#Garden365

Did you know February 3 is National Feed the Birds Day? (Cue me doing my best Julie Andrews impersonation of “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins. This is the type of thing you’d hear if you shared an office with me.) National Garden Bureau (NGB), in conjunction with GardenComm, has created a calendar of popular “Day of” promotions and industry marketing campaign opportunities that you can use in your own marketing and social media plans.

There are many national “day of, week of and month of” celebrations that are fun occasions to promote gardening almost every day of the year. The curated list appears on the NGB website (ngb.org/national-day-of-calendar) in calendar form so anyone can find days or weeks of the month that provide something to talk about without having to spend a lot of time coming up with marketing ideas. Thank you, NGB for doing all that legwork!

Need a creative boost for the fall or winter? October 28 is National Make a Difference Day. Make a difference in someone’s life by gifting them a hand-cut bouquet or donating seeds to a community garden.

The first Wednesday of October is National Kale Day. I can’t get super excited about kale, but it might be fun to share a YouTube short of comedian Jim Gaffigan’s take on “the kale propaganda.” (It’s clean and safe for work.)

October 17 is National Pasta Day. Share those basil cultivars.

November 2 is National Men Make Dinner Day where you could easily share recipes and ideas for next year’s veggie or herb sales. Sidebar: My dad did not do any cooking. If my mom was out of town, we went to Bonanza. If you’re not familiar with that popular chain from the 1970s, it’s a fancier version of Golden Corral.

Just a few days later (November 5) marks National Doughnut Day. Where’s the horticulture tie-in? Weeding and other gardening activities burn calories. Some of you in certain parts of the country have snow on the ground by this time. But those of us in the south are still gardening in November and possibly wearing shorts and flip-flops.

These are just a few ‘day of’ ideas anyone in the green industry can use. Have fun, get creative and spread the word that gardening isn’t just in spring and summer but all year long. #Garden365