Our Vision

Drawing on over forty years of work with young people in gardens, Life Lab, is a national leader in the garden-based learning movement. Through workshops and consultations, we have provided tens of thousands of educators across the country with the inspiration and information necessary to engage young people in gardens and on farms. Our workshops and award-winning publications are the go-to resource for educators and families interested in engaging young people in gardens. At the Life Lab Garden Classroom educational center in Santa Cruz and the Blooming Classroom garden in Watsonville, we promote experiential learning for people of all ages through field trips, children’s camps, and teacher workshops. Through district-level partnerships, we help whole communities make a thriving garden classroom a core asset of all of their schools.

Life Lab is committed to advancing equity and inclusion as we cultivate children’s love of learning, nourishing food, and nature through garden-based education. Fulfilling this mission requires that we learn about and confront the barriers of oppression encountered by the communities with whom we work. We understand that racism is at the core of many intersecting inequities, operating on personal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels. Therefore, Life Lab values and builds partnerships with communities where systemic racism creates barriers to nature, wellness and experiential education. Life Lab knows that a staff with diverse lived experiences, reflective of the communities we serve, is essential to the work we do. We also recognize that equity and inclusion are both goals and daily practices. We strive to grow and support an organizational culture that centers ongoing learning, justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and solidarity. We believe that liberatory garden-based educational opportunities and organizational practices support a more just future.