Lesson 3: Working with Volunteers in the Garden

Working with Volunteers in the Garden

The whole purpose of this toolkit is to help you get other people involved in your garden. Whether it's because they want to learn new skills, meet new people, get outside, or do something positive for the community, people will want to share their time with YOU in the garden. 

Tip: In your garden journal or binder, keep a list of farm and garden projects. When a volunteer group contacts you, you’ll be ready with project ideas.

Think about any volunteering you may have done. If you gave an organization two hours of your Saturday morning, what made that a good experience for you? Did you feel like you accomplished something, that the organization valued you time, that the task was meaningful? 

A good volunteer program has structure, staff, and even a small budget.

Here are some tips for managing volunteers in the garden.

• Have volunteers sign waivers and give you contact information before the project starts. (Sample waiver is in the resource section on this page. Make sure to check any waiver with your supervisors or volunteer legal help.)

• Set regular volunteer hours each week or each month. Consistent volunteer hours will help people make your garden a regular part of their week or month.

• Keep your volunteer projects to two hours, no more. A two hour project is enough time to do meaningful work without completely exhausting your volunteers. You want them to have a good experience. You want them to come back.

• Staff your volunteer projects/work alongside your volunteers. Working with your volunteers (or having other leaders work with them) allows you to answer their questions and get to know them. If they don’t understand something, they can ask you. 

• Demonstrate the tasks you need done, teach volunteers how to use the tools. Highlight ways to work safely. 

• Provide appropriate safety gear (gloves, ear and eye protection if needed).

• Set times for breaks, and take them.

• Keep your volunteers safe and healthy. Have water, shade, bathrooms (we have had a port-o-potty service for a decade; though expensive, it works), and a first aid kit available. Always have drinking water for every project. 

• At the end of the project, recognize all of the work that was accomplished. We like to review all the different things a group did during their project and say thank you. 

• Thank your volunteers throughout the year. Some ways we say thank you include allowing volunteers to harvest vegetables or bouquets during the last ten minutes of a project, providing snacks or donuts, posting pictures of volunteer groups (with permission) on social media, sending thank you notes, or giving tee shirts to regular volunteers. We also organize an annual Volunteer Thank You Breakfast every November (see Thanking Volunteers lesson).

Tip: Volunteers are not magical sources of free labor. (We’ve heard supervisors or directors of organizations say things like, “just let a volunteer do that,” or, “just go find some volunteers” like they just appear when you need things done.) Bringing volunteers into the garden requires organization, leadership, thoughtfulness, and a little money for things like water and snacks. 

Volunteer job descriptions

Clear job descriptions help you communicate with your ongoing volunteers.  A job description might include a summary or description of the task, the steps required, what you need to do to do the job, and contact information for whoever is in charge. 

We don’t write job descriptions for every volunteer job, but you can. We do write job descriptions for jobs that people are more likely to do solo or commit to for a year or more, things like taking care of our animals on the weekend. 

If you need ideas about how to create a volunteer job description, see the job description for Sunday Farm Keeper or Field Trip Volunteer. Our Sunday Farm Keeper job description could be broken down into two more jobs - someone to water the garden and greenhouse and someone to take care of the animals. 

Give your volunteer the job description, work through the tasks listed in the job description before leaving them to do it on their own, and use the job description as a tool for the volunteer to ask you questions and clarify responsibilities. Ask the volunteer: Did the description match the task? Did we leave anything out? Do you have any questions about this job?