Calling all gardeners! If you love the idea of a garden themed party that goes way beyond pretty florals, you are in the right place. We hosted our very own "Garden Club" lunch complete with a garden shed turned clubhouse bar, a garden themed menu with a vegetable garden hummus dip with a miniature picket fence, dirt pudding with shovel spoons, and bread baked in real terracotta flower pots, and more. After lunch we had a garden gift and plant exchange. Keep reading for all the details and inspiration for your own garden party.
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Quick Look
- 🌿 Theme: Garden Club Luncheon
- 🌸 Season: Spring or Summer
- 👥 Guest List: Works beautifully for 4 to 8 guests
- ⭐ Don't Miss: The themed menu
- 🖨️ Free Printables: Garden Club invitation, menu, and logo included
Why You'll Love This Garden Themed Party
- The food IS the decor! Every dish is themed right down to the shovel spoons in the dirt pudding.
- Use our free printable and editable Garden Club invitations, sign, menu/agenda, and logo.
- The garden shed turned club house bar is simpler to set up than it looks and makes an incredible first impression.
- The rhubarb soda welcome drink is fresh, beautiful, and easy to make.
- The decor details like seed packet bunting, watering can water pitcher, garden trowel servers, and plant label placecards add fun and whimsy.
My mom, my sister, and my best friend are all avid gardeners. So for June's gathering, in our year of monthly parties, I wanted to create a party that felt like a real celebration of everything we love about the garden. Not just a florals-and-linen garden party. A gardener's party. The kind where the hummus dip has a miniature picket fence around it, the bread is baked in terracotta flower pots, and the dessert is served with little shovel spoons. I called it "Garden Club" and made it official. It was so much fun.
If you love this garden themed party, you might also enjoy our Little Women Tea Party, our Daisy Party, our Mushroom Picnic, our Butterfly Picnic Party, or our Strawberry Party.
Free Garden Club Printables
One of our favorite parts of this party was creating a whole branded Garden Club suite, and the best part is you can use it for your own garden party too. Everything was designed in Canva and is completely editable with a free Canva account.
The suite includes:
- The Garden Club Logo -our vintage inspired oval badge design with a watering can illustration
- The Invitation -formal garden club meeting style with date, time, and party details
- The Menu/Agenda -each course is disguised as an official garden club agenda item, which made our guests laugh
To customize for your own party you can easily:
- Add your own date, time, and address to the invitation
- Adjust the colors to match your party palette
- Swap in your own menu items as agenda topics
We cut the logo out using our Cricut and permanent vinyl to create the Garden Club sign. As another option, you could print it and add it to a frame, or have it printed as a canvas sign.
We also used the logo to create personalized tote bag favors. We used printable iron-on vinyl and applied them to cotton tote bags.
The Garden Shed Bar
As guests arrived we welcomed them at the garden shed, which we turned into our Garden Club clubhouse for the day.
- The Bar Setup: A mini bar fridge stocked with drinks, a letter board saying "Bar Open," and the Garden Club sign framed on the barn door.
- Seed Packet garland: Save your seed packages after planting, cut a simple "V" in the bottom for a classic bunting shape, and staple onto garden twine. Pretty, easy, and costs almost nothing.
- Welcome Drink: Fresh homemade rhubarb simple syrup, sparkling water, ice, and edible flowers floating on top. Get the full [Rhubarb Soda recipe here]. Add vodka for a welcome cocktail.
The Garden Tour
We wound our way through my backyard garden from the shed, through the raised beds, past the birches, shade garden, apple tree, back deck and over to our grapevine-covered pergola, beside my white garden and seating area. We all love to garden, and it was fun to see seeds coming up in the raised beds, check tomato progress, and admire new additions to the shade garden this spring. It was the perfect short journey to our table.
The Garden Club Tablescape
We set the table under our grape vine pergola and the setting did a lot of the work for us. From there every detail was layered in.
- Tablecloth: You can't have a garden party without including some floral print. This vintage floral tablecloth was the foundation for everything. The bold florals set the garden tone immediately.
- Centerpiece: A vintage wooden tool caddy from the thrift store filled with glass bottles and fresh peonies and garden flowers, including lots from our own garden. It looked like something from a flower market and cost almost nothing. I also included three glass mushroom vases filled with flowers, which added a little whimsy to the table.
- Place Settings: White scalloped plates, pink linen napkins, and simple water glasses were our starting point for the place settings.
- Shovel and Pitchfork Cutlery: One of my favorite additions to this party were the adorable little shovel spoons and pitchfork forks. They added the perfect themed whimsy to the table.
- Menu Cards: The meeting agenda card was our playful menu. We used typewriter font to make it look like a real vintage garden club agenda, and then I had fun turning each course into a talking point for the "meeting".
- Placecards: I used our dirt pudding dessert, that looked like a real potted pansy to hold our plant label placecards. I cut out everyone's name in vinyl using my Cricut and added them to the bamboo plant labels.
- Watering Can Water Jug: I picked up a new pink watering can at the dollar store and used it to hold water for the table.
- Garden Trowel and Rake Salad Servers: I also bought a new small set of garden tools at the dollar store and used them to serve the salad.
- Garden Salt and Pepper: I had an adorable metal salt and pepper set that was shaped like a watering can and bucket that was the perfect addition to the table.
- Tote Bag Party Favors: I rolled our custom tote bags up and tied them with ribbon and added them to the table beside everyone's plate, to discover when they sat down.
- Flower Pot Butter Dish: To match our bread baked in real terra cotta flower pots, I used a smaller one to hold our butter.
- Wheelbarrow Drinks Cooler: A green wheelbarrow full of ice beside the pergola held individual bottles of sparkling rosé, sparkling water, and our rhubarb soda. Guests could help themselves throughout the whole afternoon. So fun and so practical.
