Raising money using your school garden

Vegetable, fruit and plant sales

• Sell surplus crops to staff and parents, have a garden produce sales table in the school reception 
• Hold pick-your-own days in an established fruit garden
• Sell surplus plants such as tomatoes, pumpkins, salads, herbs and strawberry plants grown from runners
• Take cuttings of fruit bushes and other plants in the school garden and grow on to sell
• Make up bunches of fresh flowers or herbs (don't forget to stand in water)
• Grow flowers or bedding plants from plug plants. For plants to be ready for sale in the summer term, it is best to buy small plug plants rather than starting from seed. Pot them on into 9cm pots or trays, grow on and sell at a summer fair. Schools must have sufficient indoor space (a greenhouse or cold frame) to keep the plants protected until they can be hardened off.
• Consider approaching local food outlets to see if they would buy school grown produce such as salad leaves, herbs or edible flowers.
• Approach your local market or farmers' market and see if they will allow you to hold a stall there occasionally, this is a great way of engaging your local community.

Processed fruit and vegetables to sell

• Garlic and herb oils, jams, chutneys
• Carrot cake, parsnip cake, courgette cake, beetroot cake
• Fruit syrups made with brambles, raspberries, rose hips, blackcurrants and more
• Herb butters to go with bread
• Vegetable soup 
• Mint syrups can be made and added to cakes or ice cream
• Recipe cards or recipe books with vegetables for sale in a priced bag
• Remember to comply with food hygiene regulations
• List ingredients for allergens 

School fairs

• A useful event to sell produce and plants but you can also run stalls with seed sowing activities, guess the weight of the pumpkin, lucky dip with a gardening twist (hide prizes in a bag of compost). 
• Feely boxes – cut a hand-sized hole in a series of cardboard boxes and hide a vegetable or fruit in each box – children have to guess the name of the vegetable just by feeling it
• Sell seeds or plants and get the children to produce care instructions (including a photo of the plant in flower) so customers know what they are buying. Link this to the maths curriculum by doing a costing exercise to ensure that sufficient profit will be made on each plant or pack of seeds sold.
• Have stalls to sell the products of your harvested produce such as; cakes, cookies, jams, chutneys, soup, oils and drinks.
• Ask children to bring in a plant or produce from home that can then be sold at a school fête or fair in aid of the garden.

Open days 

• Charge an entrance fee
• Garden tours with produce tasting
• Wildlife gardens; offer pond dipping as a supervised activity
• Treasure hunt or trail around the garden or grounds
• Use our Spotter Guides to make seasonal trails around the garden 

Non-uniform day

• Ask pupils to bring in £1 towards the gardening project in exchange for not wearing uniform.