Parker Learning Gardens Non-Profit

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Parker Learning Gardens Non-Profit Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Parker Learning Gardens Non-Profit, Nonprofit Organization, 31239 Lanes Turn Road, Eugene, OR.

We offer educational classes, field trips & tours for youth, families & organizations on gardening, biodiversity & permaculture at our 33 acre farm to benefit our community’s well-being, nutrition, food security, & environmental stewardship.

🎪🌲 THE FOREST IS WAITING. ARE YOU COMING? 👀Three nights only! Advance registration REQUIRED!This Halloween, we're turnin...
10/17/2026

🎪🌲 THE FOREST IS WAITING. ARE YOU COMING? 👀

Three nights only! Advance registration REQUIRED!

This Halloween, we're turning nearly a mile of trails through our REAL bamboo forest into a choose-your-own-path FREAK SHOW MAZE!

We'll give you a tiny flashlight. The rest is up to you. 😈

🌲 Twisting trails and unexpected turns
🎪 Creepy characters and freak-show oddities
🔥 Firelit silhouettes beyond the bamboo
😱 Things you probably wish you hadn't found...

Two ways to experience the madness:

👻 7–8 PM | FAMILY-FRIENDLY HOUR
All ages welcome! Spooky atmosphere without intentional jump scares or loud scare noises. Kids 5 & under FREE!

😈 8–10 PM | VERY SCARY
The Freak Show comes alive. Jump scares, creatures, chaos and questionable decisions. Ages 13+ recommended!

📅 OCTOBER 24 • 25 • 31
📍 Parker Learning Gardens • Eugene/Coburg
🎟️ Tickets start at $15

🚨 DON'T JUST SHOW UP — REGISTER IN ADVANCE!

https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/hbf/

❤️ AND PLEASE, SHARE SHARE SHARE!

Tag your bravest friends. Send this to your Halloween-loving coworkers. Share it with your neighborhood groups. Make plans with your family!

This isn't just a haunted attraction. It's a community-powered fundraiser for Parker Learning Gardens, a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit! Every registration helps support outdoor education, youth programs, and our farm through the quieter winter months.

Even if haunted forests aren't your thing, sharing this post is a HUGE way to support us.

Help us fill the forest. We promise to do our best to empty it again. 😈🌲

🐷♻️ One organization's food scraps are another piggy's treasure!A big, squealing THANK YOU to for becoming the newest c...
10/16/2026

🐷♻️ One organization's food scraps are another piggy's treasure!

A big, squealing THANK YOU to for becoming the newest contributor to our Vital Piggy Bucket program! 💚

They sent us several buckets of food scraps from leftover and unwanted student lunches, plus a few pumpkins that our Children's Garden Club had the tremendous pleasure of SMASHING before feeding them to our big pigs and little baby piggies! 🎃🐽

The pigs are thrilled. The goats are feeling a little left out. 🐐👀

And we'd love to keep this cycle growing!

Our Vital Piggy Bucket program helps turn food that would otherwise go to waste into a resource for our farm animals, while giving our community another way to reduce waste and support regenerative agriculture.

Here's where YOU come in!

🥕 Do you know a school, program, restaurant or business that generates food scraps?

🚗 Do you already travel between that location and Parker Learning Gardens?

🪣 Could you bring a couple of 5-gallon buckets to the farm once a week?

That's really all it takes to help close the loop! Email us at [email protected] or message us directly

Our piggies are especially interested in:

🥬 Vegetables and veggie scraps
🍎 Fruits and fruit scraps
🫘 Beans, peas and other legumes (cooked or fresh)
🍞 Bread, rice, pasta and other carbohydrates

Please leave out:
🚫 Meat and bones
🚫 Citrus
🚫 Coffee grounds
🚫 Avocado pits

Food scraps don't have to be pretty to be useful!

If you know a potential contributor or want to help transport buckets, send us a message! We'd love to connect more community food scraps with some very enthusiastic farm residents.

