There is plenty your club or group can do at the Garden.
Garden Clubs and Other Group Meetings
Note: we do not charge a fee for any of these listed activities. We will accept contributions to garden for ongoing maintenance and improvement expenses.
We are happy to host meetings, either in the open garden under tents or in our meeting/lecture room. We are able to accommodate groups of up to 18 people (but tours are limited to 12 people per tour ‘run’ ).
(Please note: we are not a ‘party’ venue. We are a garden dedicated to sharing the space, plants, and knowledge with others, so we do not currently schedule any meetings or parties that are not related to our garden activities.)
OPTION 1:
1. Education + meeting time (your choice – not necessary) + guided garden tour.
-The educational component to your groups’s visit will be a lecture//discussion on a pre-determined topic, usually accompanied by photos/ slides. Topics may be on most any aspect of gardening from design to maintenance to choosing plants, English gardens in general, the history and development of the garden here, or something more specific to the group’s interests. Time: approximately an hour and a half. Our meeting/lecture room is climate controlled and amenable for seminar-style presentations (and note-taking!).
– Guided tour of the garden – individuals may wander at their leisure, but we prefer that groups stay together for the simple reason that pointing out features and unusual plants as well as answering questions, is really only possible this way. We do not interrupt group tours to answer questions of folks who are outside the group. This is just plain and simple efficiency. Generally, tours of the garden, which have been described to us as ‘living lectures’, take about 45 minutes to an hour. We have found that the more knowledgeable the tour members the longer it takes simply because there is more to talk about. Heat and humidity will cause the tour to be faster!
OPTION 2:
As above but without the educational component and includes tent set-up, tables and chairs, meeting time, garden tour.
OPTION 3:
Un-guided tours only; we provide space, tables, and chairs for meeting time and your own ‘brown bag’ lunch. Members may wander the garden at their leisure; the gardener is available to answer questions, but does not lead a tour, per se. The garden is also open to individuals, etc., daily; you do not have to come as a group.
Fund Raiser for non-profit
Here’s the deal: if you are a non-profit organization in the Greene/Fayette/Clinton county area and want to do a quick and easy fund-raiser, talk to us. Here’s how it would work: We will host an ‘English Garden Party’ day, closing the gardens to the public on your chosen date. We will provide: the garden, the host/guide/speaker, and refreshments. You will provide the publicity and sell the tickets; you will keep all the money. It’s that simple.
Cost per ticket is determined by you (but we insist on a $15/person minimum); you need to have a good volunteer base to pre-sell the tickets and maximize publicity. If you pre-sell the tickets, then actual turn-out doesn’t matter as much. The garden can handle approximately 50-60 people per hour comfortably (and we will provide law-enforcement traffic control if you have a large pre-event sales); if you set $15/person as a ticket price you could easily net $2,000 – 3,000 for the afternoon AND you have almost NO upfront costs.
We will host only ONE of these events in a season, so the sooner you contact us, the sooner it could be your group that benefits. Only bonafide 501-C-3 organizations need apply.
Artistic Playground
Photographers and other artists – We welcome photographers and other visual artists who might wish to use the garden as a ‘model’ or subject for their work. She works cheap and doesn’t complain about long hours.
We are happy to host photography club ‘shoots’ and meetings.
Please see Garden Clubs and other groups section for details.
Please call or e-mail to schedule your visit. We have found that early mornings are best for most pictures as the sun will not yet have had enough time to cause colors to fade. Scheduling time in the garden is probably best done on weekdays as we cannot ask other visitors (weekends) to stay out of some areas due to picture taking or painting.