About

The Encinitas Garden Festival & Tour is an all-volunteer event founded in 2003, as an ini­tia­tive of the City of Encinitas’ Cultural Tourism Committee and the brain child of then coun­cil per­son Maggie Houlihan. More than 700 peo­ple attended the first Festival, in May 2005. Thirty-one res­i­dents in a down­town neigh­bor­hood of Encinitas opened their gar­dens for the sell-out event.

Since then, the event has grown to attract more than 1000 peo­ple every year, and the orga­ni­za­tion is now offi­cially a non-profit with garden-related phil­an­thropy endeav­ors. Over the years, hun­dreds of res­i­dents have opened their gar­den gates to the self-guided walk­ing tour. Tour goers have also vis­ited parks, school gar­dens, a but­ter­fly sanc­tu­ary, fire sta­tion, and area greenhouses.

In addi­tion, each year’s event includes a Gardeners’ Marketplace that is free and open to the pub­lic. In the Marketplace, ven­dors offer garden-related prod­ucts such as plants, tools, and gar­den art, and more.

The Marketplace also fea­tures talks and edu­ca­tional exhibits about gar­den­ing, the local water­shed, the envi­ron­ment, and other impor­tant issues.

The Encinitas Garden Festival & Tour is funded by con­tri­bu­tions from com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions, and agen­cies, local busi­nesses and ticket sales.