Discover how food can grow almost anywhere
Grow Lab
Explore practical ways to grow vegetables, herbs, flowers, and other plants using containers and growing systems that can work in backyards, patios, schools, community spaces, and beyond.
Plant your own grow bag garden
Fill It. Plant It. Grow It.
The centerpiece of Grow Lab is simple: participants create their own grow bag garden.
Each participant gets hands-on with the growing process, adding soil, planting a vegetable or herb, learning how to water and care for it, and discovering what that plant will need as it grows.
The grow bag becomes a small garden participants can actually understand, manage, and take ownership of.
There is more than one way to grow food.
Along the way, Farmer Fredo and the Grow Lab experience introduce a bigger idea. From grow bags and self-watering buckets to hydroponic systems and raised beds, participants begin discovering how growers choose different systems depending on their space, resources, crops, and goals.
Through this experience, participants:
- 1Fill and prepare a grow bag for planting.
- 2Plant a vegetable, herb, flower, or seedling.
- 3Learn what roots need below the soil.
- 4Practice proper watering and plant care.
- 5Discover the importance of sunlight and growing space.
- 6Observe how plants change over time.
- 7Explore other ways food can be grown at home or in the community.
Small seeds. Big lessons.
What you'll discover
Participants are introduced to a world of growing possibilities. Grow Lab begins with one plant but opens the door to an entire world of growing possibilities.
Grow Bags
Discover how fabric containers can create productive growing spaces on patios, sidewalks, schoolyards, and places where traditional garden beds may not be available.
Self-Watering Grow Buckets
Explore how a 5-gallon self-irrigating planter can store water below the soil and allow moisture to move toward the plant as it needs it.
Growing Without Soil
See how plants can grow with water, nutrients, light, and the right support through simple hydroponic growing systems.
Raised Beds
Discover how raised beds help organize growing space while making it easier to manage soil, plants, pathways, and seasonal crops.
What Plants Need
Explore the basic ingredients behind healthy plant growth: water, light, nutrients, air, growing space, and ongoing care.
From Planting to Harvest
Growing does not stop when something goes into the soil. Participants begin understanding the rhythm of watering, observing, maintaining, harvesting, and beginning again.
Small seeds. Big lessons.
The Grow Lab Kit
Everything you need to grow the experience
Grow Lab resources can include:
SIP Cup Activity Kit
The materials needed for participants to construct and plant their own Self-Irrigation Planter Cup.
Storytime + Instructional Children's Book
An illustrated Farmer Fredo story that introduces the growing process through storytelling and doubles as a kid-friendly instructional guide.
Activity & Learning Materials
Age-appropriate worksheets, coloring activities, observation pages, and growing resources that reinforce what participants learn.
Digital Learning Resources
Short instructional and educational videos that allow participants, teachers, and families to revisit the experience after the workshop.
Grow-at-Home Guidance
Simple instructions for caring for the SIP Cup, observing growth, and knowing what to do as the seedling gets bigger.
Watch + Learn
Grow Lab video library
Grow along with Farmer Fredo
The Grow Lab video library will help participants revisit what they experienced, learn another growing method, or keep their plants growing at home.
Meet Grow Lab with Farmer Fredo
Take a quick tour of Grow Lab and discover why you do not need a farm or even a backyard to start growing something.
Video coming soon
Plant Your First Grow Bag
Follow Farmer Fredo step-by-step as he prepares, plants, waters, and cares for a simple grow bag garden.
Video coming soon
Which Growing System Is Right for You?
Compare grow bags, self-watering buckets, hydroponic systems, and raised beds and discover where each growing method works best.
Video coming soon
Build a Self-Watering Grow Bucket
See how a simple 5-gallon bucket can become a self-irrigating growing system that stores water for the plant.
Video coming soon
What Happens Next?
Learn what to watch for after planting, including watering, sunlight, feeding, plant growth, maintenance, and signs that harvest time is getting closer.
Video coming soon
Grow Lab videos are planned digital learning resources unless otherwise identified as available.
Grow Lab can grow almost anywhere
The experience works especially well within:
- Elementary and Middle Schools
- After-school programs
- Summer Camps
- Libraries
- Youth Organizations
- Community Organizations
- Family learning Events
- Agricultural Expos
- STEM and STEAM activities
- Garden and Agriculture Programs
- Community Festivals and Educational Events
Grow Lab experiences can be adapted according to participant age, group size, event format, available time, and learning objectives. Whether participants encounter Grow Lab during a classroom lesson, community festival, agriculture expo, or family workshop, the goal remains the same.
Explore next step
Next stop: Farm Lab
Farm Lab discovers how growers think about soil, seasons, crop planning, irrigation, harvesting, production, and caring for a productive growing space.
Visit Farm Lab