GardenCentral.org has reached full capacity. We are no longer accepting applications for free garden club websites. Garden Central is now providing hundreds of free websites for garden clubs throughout America. It's EASY, FAST, and FREE. You provide the information and we manage your site. No cost. No hassle. We work with hundreds of clubs as well as many state federations, districts, and councils. We even provide free sites for national garden club and horticultural society projects. There are no fees or hidden costs. Clubs are under no obligation to continue with us if dissatisfied for any reason. We are available by e-mail and toll-free phone to answer questions and handle website-editing requests 16 hours a day, 365 days a year. Garden Central is a project created and run by Our Community Works, Inc., a New Jersey-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit community-development organization whose mission is to bring resources to other not-for-profit community-focused groups. The Garden Central web-enabling initiative is one of several community development projects OCW has undertaken since Carolyn Kawahara and Bryan Thomlison founded it in 1996. To see some of the club sites we have done, click on the links below.
We recently upgraded our system to provide even more sophisticated looking sites with greater functionality. Our new system provides you with a choice of almost 1,000 styles. Your free website can have up to 15 pages plus numerous PDF documents such as forms, event brochures, special announcements ... even a newsletter or two. Click here to see a few of the hundreds of new templates.
Here are a few sites we are currently constructing using our new system. Some of these sites are not quite finished because we are waiting for more content from the clubs. You will notice the URL (website address) we provide is not as simple and easy to remember as one would hope for. Unfortunately, that's what comes with our system. However, names are available from many domain registration companies. We recommend www.godaddy.com because they are relatively inexpensive -- ranging from about $3/year to less than $15/year depending on what you purchase) and they provide free domain forwarding to the site we build for you. We have no financial or other affiliation with godaddy.com but we have been satisfied with their prices and service. If you're club cannot afford your own domain name, call Bryan Thomlison. He will most likely donate one to your club for the first year just to get you started.
Here is some information to get you started.
There are just a few basic steps: - Choose a template (see links above).
- Send text for each page. Put the text in an MS Word doc or in the body of your email to me.
- Send each photo, logo, clip art, special graphic images in their own jpg or gif files; i.e., do not embed them in a document. For each image, send the largest image possible. We will size it appropriately.
- We will construct a draft website for your critical review. You then send your edits to us and we will modify it. This is an iterative process. We fine tune until you are satisfied.
- Afterward, you may ask for edits/updates at any time. Simply send the email instructions to us with appropriate attachments (photos, forms, brochures, etc.). We try to handle requests within 72 hours. Urgent requests can be phoned to Bryan (toll free: 1.877.832.4216) or sent in an email marked "URGENT" in the subject line.
Click here for instructions on how to get started with your club's free site.
Click here if you have questions or concerns. We'll respond promptly.
Click here if you want to see our Garden Club Directory, listing the 100's of participating states, districts, councils, clubs, and horticultural societies. We look forward to providing your garden club with a free website. Carolyn & Bryan Thomlison
Call toll free 1.877.876.4273 7am-11pm ET, 7 days a week. |
