The Encinitas Garden Festival & Tour is an all-volunteer event that started as an initiative of the City of Encinitas’ Cultural Tourism committee. More than 700 people attended the first festival, in May 2005. Thirty-one residents in a neighborhood near downtown Encinitas opened their gardens for the sell-out event. 

Since then, we have hosted close to 5,000 people who have visited more than 100 home gardens, parks, school gardens, and a couple of greenhouses, all of which have opened their garden gates to welcome the public.

Each year's event offers a self-guided walking tour of private gardens, a Gardeners’ Marketplace offering all sorts of garden-related products including plants, tools, and garden art, and more. It also includes talks on gardening and educational exhibits about gardening, the local watershed, the environment, and other important issues.

The Encinitas Garden Festival & Tour is funded by a number of community organizations, local businesses and ticket sales. 

In 2007, the Encinitas Garden Festival & Tour joined the Coastal Community Foundation to form the Encinitas Garden Festival & Tour Fund. Monies donated to the fund are invested back into the community in the form of grants to school gardens, public landscape projects, books for Encinitas libraries and more.

Encinitas Garden Festival & Tour Saturday, April 17. 2010 10 am to 4 pm