Friends of Shelby District Library Host a Cost-Free Annual Garden Event

For several years, the Friends of Shelby Area District Library (SADL) have hosted a Garden Event outside in late May with no costs involved, very little planning, and only one Saturday morning requiring help from volunteers. If your Library Friends group would like to offer something different to your community this spring, consider hosting a Free Plant Giveaway and Garden Sale. Following are 4 easy steps to get your event off the ground!

Step 1: Solicit items and plants – Send out a reminder to your Friends group for donations of extra plants from their own gardens for your “Free Plant Exchange and Garden Sale.” Unwanted garden tools, yard art, bird feeders, bird houses, pots, anything for the garden can also be donated for your sale. Encourage them to find items to donate as they spring clean their garden shed or garage, or look for plants to share like irises, day lilies, extra seedlings started indoors, herbs, etc. as they thin their gardens. Items and plants can be dropped off at the library a few days before the planned sale.

Step 2: Spread the word – Advertise with press releases, your newsletter, online  posts, flyers stuffed in books by library staff or posted in the community that your Friends are hosting a Saturday morning FREE PLANT GIVEAWAY AND GARDEN SALE. Include date, time of sale, and Library location. Shelby Library has their sale on the Saturday after Memorial Day from 8 am until 11:00 am or until most items disappear. 

Step 3: Set-up and Sale – On the morning of the event, volunteers should arrive early to set up tables outside covered in tarps, arrange the potted donated plants on tables along with large donation jars and signs encouraging patrons to donate what they can to support your Friends fundraiser. Loose plants are spread out on a tarp on the ground. Garden tools, pots, yard art, lawn furniture, anything donated other than plants are either priced or available for a “donation.” During the event, volunteers with “garden knowledge” circulate and help identify the plants if they aren’t labeled, carry items to cars, encourage buyers to donate monetarily to the donation jars. Because Shelby Library has a Friends Garden that they maintain, they dig overgrown plants from the garden that morning during the sale and hand them to the waiting hands of patrons eager to transplant them to their own home garden. 

Step 4: Clean up – Cart any plants, pots, garden tools still remaining to the curb for free pick-up by any in the community who may have missed the sale. Items not gone in two days, can be disposed of, but Shelby Friends of the Library rarely find anything left after 24 hours. Wipe down the tarps and store for next year, return tables to the library, and empty the donation jars for deposit! This fundraiser has earned over $1,000 for Friends of SADL with only a few hours of volunteer time on a Saturday morning. 

Takeaways from this annual event for Friends of SADL? The community looks forward to this garden event, which continues to grow annually. Sharing garden tips and encouraging others to try something new in their gardens is one of the reasons the community appreciates this event. Some of the donated plants are lovingly potted and labeled with homemade labels identifying the herb, flower, or vegetable plants. This informal event is a great place to recruit new members, especially if the Friends are wearing t-shirts or name tags identifying themselves as members. For additional information about this Garden Sale, contact the president of Friends of SADL, Cindy McKinnon at friendsofshelbyareadistrlib@gmail.com.