Festival of Gardens

Our annual Festival of Gardens is a celebration of gardening, gardens, and the people who create them.

Each year, we feature 8-12 gardens in a Columbia neighborhood, where the community opens its garden gates and invites you in to experience the beauty and peace of all kinds of beautiful backyard gardens.

This year’s Festival will feature ART in the Gardens, an art show curated by CeCe Luca Stucker, Beautification Manager of the Five Points Association. Cece spent the early part of her career curating exhibitions and cultural programs across Europe, Asia, West Africa, and the U.S., with a focus on community-driven, environmentally conscious initiatives. This year, she is bringing us ART in the Gardens to help raise money for Columbia Green’s programs.

The Festival of Gardens is our signature fundraiser for Columbia Green’s two programs: Community Grants and Beat the Heat—Plant a Tree. Our Grants Program makes awards to other nonprofit organizations to establish and maintain community green spaces and gardens. Over the past 20 years, we have awarded grants to over 125 organizations, helping to fulfill our mission to improve and protect the natural beauty of greater Columbia and promote a healthy environment for all our citizens. Beat the Heat—Plant a Tree is our urban forestry initiative, designed to restore our urban tree canopy which has suffered devastating losses over the past 20 years. We raise money to give away free trees to address urban heat, air quality, and stormwater runoff.

Generous donations from Columbia’s business community and individuals make our work possible.

Thank you, Columbia!