Introduction The physical, social, and organizational environment plays a crucial role in the daily lives of people with dementia. A stimulating environment can enhance quality of life. Green care farms offer an alternative to regular nursing homes by providing a distinct physical, social, and organizational setting, with person-centered care and a meaningful daily life as primary goals. Regular nursing homes tend to be more clinically oriented, offering less scope for individual variation. This study examines how the daily lives of residents with dementia differ between care farms and regular nursing homes. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 226 residents from four care farms and five regular nursing homes were observed. Using the MEDLO tool (Maastricht Electronic Daily Life Observation), residents’ activities, locations, social interactions, physical effort, and mood were recorded. Each resident was observed once in the morning, afternoon, and evening, resulting in 36 observations per resident. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted, adjusting for age, gender, cognitive status, and ADL dependency. Results A total of 10,053 observations were collected. Residents of care farms spent more time outdoors (10.6% vs. 2.5%) and were more frequently engaged in physical and household activities than residents of regular nursing homes. Passive or purposeless activities occurred less often on care farms than in regular nursing homes (36.3% vs. 45.9%). Differences in location further suggest that organizational and operational factors also play a significant role. Additional analyses are currently underway, with results to be reported later. Conclusion Residents of care farms spend more time outdoors, are more active, and more engaged. These differences indicate that care farm environments may better support meaningful daily life and overall engagement for people with dementia. The observed differences in passivity highlight the potential value of rethinking the design and organization of care environments to promote more active and fulfilling daily routines.