What a fantastic day with the Wiregrass Master Gardeners' Association at their Fall Plant Sale at the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens yesterday! And what a mouthful! It was a fantastic learning experience and an opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at this mega-successful production.
Some ideas I would like to adopt in my own club include:
1. Creating a resource guide for those working at the sale, containing information sheets on each plant offered, including pictures, mature height and spread, light and water requirements, etc, to better advise our buyers. Hey, not even Master Gardeners are experts on everything.
2. Partnering with local business for advertisements, signage, even manpower.
3. In the advertisements, encourage homeowners to come with their landscaping plans for advice AND plants.
4. Encouraging those working at the sale to wear green aprons (or t-shirt, or some other form of uniform) as a means of identification. For some reason, the green aprons popped in the crowd and blostered my confidence. I felt as if I belonged with this group of plant experts. It was amazing!
Given our size and number of active members, the Pike County Master Gardeners do a fair job at our annual plant sale, which is held during Troy Fest, the last weekend in April. With these few tweaks, we'll be well on our way to even greater success.
Shortly after reading this, the WMGA President sent an e-mail with the following suggestions:
ReplyDelete1. Providing Alabama Cooperative Extention Service handouts - I believe we do this already, but great suggestion.
2. Providing soil sample boxes and forms - Excellent idea! Not many people know about the testing lab at Auburn and at just $7/test, can't beat it.