Annual Garden Party Weekend
Baltimore Ace Parties: Saturday, April 22, 11am-3pm
DC Ace Parties: Sunday, April 23, 12-4pm
Join us for our favorite event of the year, now happening at all 11 A Few Cool Hardware Store locations!
Our garden parties are not to be missed, with hands-on gardening workshops, complimentary potting stations*, tips from local gardening experts, giveaways and snacks during the event. Attendees are invited to enter our raffle to win great prizes like a large Traeger Grill and 3 Gallons of our award-winning paint!
Customers who shop during our garden party weekend April 22-23 receive 20% off all in stock gardening products. Grab all the supplies you need for your home during our biggest gardening sale of the year, including plants, bagged goods, seeds, pottery, planters, and even birding and pest control supplies!
Each store has a different set of activities at their event, with our largest garden parties hosted at our garden center stores in Takoma Park, MD and Waverly, Baltimore. Check out what’s happening at your local store’s garden party, we hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a great event!
RiverSmart Home Program: Learn how you can reduce stormwater runoff in your community by partnering with this DOEE incentive program to improve our local watershed. It’s as easy as installing a rain barrel or shade garden- learn how you can schedule a free in home stormwater audit at the event!
Water Blossom Creations: Ensure your plant gets the water it needs where it matters most with these gorgeous decorative root watering systems.
Neighborgoods: Made right here in the district, these food-themed tea towels are sure to brighten up to your kitchen and make a perfect hostess gift- not to mention their adorable utilitarian prints featuring ready-made recipes!
Alfresco Pottery: Our Spring 2017 collection of gorgeous pottery is sure to impress, with hundreds of styles and sizes to choose from in our lawn and garden department. Chat with our Alfresco rep to find the perfect pot to add to your garden or porch appeal.
Casey Trees: Meet one of our favorite nonprofits and discover ways you can support their mission to restore, enhance, and improve the tree canopy in our nation’s capital starting in your own backyard.
Fast Snail: One of our featured DC makers, Fast Snail offers DC-centric greeting cards and stationary.
Lancaster Farm Fresh: Did you know, several of our stores are a Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA pickup site? Enter to win a basket of locally sourced organic produce at the garden party! Ask your store how you can sign up for the Summer CSA program at your local Ace.
Big Green Egg: The Ultimate Cooking Experience, this ceramic grill does it all! A combination grill, smoker, roaster, and oven, the possibilities are endless with this iconic outdoor essential for both casual and professional grade cooking. Stop by for a grilling demo on the Egg and see what the all the fuss is about.
Kaemingk: New to our stores this season, Kaemingk is a perfect collaboration of modern style and simplicity,with thoughtfully designed products that are perfect for year round display. Chat with Kaemingk at the event for a customized shopping experience catered to your taste!
Traeger Grills: Meet the newest addition to our 2017 Spring Grill lineup! It was love at first site, with as much versatility as the Big Green Egg and a lower price point. This wood-fired electric grill is HOA compliant and comes equipped with built-in temperature controls, making your next outdoor soirée as simple as flipping a switch (literally!). Raffle Grand Prize- enter to win at any of our 11 Store Garden Parties! A $500+ value.
Activities:
- Planning Your Urban Container Garden
- Free Potting Service with purchase of plant + pot
- Big Green Egg & Traeger Grill Demos
- Local Vendor Market with some of our favorite DC Artisans
- How to make a Fairy Garden
- 20% off all plants, pottery, & gardening supplies April 22-23
- Free giveaways & snacks
Party on the breadsoda patio! Join us for a relaxing day on the breadsoda patio, with hands-on gardening workshops, seed starting, and grilling demos on our famed Big Green Egg grill. Take advantage of breadsoda’s drink specials during the event!
RiverSmart Home Program: Learn how you can reduce stormwater runoff in your community by partnering with this DOEE incentive program to improve our local watershed. It’s as easy as installing a rain barrel or shade garden- learn how you can schedule a free in home stormwater audit at the event!
Glover Park & Burleith Farmer’s Market: Meet our community farmer’s market and learn what’s in store for this summer’s market, slated to open for the sesaon on May 13.
Activities:
- Free Potting Service with purchase of plant + pot
- Big Green Egg & Traeger Grill Demos
- Seed Starting – everyone goes home with their own started seed!
- DIY Indoor Herb Garden Using Mason Jars
- 20% off all plants, pottery, & gardening supplies April 22-23
- Free giveaways & snacks
Lead Safe and Healthy Housing: There couldn’t be a better time to paint than spring, but could the peeling paint in your home increase your risk of lead exposure? Chat with DOEE’s Lead Safe & Healthy Housing representative on how to detect and prevent lead from affecting your family before you start this season’s home repair projects.
Activities:
- Free Potting Service with purchase of plant + pot
- 20% off all plants, pottery, & gardening supplies April 22-23
- Free giveaways & snacks
*Stop by the Tenleytown Ace refueling station during Tenleytown Main STree’s Earth Day Clean-up on Saturday, April 22! We’ll be serving snacks, water, and cleanup supplies to show our gratitude for helping us beautify and improve our community’s green spaces.
RiverSmart Home Program: Learn how you can reduce stormwater runoff in your community by partnering with this DOEE incentive program to improve our local watershed. It’s as easy as installing a rain barrel or shade garden- learn how you can schedule a free in home stormwater audit at the event!
