Beginner Gardening: Flower Swap, 1 by bggarden1

bggarden1 wrote:
Yuska,
I have about 10 family members who have volunteered to help. I have two teenagers who are in charge of parking, and the rest (mom, sisters, etc.) will help at different tables. I have a registration table where they can sign up for the days events and join the Garden Club. I also have a table where they can get information on how to become backyard certified through the National Wildlife Federation (applications available) and sign up for the swap. I have a table for our local National Wild Turkey Federation who is signing up youth and adults for a Fall Hunter Safety Class. I help organize our yearly NWTF Superfund banquet which brings in about $24,000 each year, so I have organized events in the past, just not flower swaps.

I have advertised this in the local paper and made 400 flyers that I have passed around. We have no garden clubs in our area so I will be the first. We are in the southermost part of Illinois and it is a rural area. We have 3.5 acres, so I'm hoping there will be enough room.

Butterfly Chaser,
I'm afraid I should have organized this for two days instead of one. I did advertise that we will not only swap flowers but that they can bring books, garden art, tools etc. for swapping. I just wasn't sure how to swap. Do people hang around all day to wait to swap if you set a certain time. I was thinking about having them to leave their swaps at a certain drop off, give them a ticket and they can redeem their swap with a ticket whenever they want too. There are so many different ways to do this.

I should have just started with a flower swap only. Instead I have incorporated all of this other stuff into the day. The guest speakers sounds good, I even thought of having people do short 15 minute presentations on plant identification or flower arranging or such.

Thank you both for your input, I am really excited about this, wish me luck and I will have some pictures and hopefully stories of success.
Attached is a picture of my garden...