Want to let people know what you and your students are doing in the school garden and why it is important? Host a School Garden Open House! An open house can take many forms and serve multiple purposes. Any event that you invite people to see and celebrate your school garden project can be an open house whether it is a garden tour, harvest supper, pizza party, plant sale or more!
Here are a few things to consider when planning your event:.
- Is there anyone else you can ask to help you organize your event? Do you want students to help plan it or have adult help?
- For adult help, set up a meeting time and advertise it. Ask the PTO or local chapter of the Garden Club Federation of Maine if they are interested!
- Consider doing this month’s Lesson Garden Lesson Plan: Community by The Nature Conservancy to involve your students in the planning process.
- Do you want to train students to lead tours? Be greeters?
- What about marketing and planning the event?
- Who will your Open House be for? Your school community or the public?
- Will you have music, a raffle or educational activities or games to do?
- How about a place designed to take pictures or a designated photographer?
- Do you want to use this as a way to recruit garden volunteers?
- How will you advertise the event? Would the local paper write an article to promote your Open House and garden program if you approach them ahead of time?
- Do you plan to serve refreshments?
- Serve something to drink and eat using ingredients from your school garden!
- Check out this month’s Recipe: School Garden Open House Food Ideas
- Do you want to recruit volunteers or get teachers interested in using the school garden for their lessons at this event?
- Ask your principal if you can host a garden tour with refreshments during teacher training before school starts! Or plan a couple drop in dates for teachers. Show the MSGN 5 minute Video to orient them to the importance of school gardening!
- Do you want to plan something to sell to earn money to fund garden projects?
- Host a plant sale or run a farm stand! Ask students to help for community service hours! And don’t forget to sell School Garden of the Month Calendars too!
- Want to support another event at your school or town to increase awareness of your program and share promotion?
- Check your school and town calendars for ideas. Organize an open house before the event and have an insert in the program or display at the event! Don’t forget to participate in the MSGN School Garden Grown! program at your local agricultural fair or sign up to be a site for a MSGN School Garden Summer Tour!
When is the best time to hold an open house event?
Most school gardens find that spring is the best time to hold a plant sale for seedlings. Summer and early fall are the best times for a plant stand, especially one that coincides with summer camp drop off or pick up! Early September is the best time to see fall plants such as mums or take orders for wreaths or poinsettia plants for the holidays. For harvest celebrations, fall and early winter are good times while workshops can take place anytime. You get the idea! Select a date (and rain or snow date!) as soon as you can so you have plenty of time to advertise your event and obtain support.
Here are a few examples of events hosted by other school gardens to give you some ideas to plan your own event:
As a celebration at the end of the school garden season in the fall, the Kingfield Elementary School community gathers for the Annual Family Harvest Meal. One year families created and enjoyed pizza in the garden space with students collecting tomatoes and making pizza sauce, prepared several garden vegetable choices for toppings the day of the event, and then worked with their families to create their own pizzas. The event was held in the Garden Classroom, over 150 community members came and enjoyed not only the meal grown and prepared by the students but also a raffle and Farmers Market Table to raise funds for the school garden. There was also an obstacle course, field games, and story walks organized by the PE teacher adjacent to The Garden Classroom!
The Outdoor Classroom at Central School in South Berwick celebrates the end of the growing season with a fall Harvest Festival. Local chefs work with classes to create a full meal that is served at a school community dinner event at the end of the week. Students used hoop house garden tomatoes, kale, carrots, and potatoes to create sauces, salads, and roasted vegetables. Over 100 community members have enjoyed a meal together at each of these events!
Each spring the 5th-6th graders at Edna Drinkwater School in Northport start seedlings in the school greenhouse and then host an annual Plant Sale fundraiser which always shows strong community support of the Drinkwater garden and greenhouse project. Students are involved in all aspects of the sale, from researching seed varieties, starting seedlings, caring for seedlings in school greenhouse, designing advertising for the plant sale and learning about customer service and other business skills while running the sale. For the last three summers they have also offered a Summer Farm Stand Program for middle school students. The students learn all aspects of running a farm stand, from harvesting, washing and bunching produce in their own wash station, to advertising, displaying produce and other student-made products like beeswax wraps, customer service, and handling money. The community is very involved in supporting the farm stand.
A School Garden Open House can be a great way to raise awareness and buy in of your work plus raise funds to help support it. Remember, if you can commit to offering an event every year rather than just once it will have time to grow and flourish!