Mount Vernon Triangle CID: Find out what’s happening in the Triangle and learn about upcoming events, like this year’s Spring Fest and launch of the new Fresh Farm Market on May 6! Stop by their table for a complimentary pot + pansy seed kit for kids, while supplies last!
City Dogs Rescue: Stop by the event from 12-2pm for a dog adoption pop-up with City Dogs Rescue! A volunteer run organization, City Dogs fosters pets from high-kill and overcrowded shelter to ensure they get a second chance at finding a good home. Make some new four-legged friends and receive a free $10 gift card to the store when you adopt on the spot!
Activities:
- Potting service
- Relax in our Park(let) in front of the store, where you can shop hundreds of pots and plants and participate in our free gardening tutorials!
- Complimentary popcorn, snacks, and giveaways
Our biggest garden party of them all! Join us where it all began, at our Old Takoma Ace store where they’re hosting their 5th Annual Garden Party. Enjoy complimentary meats, burgers, and snacks cooked on our Traeger Grill while chatting with over a dozen gardening vendors and local experts. With live music, a huge raffle, loads of giveaways and several hands on gardening workshops and DIY stations, this is sure to be our best garden party yet.
Sacred Roots DC: Many of our garden enthusiast customers might remember Hillary from past Spring workshop series. From herbal remedies and apothecaries to foraging and advocacy, we’ve been partnering with Sacred Roots for years to educate our customers to discover the spiritual and holistic aspects of gardening.
RiverSmart Home Program: Learn how you can reduce stormwater runoff in your community by partnering with this DOEE incentive program to improve our local watershed. It’s as easy as installing a rain barrel or shade garden- learn how you can schedule a free in home stormwater audit at the event!
Babikow Greenhouses: Ever wonder where we get our beautiful plants and natives? Meet the folks at Babikow Greenhouses out of Baltimore, MD, where they painstakingly care for thousands of plants each year to ensure we have the best possible blooms for our customers. Come prepared with your gardening related questions for this great opportunity to connect directly with our growers!
U.S. Department of Forestry’s Every Kid in a Park Program: In today’s world of screens and smart phones, encouraging our youth to explore the outdoors and find value in nature is more important than ever. From visiting parks to volunteering in them, learn about programs in your area to engage our youth in environmental efforts. Coincidentally, you can also stop by this table for landscaping advice!
Institute for Local Self Reliance: Learn how to start your own worm composting system and find out about upcoming workshop dates at Old Takoma Ace!
The Green Gardener, Rebecca Cague: Learn about various environmentally friendly gardens that are easy to implement in your yard, including shade and pollinator friendly options!
From the Farmer: Meet your local farmer’s market, delivered straight to your doorstep! From the Farmer connects local residents in the Delmarva region with fresh, organic, locally sourced produce, meats, grocery, and pantry items via their online ordering platform. Sample some of their butcher shop’s finest cuts, cooked on our Traeger Grill!
Garden Party attendees will receive an exclusive offer for $20 off their first order, while supplies last; plus, enter to win a $50 FTF gift card in our event raffle!
8 Myles: Shop and sample some of the District’s best locally made sauces and rubs, perfectly paired with meats provided by From the Farmer and grilled over our wood-burning Traeger Grill.
Activities:
- DIY Fairy Garden/Container Gardening Tutorial
- Terrarium Workshop
- Complimentary Face Painting
- Ace employee by day, honky tonk rocker by night. Live Music performed by our very own Valentine Slim! http://valentineslim.com/
- Free Potting Service with purchase of plant + pot
- 20% off all plants, pottery, & gardening supplies April 22-23
- Free giveaways & snacks
- Big Green Egg & Traeger Grill Demos
- Local Vendor Market with some of our favorite DC Artisans
B Holes Bakery: Enjoy made-to-order bagel holes from our favorite local bagel hole pop-up shop!
Activities:
- Complimentary Face Painting & Balloons
- Sidewalk Chalk
- Seed Starting & Pot Painting Workshop
- Free Potting Service with purchase of plant + pot
- 20% off all plants, pottery, & gardening supplies April 22-23
- Free giveaways & snacks
Jonathan Green: Have a yard, but don’t know where to start? Chat with Alexandrian Rick Hardy of Jonathan Green to learn how to seed, feed, and maintain your yard this spring season.
Activities:
- Prize Wheel of Fortune
- Fertilizer Tutorial
- Houseplant Maintenance Tutorial
- Free Potting Service with purchase of plant + pot
- 20% off all plants, pottery, & gardening supplies April 22-23
- Free giveaways & snacks
Lead Safe and Healthy Housing: There couldn’t be a better time to paint than spring, but could the peeling paint in your home increase your risk of lead exposure? Chat with DOEE’s Lead Safe & Healthy Housing representative on how to detect and prevent lead from affecting your family before you start this season’s home repair projects.
Eat170 Pop-Up: Grab a tasty bite to eat at Eat170 pop-up, prepared fresh and locally by Chef Vernon Price!
Activities:
- HUGE pottery selection, taking over the sidewalk from the store to the old Ontario Theatre entrance
- Free Seed Starting Workshop
- Potting Service with purchase of plant + pot
- 20% off all plants, pottery, & gardening supplies April 22-23
- Free giveaways & snacks
- Giving back to the community: Round-up your purchase to the next dollar to benefit H.D. Cooke Elementary School’s Gardening Program!