And perhaps we can get enough goodies flowing that the goats stop giving us those judgmental looks, they really love pumpkins. 🐐😂

🎨🌿 Signs of progress!Our awesome on-site volunteers have been busy making the farm a little more colorful and a lot easi...
10/16/2026

🎨🌿 Signs of progress!

Our awesome on-site volunteers have been busy making the farm a little more colorful and a lot easier to navigate!

Over the past year, they've been upgrading our old signage with creative, hand-painted signs full of personality. The collection keeps growing, and finding your way around our 33-acre outdoor classroom is getting easier and easier.

The latest additions include a new Poisonous Plant Walk sign and some much-needed entrance and exit signs as we prepare for the wonderfully chaotic arrival of October event traffic! 🚗🍂

Because apparently, inviting a bunch of people to wander around the farm also means making sure they can find their way back out. 😂

It's pretty amazing how much personality a few pieces of painted wood can add to a place. Every sign is another little piece of creativity, care and volunteer love woven into the farm.

Huge appreciation for all the hands that keep making this place more beautiful, functional and welcoming! 💚

☠️ Our Poisonous Plant Walk is coming October 24, 25 & 31, from 9 AM–5 PM!

Advance registration required:
parkerlearninggardens.org/ppw/

And when you visit, follow those beautiful new parking signs, keep the loop flowing, and please don't park anyone in! 😆

10/13/2026

🐽🍂 FOUR LITTLE SNOUTS. ONE BIG MISSION. 🌰🐷

Please welcome the newest members of the Parker Learning Gardens farm family: FOUR baby Duroc × Berkshire piglets! 🐽🐽🐽🐽

Their first order of business? Absolutely demolishing some farm-fresh figs. 😂

But these little squealing, snuffling, fruit-loving creatures have a much bigger job ahead of them!

🌰 They’re joining our regenerative hazelnut orchard restoration crew!

Thanks to funding from the Grow Lane County Producer Grant through the Upper Willamette Soil & Water Conservation District, we’re breathing new life into our 75+ year-old, six-acre hazelnut orchard—and pigs are an important part of the process!

🐷 Why pigs? Because sometimes the best farm equipment has four legs and a curly tail!

As our piglets grow, they’ll help us:

🌿 Battle invasive blackberries by rooting through unwanted vegetation and helping us reclaim neglected orchard areas.

🐛 Disrupt pest life cycles by disturbing the ground where certain orchard pests spend part of their lives.

🌱 Build healthier soil by cycling nutrients through the orchard and contributing organic matter.

🌰 Restore food production by helping us bring aging hazelnut trees and their surrounding landscape back into productive use.

And here’s where the magic really happens: this isn’t just about growing more hazelnuts.

It’s about teaching young people how animals, plants, soil, insects, and humans are connected. It’s about restoring an agricultural ecosystem while expanding access to locally grown food through our Pay-What-You-Can farmstand and community food partnerships.

These piglets will grow up alongside the next generation of land stewards, demonstrating that agriculture can work with ecological processes rather than against them.

For now, though? They’ve got figs to eat, snouts to wiggle, and an impressive amount of growing to do. 💚

Welcome to the farm, little land regenerators!

🐽 Now the important question: WHAT SHOULD WE NAME THEM?! Drop your most ridiculous, adorable, or wonderfully weird pig names below! 👇

Today, for Native American Day, we are looking out across the land beneath our feet—and remembering that its story began...
10/12/2026

Today, for Native American Day, we are looking out across the land beneath our feet—and remembering that its story began long before Parker Learning Gardens. 🌿

This photograph was taken from the top of Mt. Tom, looking across the Willamette Valley floor. Somewhere within that landscape are the 33 acres we now have the privilege and responsibility of caring for.

**We are on Kalapuya land.**

Kalapuya peoples have lived in relationship with the lands of the Willamette Valley since time immemorial. In the 1850s, Kalapuya bands and other Indigenous peoples of western Oregon were dispossessed of their ancestral homelands through treaties and forced removal. Their story did not end there. Kalapuya people are still here, with descendants among the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and other Tribal communities.

At Parker Learning Gardens, so much of what we do is about relationship with place—soil, water, plants, animals, food and one another. That makes it especially important that we understand whose homeland we are tending.

