Volunteering

Get to know UBC Botanical Garden with exclusive tours and seasonal training. Join us to discover and share the natural treasures of UBC Botanical Garden. As a UBC Botanical Garden Volunteer, you have opportunities to gain knowledge, share your skills, meet other nature and plant enthusiasts, and meet people of all ages. From students to seniors, we welcome all ages and abilities to come to the Garden to make a meaningful contribution to this amazing place. We have opportunities for many talents and interests and training is provided. We look forward to seeing you in the Garden.

Please note that all planting and gardening at our UBC Botanical Garden is done by staff Horticulturalists and Gardeners. If you are looking for hands-on gardening projects, please see Friends of the Garden (below).

Register to Volunteer Here!

Volunteer Opportunities

This is a specialized group of volunteers interested in learning and working together to support the Garden. This is an advanced program with special training and unique opportunities to support and plan events, attend lectures and work on horticultural projects in the Garden. Events such as Apple Festival, and Wreath Making as well as Committee and Shop activities keep this robust group active year round. A significant commitment in hours and interest level is required to join this established group of volunteers.

As a FOG volunteer you will have the opportunity to:

  • Increase your botanical knowledge at weekly meetings with guest speakers
  • Contribute to committees and participate in a wide range of duties
  • Make a meaningful impact as part of a historic and invaluable volunteer group

Learn more!

Our Healthy Harvest program typically runs from June to October, and involves processing and occasionally helping to harvest the produce that is grown at the Garden. As a volunteer, you would assist with cleaning, weighing, and packaging the produce which is then delivered to food groups on campus. Volunteers assist once a week throughout the growing season, during which up to 1850 pounds of produce is harvested and processed!

As a Healthy Harvest Volunteer, you will have the opportunity to:

  • Sort, clean, weigh and organize the produce harvested from the Food Garden
  • Take a some of the produce home with you!
  • Engage with likeminded UBC students and volunteers who want to make impactful change around the issue of food insecurity on campus

The Garden hosts annual events that engage our community, particularly Tourism Challenge in April and May, and Biodiversity Days in May. As a volunteer, you would help with registration, set-up, directing guests, engaging them in hands-on learning opportunities and be a friendly go-to for our visitors.

As a Community Events Volunteer, you will have the opportunity to:

  • Attend and engage with Garden guests at unique events
  • Learn behind-the-scenes organizational skills
  • Increase social interactions and enjoy satisfying work

Garden Media Support volunteers practice their photography and video skills to capture the beauty of the Garden. We need volunteers to photograph and record plant species, spaces, and other features in the Garden for use promotionally and to share publicly.

As a Garden Media Support volunteer you will have the opportunity to:

  • Improve your nature photography aptitude
  • Expand your portfolio

The data projects volunteer helps the UBC Botanical Garden to better document its globally-valuable collections by improving information and information-sharing about the plants in the Garden.

As a Data Projects Volunteer you will have the opportunity to:

  • Digitize data
  • Photograph plants
  • Wrangle data
  • Process herbarium specimens for eventual deposit into the UBC Herbarium
  • Geolocate wild collection sites for mapping
  • Organize historical information and digital assets

Held rain or shine each year on the Saturday and Sunday following the Thanksgiving weekend (October 14 and 15, 2023), the Apple Festival celebrates the variety and bounty of BC apples. The festival includes the sale of thousands of pounds of fresh BC apples, brought from the Okanagan growers directly to the UBC Botanical Garden. There are also apple trees for sale, apple pies and apple cider, food trucks, music, a children’s play area and lots more.

Hundreds of volunteers are needed to make the Apple Festival a success each year. We welcome individuals, groups, university and high school student volunteers.

As an Apple Festival Volunteer, you will have the opportunity to:

  • Attend the Applefest for free (before or after your shift you are welcome to explore the festival)
  • Meet others like you who love to volunteer in their community
  • Learn some new skills
  • Make a meaningful contribution to raising funds to support the UBC Botanical Garden
  • Sign up to become a Apple Festival Volunteer here!

You can reach us at garden.volunteer@ubc.ca if you have further questions. Thank you for your interest in supporting the programs we offer.