Little Garden Patch Farm

Little Garden Patch Farm offers activities such as painting, playdough, bubbles, fairy gardens, dress up, play kitchen time, baking, story time, reading, and a wide range of hands-on craft and science projects. Children can spend time on swings, a slide, a trampoline, and a tree fort, as well as an outdoor play kitchen, and they can put on outdoor plays and puppet shows. The program also includes milking goats, observing egg collection, gardening, helping to feed chickens, ducks, a pony, and pigs, shucking corn husks from the garden to feed the goats, and creating projects like personal fairy gardens to take home, tie-dye items, sewn pieces, crochet, weaving, fuse bead creations, drawing and coloring, and paper crafts, along with theme-related stories, games, cooking projects, and engineering activities.

• Ages: 5–9 years old
• Schedule: Spring Farm Camp runs Monday 4/6 through Friday 4/10, with 4-hour half day and 8-hour full day sessions; summer farm camp offers full day options from 9–5 or 9:30–5:30 and an afternoon half day from 1:30–5:30, with early drop off at 8:30 available for an added fee, and the farm closing at 5:30 pm; after school care during the 2025–2026 school year begins with pick up at 2:30 Monday–Thursday and 11:30 on Fridays.
• Price: Beginning Spring & Summer 2026, Farm Camp Sessions cost $200 per week for the 4-hour half day schedule and $325 per week for the 8-hour full day schedule, with additional hours available within business hours at $8 per hour; full-time after school care is $7 per hour for children attending 15 or more hours per week and $9 per hour for those attending less than 15 hours per week.

The stated mission of Little Garden Patch Farm is to reconnect kids with nature, to nurture the values of compassion, creativity, and stewardship, and to provide a safe, family home setting where kids can build community and experience a sense of belonging. The program emphasizes nature immersion, hands-on science, and a primarily child-led, play-based, emergent approach that focuses on play and self-discovery, with no screen time once children arrive and a request that families leave hand-held gaming devices, tablets, laptops, and other electronics at home. It offers themes for summer camp weeks such as Medieval Make Believe, Fairy Tales, Dinosaur Daze, and Blast Off for Space Fun, as well as a program for homeschoolers aged 5–8 years during regular after school business hours and an after school program with pick up and transport available for Main Street and Soquel Elementary school students.

Little Garden Patch Farm is a licensed care facility with Community Care License Number 444413332 and has been mentioned in the publication Growing Up in Santa Cruz. One local parent, Linnaea Avenell, describes the property as having been transformed into “Little Garden Patch Farm” so that children who might otherwise be indoors can have child-led time playing outdoors, and she describes it as a “magical childhood wonderland” and “childhood wonderland.” In her testimonial, she notes that children arriving after school can spend time playing games of make believe, playing “farm” with toys in the sensory tables, shucking corn husks from the garden to feed the goats, laughing at the chickens, chasing a ball, and joining in story time, and she states that this makes the farm chores and maintenance feel worthwhile.

Last updated March 14, 2026.