Martial Cottle Park Demonstration Gardens and Community Education Center
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 during our regular work hours: Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9–noon. We’re also on site at other times and during scheduled events. If the gate is open, feel free to come on in.
Please do not come to the parcel if you are not feeling well.
What to see and do
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 deliver to youth and adults in a hands-on learning environment.
Mornings at Martial Cottle Park is a program offering field trips for kindergarten–4th graders to learn about gardens from UC Master Gardeners.
Demonstration gardens map and plant lists
We have several demonstration gardens with different themes. Use the links below to see a list of the plants in each of the gardens.
Please understand that while we attempt to update the plant lists on a regular basis, gardens do change. Plants may be added, moved, replaced, or simply die. Also, some of the plant lists are still in progress, and may have little to no information yet.
Important: While many of these plants are edible, do not eat any of them until you have done research or taken a workshop to be sure you know which parts are best to eat. Not all related species are edible. Be careful and don't make assumptions.
Please respect our gardens and do not pick any parts of the plants.
Click map to see a larger version.
Garden | |
---|---|
African-American | Berry |
Drink What You Grow | Habitat |
Herb | Mediterranean Climate |
California Native | Orchard |
Ornamentals | Pollinator Hill |
Rain Catchment | South Fence |
Succulent |
Our history

By the end of 2016, we completed construction of a 72-foot 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 Fairs. Other plants are used for research and teaching purposes.