Gardening

This position will open for new volunteers in 2023! In the meantime, you can fill out a Volunteer Interest Form here. We’ll get you on our email list so you’ll be the first to know when the role becomes available for the season.

Gardening volunteers at Henry Vilas Zoo help develop and maintain the 28 acres of green space that give our animals and humans a functional and beautiful home. Unlike everyday gardening, zoological horticulture is in a category all its own. We choose plant collections to help enhance animal enclosures – highlighting plant species guests may see in any one animal’s environment. We also maintain a large browse collection – plants that can be continuously harvested to feed to our grazing animals in addition to their regular diets.

As a gardening volunteer at HVZ, you’ll be working alongside our horticulturalist on a variety of projects. Some of these are routine weeding and mulching. Others projects may include planting and transplanting. Some might be truly awe-inspiring (Our 2022 gardening crew brought our long lost rain garden back to life! Even uncovered a mural in the process!).

Gardening at HVZ is a real commitment. You’ll be required to complete a general orientation along with an initial onsite training in the spring. Throughout the summer you’ll also need to attend at least two of four special workshop offerings focusing on zoological horticulture and zoos in general. The season will end in September with a final browse/vegetable harvesting day full of goodies you’ll be helping feed out to our animals.

Do you enjoy gardening, but aren’t ready to commit yourself to a schedule just yet? Check out our Group Gardening page!