Some of the ideas I have for drawing visitors to the garden would be:

(1) Regular evening music series during the warmer months with food. You could rope off the parking area for extra seating (disperse parking to other lots in town). Prior to the event you could have a pizza vendor or maybe some of Clark Farm’s vendors (local small businesses) offer their foodstuffs and beverages.

(2) Outdoor community exercise classes such as yoga, Pilates, etc. Participants have to bring their own mats. The grass won’t be that disturbed. I go to something like this in VT and there’s no damage to the town green. You could even have a series which features a different instructor each week from one of the many area yoga/pilates studios. I’m quite sure they would love the opportunity to promote the uniqueness of their businesses in the process.

(3) Center Garden Monthly Book Club which invites authors to talk about their book(s) which focus on Gardening/Natural world. You could tie it into the offerings at the local library and/or Concord Bookshop. A nice coffee/tea could accompany the event.

(4) Consider having the local Scout troop(s) build a small stage* or “performance garden bridge” upon which different musicians/speakers could play/speak.

(5) Have different seasonal special exhibits/series. For example, during the summer you could have “Create your own fairy/magical garden” for the kids. You could work with a local garden center like New England nurseries which carry these types of materials and to secure someone who could guide the kids on how to create such a garden. You could “display” them around the garden. And of course, have a storytime/film tie-in with the Gleason library. (6) Most public gardens have a changing/seasonal display garden focused on a theme. This could easily be a way to get more people to participate. For example you could have a container garden display. The containers would be created by area gardeners and then placed artfully around the garden. A contest could be part of it, where people could vote online/through the Carlisle Mosquito and “win” a gift certificate to a participating garden center, etc.

(7) A similar theme would be to create a monthly small exhibit garden whereby a local garden landscape designer creates their vision and gives a talk about garden design or a seasonal related topic.