The Humboldt Botanical Garden provides direction for the building of a world-class botanical garden for the Northern California region. The Gardens are constructed on a 44.5 -acre site south of Eureka near the Humboldt Bay adjacent to the College of the Redwoods. Funding, construction and administration of the Humboldt Botanical Garden is under the leadership and sponsorship of the Humboldt Botanical Garden or HBG.
HBG was organized by a small group of Volunteers in 1991. The goal was to create an educational botanical garden in for the Northern region. From this small core of people, the HBG has grown to over 1,000 individual, family and business members.
Thousands of people attend the organization’s annual educational and special events. From the initial desire to have several small botanical gardens in the Humboldt Region, the vision grew to encompass the passionate belief that the area had an opportunity to develop a world-class botanical garden. This belief was based on the unique HBG garden site, the area’s climate, which is on the edge between two worlds–Mediterranean and the Pacific Marine–that allows for very diverse groups of plants to thrive, and the presence of plant species unique to the region. The not-for-profit Humboldt Botanical Garden was incorporated in the State of California on January 27, 1992 as a 501(c)(3) public benefit, charitable corporation.
Get Involved:
Donate, Volunteer or Join.
Humboldt Botanical Garden Mission is to Inspire, Educate and Grow.
- Establish and promote an enjoyable and educational botanical garden accessible to everyone in or near Humboldt County and Northwestern California.
- Work with primary and secondary schools, institutions of higher education, and others to promote the study, use and preservation of native and other plants.
- Promote the use of botanical gardens by local garden clubs, botanical groups and others for developing botanical displays of special interest and for conducting botanical or horticultural programs.
The Plant Selection Committee, the On-Site Gardener, and the Accession Coordinator take great care to follow the intent of the plan and develop relationships with providers and professionals who assist in obtaining quality specimens.
Humboldt Botanical Garden Master Plan
The Garden is designed to stand alone and will provide a beautiful and functional botanical site for Humboldt County and Northwestern California. Installation of five of the core gardens was achieved within the past five years. Completed gardens include the Lost Coast Brewery Native Plant Garden, “All Happy Now” earth sculpture, Wildberries Natural Riparian Area, Sun Valley Greenhouse, the Moss Family Temperate Woodland Garden and the Dedekam Ornamental Terrace Garden. The environmentally sensitive Auto Garden is partially complete. There are also a number of trails, resting areas, viewing points and many more delights. Our funding campaign continues with the goal of providing additional gardens as well as a Welcome and Education Center. HBG welcomes all to join in our community in this adventure of a lifetime to realize the dream of a local world class botanical garden in our own backyard!
Our Pest Policy:
Currently HBG does not use Roundup, Remuda or other products containing glyphosate in the Garden. We do not plan to use it in the future. Our Plant Policy adheres to the U.C. Davis Integrated Pest Management policy that is basic to the Master Gardener program. We invite you to come to the garden and discover all the organic methods that staff, curators and volunteers use to manage weeds and pests at HBG.
From Mark Moore, Volunteer Curator of the Lost Coast Brewery Native Plant Garden:
"I did a quick calculation of how many hours I spend weeding by hand pulling or hula hoeing per year, based on my average over the last two years of 532 hours per year working in the NPG. I spent 53% of my time, or 265 hours, weeding the NPG, which is about 1.5 acres. Hope that provides some perspective to those doubting how we deal with weeds."