How to Start Your Own Gardening Club

Gardening clubs are fun, educational, and a great way to meet other gardeners. Some larger areas have a variety of gardening clubs while smaller, more rural areas may not be so fortunate. If you are looking for a great way to network with other gardeners consider starting your own gardening club. Here are several things you need to know on how to start a garden club.

What Type of Gardening Club Do You Want to Start?

The first step to starting a gardening club is to consider what type of gardening club you would like to have. Are you wanting a public gardening club or a more private type of gardening club that is only limited to certain members? Keep in mind that limiting members may mean limiting exposure, resources, and knowledgeable gardeners.

What Type of Activities Will Your Gardening Club Have?

The main purpose of a gardening club is to have local gardeners get together and enjoy gardening activities. Plan some fun and exciting activities to get the club started. Once the club is started you can ask members what type of activities they would enjoy and what they would like to see happen with the club. To get started, hear are a few activities for new gardening clubs:

Meeting for members

Plant swap

Plant show

Plant sale

These activities are a great way to find advertise your gardening club, find new members, and possibly earn a few dollars for the gardening club funds.

How Will You Promote Your New Gardening Club?

In order to get new members to join your new gardening club, they have to know that it exists. Word of mouth is always a new way to get new members but sometimes it can take a little more to get your gardening club going.

Here are a few advertising ideas to get new members to join your gardening club:

Put an ad in the paper

Put an ad on Craigslist under the Groups section

Put out flyers, especially at nurseries, co-ops and other gardening related stores.

Join online gardening clubs to meet local gardeners who may be interested.

Gardening forums

Activities put on by your gardening club

How Will You Fund Your Gardening Club?

Gardening clubs are relatively cheap to host but depending on the size and location, as well as activities, the cost of running a gardening club can quickly add up. Consider the possibly costs associated with funding your gardening club and go from there.

Always consider options that are free or low cost. For example, instead of paying rental fees for meeting rooms, consider using the library, each others homes, or another free public building. Instead of paying for refreshments, consider each member bringing items to help with the costs.

While there are several things you can do to avoid or cut down on costs, not everything is free. There will be costs associated with hosting a garden club. To cover those costs consider these fundraising activities for your gardening club:

Plant sale

Gardening classes

Donations

Plant raffles

Plant shows

Tree Sales

Choose a Name for Your Gardening Club

Choosing a name for your gardening club is most likely going to be one of the easiest parts of starting your own gardening club. However, there are a few things you should consider.

Make sure your gardening club name fits your club. You don't want a name that is primarily about roses if you are going to be focusing on hydrangeas.

You also need to make sure the name is not already taken. The last thing you want to do is to impose on someone else's club.

Once you have these things established you can start looking for new members for your gardening club. Start with friends, family members, and word of mouth to get you started. Once your start your garden club, you can go over the fine details with the members on certain thing like when and how often to hold meetings, types of things they would like to do, goals of the club, and events they would like to hold.