This camp session is perfect for kids who want to develop their inner engineer. We will also be cooking everyday with food from the garden. Participants should be ready to spend the entire time outdoors. Time to build some memories!

Week 4: Critters and Crawlers

What's flying up above? What's crawling down below?

Join us for an exciting week of learning about Sonoma County’s coolest insects and animals. We will embark on journeys through the redwood forest, observing what lives where and connecting with our animal neighbors. This week will be focused on exploring the animal kingdom. What’s swimming in the creek? What’s flying up above? This camp session will feature compost exploration, cooking from the garden, and activities that center us on our interactions with other life. We will be gardening and spending the whole day outside! We will also feature fun arts and crafts, nature exploration, and games. (We will be reliant on the wild birds, insects, and animals we encounter, and will not feature any animals brought in by wildlife handlers.)

Week 5: Fun in the Sun

Soak up the Summer!

Join us for a sun-filled week full of joy and play. We'll be spending time in the garden, cooking, crafting, playing games, and enjoying the care-free days of Summer with new friends!

Week 6: Farm-to-Market

How does food travel from the soil to our table?

Join us for a vibrant week inspired by the sights, sounds, and flavors of a farmers market! Campers will explore where food comes from, how it’s grown, harvested, prepared, and shared within our community. Through hands-on gardening, food preparation, creative crafts, and STEM activities we’ll learn about local agriculture, seasonal eating, and sustainability. This week emphasizes teamwork, responsibility, and real-world marketing skills. We’ll cook daily using fresh ingredients and spend our time outdoors celebrating nature. Get ready to grow, gather, and savor the experience!

Junior Educators

We welcome 12-17 year olds to participate as Junior Educators. Junior Educators will join a camp group, assist camp staff, and engage with younger campers in a fun and productive way. This program provides youth with the skills and experience needed to be leaders and outdoor educators. There is a certificate upon completion, and high school teens also earn 30 service learning hours per week of participation.

After registering, please have your teen fill out the short questionnaire below. Space is limited to 4-6 Junior Educators's per week.

JE QUESTIONNAIRE

Camp Staff

Leah Mathews (she/her)

Camp Lead Educator @ Lucas Valley Elementary

Leah is an active parent volunteer at Lucas Valley Elementary in San Rafael. She began as School Garden Coordinator in 2022 where she created curriculum and activities each week for their garden club - a garden education program for 1st-5th graders. She is currently the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Director—leading the Student Ally Leadership Team and is a board member of the Home and School Association. Last year she helped form the school’s first Student Anti-bias Team and continues to lead the group this year, performing school-wide assemblies on diversity and allyship, environmental justice, and neurodiversity awareness.

Leah’s passion lies in combining her current roles and skillset—garden education, DEI work, and art. Her goal as Camp Lead Educator is to foster each camper’s personal growth as a budding gardener—helping them learn to grow their own food, care for the planet, and be an impactful member of their community.

She earned a degree in Studio Art with an emphasis in Painting at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. When not in the garden or managing her kids’ activities, her ideal day involves hiking along the northern California coast, and painting en plein air.

Hayley Dougan (she/her)

Farm Manager/Camp Lead Educator @ Solar Punk Farms

As a farmer, environmental educator, and lifelong lover of wild places, Hayley is passionate about cultivating meaningful relationships between people, food, and the land. Raised in Sonoma County and shaped by transformative outdoor education experiences in college, she believes that time in nature — especially for children — can make lifelong impacts. Hayley studied Environmental Earth Science & Biology at Cal Poly SLO and has since worked in garden-based and outdoor education, regenerative agriculture, and restoration ecology. She now serves as Farm Manager at Solar Punk Farms, where she stewards the land with a focus on ecological resilience and community nourishment. She believes gardens are powerful classrooms, where curiosity is sparked, confidence is grown, and a sense of belonging to the natural world can take root. At camp, she loves helping young people dig in, taste fresh food, ask big questions, and discover their own connection to the living world.

Seasonal camp staff to be hired.

Special Camp Week @ Solar Punk Farms!

An opportunity for middle schoolers.

July (dates TBD)

Join us for a hands-on week of regenerative farming and Solar Punk imagination! Campers will dig deep into the nutrient cycle: building compost, exploring soil life, planting seeds, tending crops, and harvesting food we’ll prepare and enjoy together. Through farm projects, naturalist skills like birding and sit spots, and close observation of the ecosystems around us, we’ll discover how nature regenerates itself and how we can too. We’ll explore biomimicry, environmental stewardship, and creative solutions to food waste while imagining a hopeful, abundant future rooted in community and care for the land. Participants will take home plant starts, new skills, and the inspiration to grow their own gardens. Be ready to get your hands dirty, think big, and cultivate a regenerative future! Middle school campers only.

Many thanks to our camp sponsors!