Martial Cottle Park Community Education Center

Our four acre parcel is within Santa Clara County's 287 acre Martial Cottle Park which showcases the area's farming past and celebrates the agricultural heritage of Santa Clara Valley. We will showcase many aspects of gardening in this region, from native plants to vegetables to fruit trees and more.

Address: Martial Cottle Park, 5283 Snell Ave, San Jose, CA 95136

Directions: Entry to the Park is free. Parking is $6. There are walkways in the Park to our garden location.

Visiting hours: Our parcel is open to the public when the park is open. Our workdays are Wednesday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m.–noon. We welcome Martial Cottle Park Volunteers and the public.  So stop by, roll up your sleeves and attend a class, participate in an event or just help garden.

In the summer of 2015, Master Gardeners began working on a four acre parcel covered in weeds.  After a year of hard work, there is now a thriving Native Garden, 51 raised beds for research and ornamental plants, a Farm Stand, a Barn with rain catchment, and pathways into the parcel.  

By the end of 2016 we completed construction of a 72' Solar Light Greenhouse. The greenhouse is used to grow most of the plants for Master Gardener projects throughout Santa Clara County. Many of the vegetables, flowers, herbs and plant seedlings grown on site are sold at our Spring and Fall Garden Markets. Other plants are used for research and teaching purposes.

The extraordinary presence of this garden within a 287 acre agricultural setting in a County and State Park provides a unique learning environment for the public.  Community hands-on training to support and encourage healthy communities and ecosystems through sustainable landscape practices is the main focus.  Water conservation, green waste reduction and local sustainable gardening practices are just a few of the classes we plan to deliver to youth and adults in a hands-on learning environment.

You can help!

We welcome community volunteers at the garden. If you enjoy working outside in a garden (or even indoors in a greenhouse!), we'd love to have you join us (note that we require all volunteers to sign a UC ANR waiver form). Our work days are Wednesday and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m.–noon, you can come for all or part of the time. Whether you come out to help or not, you can get updates about the project including work-day information by signing up for our mailing list.