Earth Day
Get Ready for Earth Day 2026!
Earth Day is April 22nd! And our Spring Native Plant Sale will be April 18th and 19th. PTA members save $20 on a tray of 20 plants. For every 5 trays sold, we donate 1 free tray to build a wildlife garden at school.
Are you a Garden Club Leader or Environmental Chair of your PTA? This resource page was made for you. Soils Alive hosted a Native Plant Sale with Richardson ISD's Council of PTAs on October 18th and 19th, as a test run to get ready for April next year. This was our Facebook event. And our RISD online order form. For Earth Day 2026, Soils Alive will have a lot of free resources to help your PTA celebrate. Make Earth Day one of your biggest community engagement events of the year. Get new members to sign up and join your PTA, to save $20 on native plants. Recruit volunteers for the school garden. And attract new fundraising sponsors when you make a plan to join us for our free DFW Schoolyard BioBlitz, going on March 1-30 leading up to the April 1 deadline for PTA members to save $20 on plants.
Invite sponsors to raise money for your PTA for your BioBlitz. And give out your BioBlitz prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners when you plant a school garden on April 18 or 19 after you pickup your plants, right before Earth Day on the 22nd. With any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email community engagement director Ben Strube (ben@soilsalive.com). Meet the entire Soils Alive team.
BioBlitz Prizes
During the DFW Schoolyard BioBlitz event (March 1-30), your PTA members are invited to visit wildlife habitats across DFW, like Oak Point Park (800 acres in Plano), the Spring Creek Nature Area (100 acres of forest in Richardson), Connemara Meadow (70+ acres of Blackland Prairie in Allen), and Monarch View Park (in Frisco). And don't forget the Heard Museum in McKinney, or the Lewisiville Lake Environmental Learning Area!
These are all great places to invite teachers, parents, and students to get outdoors and observe wildlife during your PTA's BioBlitz celebration, leading up to Earth Day. Use the free iNaturalist app on your phone to learn about nature. Make it a friendly competition! DFW has so much to see, with thousands of species of birds, wildflowers, butterflies, dragonflies, lizards, frogs, and more. Which PTA members will snap the most photos of wildlife during the month of March? Invite 3 sponsors to provide prizes for 1st, 3nd, and 3rd place.
Wildlife Gardens Use 95% Less Water
Soils Alive loves these 25 plants, because they're so drought tolerant and need so little water. Does your ISD Groundskeeping team need your help to reduce water use? Native plants for a wildlife garden will use 95% less water over 10 years (compared to a vegetable garden). 100 native plants (for a 1000+ SF school garden) need 2000 gallons to get established. That water costs less than $20 (in Richardson it costs about $15). And that's it. These are drought-tolerant plants that only need water during their first year of establishment. No raised beds. No irrigation system. Just the clay soil you already have on site, a bit of free mulch, and the free plants you'll get from Soils Alive.
Do you have a school garden you'd like to expand? Or does your school need a new butterfly garden? During your BioBlitz, get your PTA members ready to purchase native plants for their home garden. When you sell 5 trays, your school garden gets 1 tray free. Win $100, $200, or $300 of free, drought-tolerant native plants to build a butterfly garden when your PTA members buy 5, 10, or 15 trays of plants with $20 off by April 1.
School gardens help children with their mental health, improve test scores, and lift school spirit. Your school garden will receive 20-60 free plants, enough for a 150 - 800 square foot expansion to an existing school garden, or to create a new garden. Site prep is easy for a wildlife garden. These plants love clay soil! Prep your garden site by laying thick, biodegradable paper and 2" of free mulch (www.ChipDrop.com or from your ISD or city). Lay your mulch by February 15, so that the grass has died 60 days later when you plant. Get permission from your school principal and groundskeeping by January 1st, and get your site prepped 6 weeks later on February 15th so you'll be ready to plant in late April. Here's what your garden could look like.
PTA Members Save $20 on Plants
PTA members will save $20 on their tray of 20 plants, when they buy before April 1. General public pricing is $120 and runs April 1-April 15. Win free plants for your school butterfly garden, when you sell plants to your PTA members. Sell 15 trays, get 3 trays free ($300). Sell 5 trays, get 1 tray free ($100). PTA leaders, you'll need to pre-order your trays by December 15th, because Soils Alive grows these plants under contract. Sell your plants to PTA members from January - March (12 weeks). PTA members pick up their plants on April 18th and 19th, at Greenwood Hills Learning Center in Richardson. Host a Garden Planting Party at your school, when your plants are just arrived and fresh. Celebrate your new garden on Earth Day, April 22nd!
PTA Leader Commitments
Soils Alive goes under contract with our network of experienced (50+ years combined), local, native plant growers on January 1st so that your plants are ready 90 days later. PTA leaders: let us know how many plants you need for your PTA. You can pre-order 5, 10, or 15 trays.
This plant sale is impossible without knowing how many PTA members actually want to purchase plants. We rely so much on PTA leaders to give us a number, to start plants from seed January 1st. We want to say thank you to all of the PTA leaders who provide us with their commitments early, so we can better plan for Earth Day 2026. When you commit to sell 5 trays (and end up selling all 5!), you can purchase a tray of 20 plants for $30.
1, 2, or 3 PTA leaders can participate per school. If 2 leaders commit per school, we can accommodate 100 of the 300+ schools across 8 ISDs. We work with great teams who grow these plants for us. We want to take good care of these companies because we plan on hosting plant sales for PTAs in DFW for the next 5 years, in spring and fall. We need your help to follow through on our promises to these growers. That's why we ask you to commit only if you feel confident you can help us fulfill our promises to our growers. If you sell fewer than 5 trays, there is a $120 charge to you. But you do get to still take home your tray of plants! Your tray will just cost $150, instead of $30.
