EDUCATION PROGRAM

Groups are welcome to visit the 22 acres of gardens at Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin's Zilker Park. Docents can be reserved for tours for both adult and children's groups.

Group Tours (all require advance reservations):

• Reservation form in PDF format or Word format. Please complete this form for tour reservations.
• Self Guided Tour in PDF format
  This 13-page document was developed to provide information for Austin area schoolteachers as they tour the Zilker Botanical Gardens. The ZBG Self Guided Tour is available online in Acrobat PDF format, which can be viewed and printed with Acrobat Reader. Find out more about Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• School Tours
  Trained docents from the Zilker Docents, an AAGC club, will provide informational tours for groups of 15-18 students, preschool through high school age. This basic tour is correlated to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and emphasizes problem solving. The tour dialogue is available to all teachers through the downloadable self-guided tour. Each tour is about 90 minutes. Individual docents will bring their special knowledge to each tour. All docents are avid gardeners and very familiar with the gardens. Each is trained to work with a variety of student groups. Some are especially facile with special needs children or ESL kids. When you register make sure you identify any special requests for your groups. March, April and May are especially busy months, so please make your reservations early. Requested donation of $1.00 per student.  Please talk to the president of the Zilker Docents if that presents a hardship to your school.
• Adult Tours
  The Adult tours are also led by trained docents and cover all aspects of the gardens. The cost for the tours for adults is $2 per person with a $50 minimum.

Book Lending Program
For children in younger grades we now offer a free book lending program which includes copies of The Story of Mother Tree and Journey of the Third Seed. Teachers are welcome to call in advance to reserve the books and pick them up at the reception desk upon arrival (leaving a driver's license or other form of i.d. as a deposit). Teachers and students are encouraged to visit the teahouse or other comfortable garden location, and to read these wonderful children's books written expressly about the Taniguchi Japanese Garden.

Docents
We are always looking for enthusiastic gardeners to act as volunteer docents for school and adult tours. A training class is provided. Incentives are provided to docents after they have given their fifth tour. Look for the green aprons and badges that our docents have earned. Trained docents have frequent opportunities to update and expand their knowledge of Zilker Gardens and horticulture. Monthly sessions are available to all docents. Attendance at each session will earn the docent an additional badge to place on their green apron A schedule of training dates will be posted on the website in August for the current school year.

For more information, or to make reservations for tours, contact us by emailing education@zilkergarden.org or calling 477-8672 or faxing 481-8254.

Touring Zilker Botanical Garden…it’s a Good Thing!
Anita Mapes – VP of Education
Marion Alsup – President, Docents of Zilker Botanical Garden

As summer fades into fall in Central Texas two things come to mind—back to school time and fall gardening time.  This is a wonderful time to visit Zilker Botanical Garden. The cooler weather and much-needed rain have made Zilker “bloom”. The organic gardens (near Pioneer Village and the Rose Garden) are still producing corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and more. In the spring, 160 lbs. of produce was donated to the Austin Food Bank from these gardens with the help of Nature’s Way Preschool. Soon the garden will be planted with broccoli, kale, lettuce and other fall vegetables. Children who tour these newly-planted gardens not only can observe the growth and beauty of these plants but also have the opportunity to view insects and animals that frequent these gardens.  Zilker is a fabulous outdoor classroom and the Zilker docents enjoy sharing their love of the gardens with school children and adults.