We are grateful to learn and grow here, and we recognize our responsibility to care for this land with respect for its past, its present and its future.

**Honor the land. Honor the People.**

More info: https://www.smokesignals.org/articles/2026/08/26/tribal-staff-odfw-commission-tour-chahalpam-property/

🧹 SURPRISE! WE ADDED ONE MORE BROOM WORKSHOP SESSION — TODAY! 🍂Missed your chance to sign up? You’re in luck! By popular...
10/11/2026

🧹 SURPRISE! WE ADDED ONE MORE BROOM WORKSHOP SESSION — TODAY! 🍂

Missed your chance to sign up? You’re in luck! By popular demand, we’ve added a last-minute Sunday session of our Historic Broom Making Workshop!

📅 TODAY — Sunday, October 11
⏰ 10 AM–1 PM
📍 Parker Learning Gardens

Come experience the timeless art of traditional broom making! Learn historic techniques, work with your hands, and create a beautiful, functional broom to take home. 🌾

✨ LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE!
⚠️ ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED — NO WALK-INS!

Feeling spontaneous? This is your sign to spend your Sunday making something wonderful!

🧹 Grab your spot before they’re gone!

🎪🌲 **NOT READY FOR THE FULL FREAK SHOW?**Good news, little creeps.**7–8 PM is FAMILY-FRIENDLY HOUR at the Haunted Bamboo...
10/10/2026

🎪🌲 **NOT READY FOR THE FULL FREAK SHOW?**

Good news, little creeps.

**7–8 PM is FAMILY-FRIENDLY HOUR at the Haunted Bamboo Forest!** 👻

We know some younger kids LOVE Halloween, spooky forests, creepy decorations and just the right amount of weird—but aren't quite ready to have a clown launch itself out of the bamboo at them.

So the first hour is for them. ❤️

From **7–8 PM**, families of ALL ages can explore our new **choose-your-own-path bamboo maze** with:

🌲 Nearly a mile of twisting bamboo trails
🎪 Eerie Freak Show décor & characters
🔥 Fire spinning and mysterious silhouettes beyond the trees
🔦 Dark forest exploration
👻 Plenty of spooky Halloween atmosphere

But during this hour:

**NO intentional jump scares.**
**NO intentionally loud scare noises.**

There may still be creepy imagery, costumes and a touch of gore—this *is* a Haunted Bamboo Forest—so parents know their kiddos best.

👶 **Kids 5 & under are FREE!**

Then the clock strikes **8 PM.**

And things...change. 😈

From **8–10 PM**, the Freak Show fully comes alive. Jump scares, screaming, masks, clowns, loud noises, interactive scares and creatures hiding where they absolutely should not be.

🌘 **8–10 PM: VERY SCARY • 13+ RECOMMENDED**

So bring the younger Halloween lovers early—or wait until after 8 if your family wants the full experience.

🎪 **HAUNTED BAMBOO FOREST: FREAK SHOW MAZE**
📅 October 24 • 25 • 31
⏰ 7–10 PM
📍 Parker Learning Gardens • Eugene/Coburg area

🎟️ **Advance registration required • Tickets start at $15**

https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/hbf

**How brave is YOUR family?** 🌲👀

🌿☠️ **YOUR AUTUMN ADVENTURE HELPS KEEP THIS PLACE ALIVE THROUGH WINTER.**Our **$5 Poisonous Plant Walk ticket is intenti...
10/10/2026

🌿☠️ **YOUR AUTUMN ADVENTURE HELPS KEEP THIS PLACE ALIVE THROUGH WINTER.**

Our **$5 Poisonous Plant Walk ticket is intentional.** Parker Learning Gardens is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and we want experiences connecting people with land, plants and each other to stay accessible.

So we're not asking one family to carry the weight.

**We're asking a whole community to show up.**

Winter slows our regular programming—but there is no off-season for the land. Animals still eat. Trails need tending. Gardens need care. Curriculum gets built. Spring programs need planning. And our small team needs support to keep it all moving.

