Denver Master Gardeners maintain three demonstration gardens in Harvard Gulch Park. These gardens serve as a means of education and outreach for the local community, while also functioning as a testing ground to see how plants perform in our urban Denver setting.

Please contact the CSU Denver Extension Office for tours and more information on any of these gardens. 

Native Plant Garden & CO State Children’s Home Memorial

This demonstration and memorial garden was initially installed in front of the CSU Extension building in Harvard Gulch Park in 2013 with a grant from the Colorado Garden Show Foundation.  In May 2022, a group of Denver Master Gardeners recreated the garden (with generous help from Denver Parks staff) to showcase native plants that promote biodiversity, support pollinators and wildlife and thrive in urban gardens. 

 The garden also serves as a memorial to the 17,000 children who lived and thrived at the CO State Children’s Home which operated in Harvard Gulch Park between 1895 and 1971. Click here to see a map of the plants in this garden.

Plant Select® Garden

This dry shade demonstration garden was the first demonstration garden to be installed in front of the CSU Extension building in Harvard Gulch Park. Plant Select® is a plant selection program that is a collaboration among CSU, Denver Botanic Gardens, and the regional horticulture industry. The mission of Plant Select® is to seek out, identify, and distribute the best plants for landscapes and gardens from the intermountain region to the high plains. Click here for a map of the garden. For more information, visit: www.plantselect.org . 

Vegetable Garden

Located at the corner of Iliff Avenue and Emerson Street, the Vegetable Garden was established by CSU Denver Extension in 2011 in response to the growing local food movement. Each year, plants are started from seed by Master Gardeners and then transplanted at the end of May. The garden is tended by Master Gardeners and all food is given to local food banks. This garden has been a successful partnership with Denver Parks & Recreation and Grow Local Colorado. Click here to see a map of the 2024 garden.