How to Organize a Plant Exchange in Your Neighborhood

As any gardener will tell you, gardening can be an expensive hobby. There's soil aid, peat moss and manure to purchase, mulch, and all those hoses and gardening tools ~ and that doesn't even include the plants and shrubs.

To help new property owners landscape their yards, our association holds a yearly neighborhood plant exchange. Neighbors bring seed pods they've collected, bulbs they've dug up, and hundreds of potted volunteer plants and trees. There's no charge to participate, and neighbors are free to take as many plants as they have available space. The neighborhood plant exchange is a great way to meet new neighbors while beautifying the neighborhood for free.

How to get started

At your winter or early spring neighborhood meeting, make a brief announcement about the neighborhood plant exchange program. We usually schedule the date for mid May which is about the time of our last frost snap, although anytime in late May or early June will also work.

Ask all the neighbors to participate by saving seed pods and transplanting those spring shooters or volunteer plants and trees into plastic pots. Most people who are avid gardeners know how to properly transplant new seedlings ~ for those who don't, invite them to stay after the meeting for a brief instruction. Seedlings transplanted in March and April will have a well established root system by the time of your plant exchange.

Don't have enough plant pots for the event? Ask some of your gardening neighbors to bring their old flower pots to the meeting to share with those who don't have any. If there aren't enough pots to share, suggest other containers that will work equally as well, such as yogurt, deli, and cottage cheese containers. Don't forget to pierce holes in the bottom of the container for drainage!

Transplanting the plants

The rules of the exchange are quite simple. No weeds or unknown transplants are allowed and every plant or seed must be identified.

The best plants for the exchange are those that self seeded from last years crop. Instead of digging up & throwing out those new seedlings, simply transplant them into a pot for the plant exchange. Be sure to add plenty of soil, and to keep the soil moist until the roots have a chance to develop. To identify the plant, cut a pointed plant tag from a cottage cheese lid.

Divided bulbs are also excellent for plant exchange programs. And, don't forget to include volunteer trees that have sprung up in your yard! Ground covers that have been pruned back will also work well ~ cuttings from ivy and creeping vinca can be placed directly in containers of water, until they develop new roots.

Digging up an old rhubarb plant or wanting to get rid of a shrub? Plant exchanges are the perfect for disposing of no-longer-wanted shrubs.

Neighbors are also encouraged to harvest seed pods ~ such as lupine, coreopsis, honeysuckle, marigolds, and poppies. The seed pods can be stored in a clear plastic bag or a yogurt container, and should be properly identified.

For crafters, many of our neighbors will bring bags of pine cones, dried flowers or dried grape vines to give away at the exchange as well.

Setting up

The plant exchange can be set up much in the same way that you would set up a yard sale. A location with plenty of circulation is a must; a driveway, the sidewalks in front of a home, or large patio will work quite well. Since some of these plants can be heavy ~ the largest ones should be closest to the street with easy wheelbarrow access. To organize the rest of the plants, we set the trees in one section, and potted perennials in another. The larger pots were placed directly on the ground, and the smaller ones set up on benches. Seed pods, bulbs, crafting supplies, and pony packs were all placed on tables.

To keep everyone from tripping over each other while setting up, we discovered it's really best to set up everything the night before. Neighbors can unload and set up their plants at leisure, and then stand back and enjoy themselves the following morning when the exchange begins.

The event

The best time to schedule the plant exchange is between 9-10 on a Saturday morning when the temperatures are cool. We coordinate volunteers to bring coffee and pastries to be share, which makes the event much more sociable. It also helps to have a few neighborhood gardeners on hand, to circulate around the crowd and answer gardening questions for those who might not know how to care for their new plants and trees.

A neighborhood plant exchange brings new neighbors together while beautifying the neighborhood. It's also a terrific way to introduce people to gardening at a price that's hard to beat.