Family Gardening Program

Description

The Family Gardening Program at Hilltop provides a fun, interactive, garden-themed learning environment in which families learn and work together through gardening. The Family Gardening Program is free and is for families with children ages 3-9. The garden program will mainly focus on growing edible plants (including fruits, vegetables, and herbs) as well as flowers.

Structure

The 2022 Family Gardening Program will run June 13th through August 6th. Families register for one of two time slots, Mondays from 6:30pm – 8pm or Saturdays from 8am to 9:30am, and come to Hilltop every week during the time slot they’ve registered for. After August 6th, during Hilltop’s open hours participating families will be able to continue to come to Hilltop to tend to their garden plot and harvest from it, however no formal programming will be offered. There are a limited number of spaces available, so please only register if you are able to commit to consistent program attendance and participation.

Participants

A ‘family’ must include at least one responsible adult who is 18 years or older, and one child. There is no limit to how many people may participate per family. Not all family members are required to come to each weekly program, as long as at least one child and one adult attend each week.

Participant Benefits

Participants in the program receive weekly gardening instruction through hands-on, family friendly gardening activities. Each family is provided with a garden plot at Hilltop that they maintain through the 2022 growing season. Plants, seeds, fertilizer, tools, and materials are provided; however, you are welcome to bring your own seeds or plants. Participants take home the produce and flowers grown in their garden plot as well as additional herbs grown at Hilltop.

Child Supervision

Parents/guardians are responsible for the supervision of their children during the Family Gardening Program at Hilltop. While Hilltop staff will be present each week to facilitate gardening activities for participating families, Hilltop staff will not be responsible for babysitting children during the Family Gardening Program. Children participating in the Family Gardening Program cannot be left unattended or unsupervised by their parents/guardians.

Absence Policy

The 2022 program runs from June 13th through August 6th, and participants are expected to attend each week. If your family will not be able to attend one week, we request that you notify the instructor and ask another family in the program to take care of your garden for you until you return. Because maintaining a garden plot requires weekly attention, participants who do not attend for more than 2 consecutive weeks will forfeit their garden plot and their spot in the program (unless absence is related to COVID-19).