Every ticket helps bridge that gap. 🌱

Come wander an old apple orchard row, learn about some fascinatingly dangerous plants, bring your kids and plant-nerd friends, and help keep outdoor education growing.

☠️ **Poisonous Plant Walk**
Oct. 24, 25 & 31 • 9 AM–5 PM
🎟 $5/person • $15/family • $35 groups of 5–10
**Advance registration required.**

parkerlearninggardens.org/ppw/

**Give a little more if you can. Come for $5 if that's what you've got. Share if you can't make it.**

A whole lot of small support keeps a small nonprofit growing. 💚

🔥 **DATE NIGHT IDEA: HAUNT A DARK BAMBOO FOREST TOGETHER.** 👻❤️Dinner is nice.But have you ever hidden in the woods toge...
10/08/2026

🔥 **DATE NIGHT IDEA: HAUNT A DARK BAMBOO FOREST TOGETHER.** 👻❤️

Dinner is nice.

But have you ever hidden in the woods together and waited for unsuspecting strangers to wander past? 😈

The couple in this photo spent their **FIRST DATE together at our 2024 Haunted Bamboo Forest** — which might be one of our favorite HBF stories yet. ((Did it work out? Are they still together? If you know them and they are tell them to reach out!))

For the thrill-seekers, the spooky singles testing out a new connection, the longtime couples who still like getting weird together, and the friends looking for something completely different to do this Halloween:

**COME HAUNT WITH US.**

Couples and adult friend groups can claim a little corner of this year's **Freak Show Maze** and make it their own.

🎪 Create characters together
🌲 Find your haunt in the bamboo
👹 Plot your scares
🔥 Hang around the fire between groups
😂 Spend an October night playing in the dark together

No acting experience required. **You just have to be willing to play.**

Not everybody wants to jump out of bushes? No problem. One of you can haunt while the other helps with check-in, maze safety, parking, decorating or another event role.

Whether it's your **first date, 500th date, or a night out with your favorite weirdos**, this is a pretty unforgettable way to spend Halloween together.

🎪 **HAUNTED BAMBOO FOREST: FREAK SHOW MAZE**
📅 October 24 • 25 • 31
📍 Parker Learning Gardens

👹 **VOLUNTEER FOR ONE NIGHT OR ALL THREE:**
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4EAEAA28A4FEC25-65818387-2026

**Find someone who matches your freak and come haunt the forest together.** 🔥🌲

Four holes. Four new poles. One tractor. And two tiny farmers-in-training watching it all happen. 🌱On a permaculture far...
10/05/2026

Four holes. Four new poles. One tractor. And two tiny farmers-in-training watching it all happen. 🌱

On a permaculture farm, **efficiency isn’t just about doing things faster—it’s about deciding where our energy is most valuable.**

We could dig every hole by hand. Or we can use the right tool, save our bodies and our time, and put that human energy toward things that require human connection—like sitting in the garden with kids learning to identify plants, discovering which flowers feed pollinators, tasting something they helped grow, or learning why we always ask before picking a plant.

At Parker Learning Gardens, **the farm is the classroom—but somebody still has to build and maintain the classroom.**

Four efficiently augered holes become four poles. Those poles improve the goat barn. A better-functioning barn makes chores easier. Easier chores leave more time and energy for gardens, trails, perennial plantings, food production, and teaching kids about the living systems all around them.

And efficiency includes **community**, too.

We hear a lot about “self-sufficiency,” but how resilient is a system if it only works when one person is healthy, uninjured, available, and able to do everything?

Permaculture is about relationships, diversity, redundancy, and interconnected systems. **People belong in that design.**

Friends, family, volunteers, neighbors, kids learning beside us—community is infrastructure, too.

Maybe the goal isn’t self-sufficiency.

Maybe it’s **community sufficiency:** tools saving bodies, people supporting people, children learning by participating, and small improvements giving us more capacity for the work at the heart of it all—

**helping kids know plants, understand living systems, and grow up knowing they belong within them.** 🌿

Address

31239 Lanes Turn Road
Eugene, OR
97408

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