The Common Good Plant Sale
Join us sowing seeds of hope around the world with your own local plant sale on 11th May 2024. Raise money for your local horticultural charity and be part of the ripple effect many small actions can have when working together.
A plant sale is a great way to raise money for charity, and here at Common Farm Flowers we have been helping organise our village plant sale for nearly fifteen years. We took a break during the pandemic years, but are revving up for this year’s plant sale with renewed vigour. It’s a great event, pulling together a community which loves its gardens, can’t help but grow too many seedlings, and has a good village hall in which to hold a sale.
I was inspired to relaunch our village plant sale when I came across The Riv Trust, a charity dedicated to raising money for small, often horticultural charities which do invaluable work in local communities but which rarely have any marketing or pr budget to bring attention to their work and help raise funds. We have one such organisation in our local town Wincanton, The Growing Space. And so this year, our village plant sale is not only raising funds for our village church and village hall, and for The Treatment Bag, a charity founded by a village neighbour which supports people being treated in hospital for cancer. We are also raising money for The Growing Space.
Now I could say to every one of you that you should put the 11th May in your diary as the day when you come to Charlton Musgrove village hall and join in our bring and buy plant sale. However, I’m conscious that many of you live far far away. Besides, a small plant sale like ours is not especially difficult to organise, and even a small amount of money raised can be transforming for the charity that will benefit. The Growing Space is not the only small horticultural charity doing invaluable work in its own quiet way.
So instead of suggesting you all come to our plant sale on 11th May, I’m suggesting instead that you consider holding one yourself. Wherever you are in the world there will be a small horticultural charity which could benefit from your efforts. If you can’t find a horticultural charity is there a garden at your local school which needs support, a hospital or prison garden programme which could make good use of funds you raise?
Our mailing list reaches nearly 25,000 and our social media feeds, via Instagram, Facebook and Youtube another 80,000 plus – people who live all around the world. Imagine if one percent of the people we can reach plan to hold a plant sale on 11th May – one percent is a thousand – and if that one percent raised, say, £500 each for charity.
That’s half a million pounds sterling which would be boosting the activities of small horticultural charities around the world.
So please consider holding a plant sale in your area, raising money for your small, local horticultural charity, on 11th May. We will share information on these Common Good Plant Sales on our Instagram and via our newsletter (sign up here) to help people find one in their area – which might be yours.
If you plan to hold a sale do email your Instagram handle (or another link to information) and where and when you’ll be holding your sale to club@commonfarmflowers.com and we will share the information nearer the time.
Imagine the difference we could all make? I often watch the news and feel dwarfed by the problems the world faces. Holding a village plant sale in aid of a small local horticultural charity feels like a tiny thing I can do to make a difference. I hope you’ll join us – imagine the ripple effect.
Please keep an eye out on Instagram and YouTube where I’ll be sharing more tips from years of holding plant sales here. You may have a system which already works well for you, but in case you haven’t done anything like this before, we have plenty of experience and will give as much advice as we can so that you can hold a plant sale and make your own ripple.
You can see where plant sales are planned to take place here.
See our YouTube playlist for information about plant sales.