Pre-Order Now Until January 1
PTA leaders can pre-order plants now until January 1. Just fill out our form (below) and we'll get in contact with you. We invite all PTA leaders from all schools in Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Denton, Grapevine-Colleyville, Lewisville, and Wylie ISDs. Pre-order is First Come, First Served until all 1000 trays are reserved.
For PTAs located beyond a 30 minute drive of pickup (Denton, Grapevine-Colleyville, Lewisville , and Wylie), you can send 1-3 PTA leaders for pickup per local PTA. Their SUV needs 42" x 48" of space and can fit up to 9 trays of plants (14"x16"). Confirm your SUV space here. PTAs within a 30 minute drive will send PTA members for their own pickup (Richardson, Plano, Allen, and Frisco). Pickup time slots of 30 minutes each will be available to schedule online, to coordinate pickup times (10am-5pm, Saturday and Sunday). PTA members may take 30 minutes to select their own plants. For PTA leaders picking up 7 trays, we will have volunteers to help you quickly assemble these trays (under 30 minutes).
Limit 1000 trays for sale for $20,000 savings for PTA members. Limit 200 free trays donated for school gardens ($20,000 in-kind donation). $5 per tray donated to PTA Councils (+$5 per tray to RISD Council for hosting the event). 30% of sale proceeds is donated (20% in-kind, 10% cash). All sales are final. No refunds. Our plant quality is backed by 25+ years in business a a family-owned company, and our 700+ quality Google reviews. We will only sell plants that make us proud and that we know you'll love!
If plants are not picked up on April 18th or 19th, there is the option to pickup on 20th or 21st from 5-7pm with a $35 fee per tray. Send a friend to pick up for you if you can't come by. Plants not claimed by 7pm on the 21st are donated to PTA volunteers. Max occupancy of 40 people in Greenwood Hills Learning Center every 30 minutes, for 500 people on Saturday and another 500 on Sunday.
PTA Leaders: How to Sell Your Plants
How can you quickly and easily let your PTA members know about the plant sale? Here's a few easy ways. Email your PTA members next week. Let them know to mark their calendars. Ask who's interested in buying a tray of plants, to see how much interest there is for your PTA. Contact your city's HOA leaders. Let them know if they have an HOA beautification project and want drought-tolerant plants, to mark their calendar to buy plants and help support your school. In January, co-host the Plant Sale event on your PTA Facebook page and share a Facebook post about the sale, every 2 weeks. Put up 5 flyers around campus. Email your PTA members once a month (3x). Mention the plant sale at PTA meetings and bring flyers. Ask your school principal to email Teachers and Parents (January 1, February 1, March 1, March 25).
In all of your marketing, always use your school's unique Promo Code. Your PTA members use this to save $20 when they order online (and give credit to your school). Want to know how many you've sold already? Weekly updates are available on request. Use the April 1 deadline for PTA members to save $20 (for a final sales push) during your month-long BioBlitz event in March.
Plant Availability
If you have full sun, or full shade.... we have the plants your PTA members and school garden needs. We plan on having 40+ different types of plants available. We may have up to 60 types of plants, subject to inventory availability. ALL plants are perennials. Plant them once, and they come back each year. Flame Acanthus takes up 10 square feet (so $0.50 per SF for a school garden). We carry the smaller, 4" plants only, because they are more affordable than gallon-sized plants. Within 6 months, most of these will reach gallon-sized plants, saving money for PTA members. No guarantee of availability. Inventory is subject to change. We will have an online store (similar to Shopify) with all plant inventory published 7 days prior to pickup, for PTA members to make their final selections prior to arrival for pickup.
Plant Selections (Subject to Change)
Full Sun: Walker Low Catmint, Red Flame Acanthus, Gregg's Mistflower, White and Pink Gaura, Zexmenia, Purple Fall Obedient Plant, Purple Skullcap, Indigo Spires salvia, Pink Skullcap, Frogfruit, Four-Nerve Daisy, Mealyblue sage, Gray Goldenrod, Woolly Stemodia, Fall Aster, Fragrant Mistflower, Powis Castle Artemisia, Black-Eyed Susan, Copper Canyon Daisy, Cutleaf Daisy, Damianita, Giant Coneflower, New Gold Lantana, Mexican Oregano, Rock Rose, Russian Sage, Gray Shrub Salvia, Autumn Sage (red, white, pink), Skeleton Leaf Goldeneye, Coral Honeysuckle, Sedums, Little Bluestem, among others.
Shade Tolerant: White Yarrow, Purple Coneflower, Red Turks Cap, Horseherb, Pigeonberry, Texas Gold Columbine, River Fern, Texas Betony, Missouri Violet, Inland Sea Oats, Lyreleaf Salvia. Shrubs and Trees: Available for PTA members only. A VERY limited selection of 1-gallon and 5-gallon trees and shrubs may be available (subject to availability). Payment is due 1 week prior to pickup. 1-gallon: American Beautyberry, Rattlesnake Master, Texas Kidneywood, and Texas Sage. 5-gallon: Prairie Flameleaf Sumac, Eve's Necklace, Western Soapberry, Compact Cherry Laurel, Possumhaw, and Texas Mountain Laurel. 5-gallon trees will be no taller than 48", plus 12" for the pot. Lay your seats down in your SUV to fit into your car, 60" long.