The Garden Club Menu
Every dish at our garden club luncheon was themed to the party, and each one contributed to the overall look of the table. Here is the full menu.
Rhubarb Soda Welcome Drink
Agenda Item #1 -Call to Order: Spring Rhubarb
- Fresh homemade rhubarb simple syrup, sparkling water, ice, and edible flowers floating on top. Served from the garden shed bar as guests arrived.
- Add a splash of vodka to turn it into a welcome cocktail.
- Get the full Rhubarb Soda recipe here.
Vegetable Garden Hummus Dip
Agenda Item #2 -Welcome and Opening Remarks: Veggie Gardens and Beneficial Insects
- Homemade hummus spread on a square white plate, surrounded by a miniature white picket fence.
- Soil crumb made with pumpernickel bread crumbs toasted in butter with everything bagel seasoning.
- Carrots, radishes, green onions, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and peppers "growing" in the garden.
- Get the full Vegetable Garden Hummus Dip recipe here.
Ladybug Caprese Bruschetta
Agenda Item #2 -Welcome and Opening Remarks: Veggie Gardens and Beneficial Insects
- Garlic butter crostini spread with pesto, topped with fresh mozzarella, a cherry tomato ladybug with black olive face and balsamic glaze spots.
- Get the full [Ladybug Caprese Bruschetta recipe here].
Flower Pot Bread
Agenda Item #3 -Main Topic: Growing in Terra Cotta Pots
- Individual herb bread baked in seasoned terracotta flower pots, served warm with butter in a small terracotta pot.
- Each guest got their own pot of fresh warm bread. Such a fun presentation and easier to make than you might think.
- Get the full [Flower Pot Bread recipe here].
Garden Salad
Agenda Item #3 -Main Topic: The Kitchen Garden
- Iceberg lettuce, arugula, cucumber, corn, cherry tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, sugar snap peas, red onion, chicken fingers, and marble cheese.
- Served with honey mustard dressing, made with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, and grainy Dijon mustard.
Dirt Pudding
Agenda Item #4 -Closing: Soil Amendment
- Individual chocolate pudding cups mixed with and topped with Oreo cookie crumb soil, and candy rocks.
- Garnish with a fresh pansy, or a sprig of mint.
- Add plant label name card to use as placecards.
- Served with little shovel spoons.
- Get the full Dirt Pudding recipe here.
Individual Vanilla Cakes with Strawberry Rhubarb Compote
Agenda Item #4 -Closing: Wild Flowers
- Small rounds cut from a vanilla cake mix sheet cake, using a wine glass as a cutter.
- Cut in half and layered with strawberry rhubarb compote and vanilla frosting.
- Decorated with fresh wild roses and chamomile from the garden.
- The perfect size for a luncheon dessert and so pretty on the cake stand.
Table Question
We ended lunch with our table question: What is your favorite time in your garden?
The answers were so lovely. Some people talked about their favorite season, some people loved the morning garden with a coffee, or evening with a glass of wine. We ended up talking about my grandmother's garden, memories of my mom gardening with her mother, and my niece discovering her own love of growing things. That is what a garden club meeting is really for.
The Plant Exchange
The plant exchange was one of the best parts of the afternoon. Each guest brought three garden-themed gifts to share, one for each of the other guests. The gifts were so thoughtful.
My best friend thrifted baskets for each of us, then filled them with beautiful items. She reminded me that when she was making her own new beginning years ago, I said she should buy everyday items that were beautiful and that she loved to use. So she brought us all floral garden gloves, pink garden shears, and a gorgeous perennial. My sister brought handmade fairy doors for each of us. My mom brought us all perennials from her own garden. And I contributed the garden club tote bags. Everyone went home with something living, personal, and meaningful.
A plant exchange is such a wonderful alternative to traditional party favors. Instead of something generic, everyone goes home with something they actually wanted.
How to organize your own garden club plant exchange:
- Ask each guest to bring one gift per other guest (for 4 guests, each person brings 3)
- Suggest plants or a garden themed gift. Plants can be from the nursery or something they're grown or divided from their own garden.
- Suggest a rough budget, like $20 per gift.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most fun approach is to make the food part of the theme itself. For our Garden Club luncheon we served a vegetable garden hummus dip planted with fresh vegetables and a miniature picket fence, ladybug caprese bruschetta, individual flower pot breads baked in real terracotta pots, a garden salad with edible flowers, dirt pudding cups with shovel spoons, and individual vanilla cakes decorated with fresh roses and chamomile from the garden. Every dish told the story of the theme.
A signature welcome drink sets the tone immediately. We made a homemade rhubarb soda with a rhubarb simple syrup, sparkling water, and edible flowers floating on top. It was so beautiful and so delicious. We also a wheelbarrow into a drinks colloer, filling with ice, individual sparkling rosé bottles, sparkling water, and sodas so guests could help themselves throughout the afternoon.
A slow garden tour before sitting down to eat is such a natural and lovely activity when your party is outside. It gives guests a chance to arrive gradually, drink in hand, and admire what is growing. We also ended lunch with a table question - we asked everyone what their favorite time in their garden is - and the conversation that followed was one of the highlights of the whole afternoon. A plant or garden gift exchange is another wonderful activity that sends everyone home with something meaningful.
Use what you already have. Fresh flowers from your own garden cost nothing and look beautiful in vintage bottles from the thrift store. A seed packet garland takes minutes to make and costs almost nothing. Dollar store garden tools make charming salad servers and a new watering can becomes the perfect water jug. Our most admired centerpiece was a thrifted wooden tool caddy filled with glass bottles and garden flowers.
More Summer Entertaining Inspiration
If you try anything from this garden themed party or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
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