Let's Get Growing Workshop Series 2026

Shake off the frost and roll up your sleeves for a family-friendly day of seed starting, propagation, and spring discoveries!

🌿 Let's get growing, Hamilton! 🌿

Join The Children’s Garden Project Canada for our 5th annual Let’s Get Growing Workshop Series and our Children's Garden Activation Centre, part of the City of Hamilton’s first-ever Spring Discovery Days!

🗓️ Date: Saturday, March 21, 2026

🕙 Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

📍 Location: Gage Park Tropical Greenhouse

This full day of family-friendly programming invites children and caregivers to roll up their sleeves and dig into hands-on seed planting, propagation, and interactive garden workshops that spark curiosity and nurture environmental stewardship. Families will even help plant this year’s Children’s Garden, setting it up to flourish throughout the 2026 season! 🌿

Workshop Schedule:

PLEASE NOTE: We're doing things different this year! Each individual workshop will run for one hour and can accommodate up to 25 children. Please arrive 15-20 minutes before the workshops you would like to attend, as our workshop registration table will open 20 minutes prior to the anticipated start time of each workshop!

🍅 9:00 AM - Happy Herb & Veggie Garden: Discover the magic of companion planting and learn how basil and parsley can help tomatoes grow big and strong. We’ll dig in, plant together, and share easy tips to help your veggie and herb garden thrive, whether it’s in your backyard or on your windowsill! (Joyce of Cooking)

🍓 10:00 AM - Grow Your Own Berry Bush: Create your own jam, pickle your own vegetables, and learn how to preserve the harvest for the colder months! (Dundurn Kitchen Garden)

🌍 11:00 AM - Tiny Terrarium Adventure: Learn how tiny ecosystems work while building your very own Tiny Terrarium! Each participant will create a miniature world in a jar and take their finished Terrarium home to nurture and grow. (The Children's Garden Project)

🦋 1:30 PM - Build a Butterfly Paradise: Discover the power of native plants and flowers, and how they help attract butterflies and other important pollinators to your garden or window box! Plant your own seeds in a mini greenhouse jug to take home and watch grow, and start creating a pollinator-friendly space of your own. (Action 13)

🌿 2:30 PM - Time to Experi-Mint: Mint is easy to grow, easy to eat, and easy to multiply! Learn about the different parts of the mint plant and create your own mini greenhouse to see what part of the plant is the most eager to root in this take-home experiment.(The Children's Garden Project)

🌱 3:30 PM - Let’s Get the Garden Growing: Ready to get your hands dirty? Join us for a fun-filled sowing party where children will learn the basics of planting and help kickstart the Children’s Garden Project by sowing flowers and vegetables for the season ahead. (The Children's Garden Project)

And that's not all!

Visit our Children’s Garden Activation Centre, taking place during our Let's Get Growing Workshop Series as part of the City of Hamilton's Spring Discovery Days!

Enjoy hands-on, family-friendly activities including creative crafts, live story readings, music, and interactive experiences that celebrate nature, curiosity, and how Hamilton grows! 🌸

🌼 Create gorgeous paper flowers with Nancy Lalicon from Paper Botanicals!

🪘 Embrace your inner drummer with Peter Amponsah and the Afro Canadian Caribbean Association!

📖 Enjoy live story readings from Pandamonium Publishing House authors!

Funding Acknowledgement

This event is made possible thanks to Hamilton Community Foundation's Open Grants fund, and our fiscal sponsors from the Conserver Society of Hamilton & District.

We hope to see you at this very special event!