you all already know about my love for gardening in a community, so i suppose this is just an extension. even if you don't participate in a community garden, there are plenty of other ways to get together with others over a shared love for gardening. i truly believe that passion for growing food or other plants brings people together like nothing else.
this past weekend i drove over to the other side of town to a complete stranger's house where i, along with about eight other enthusiastic gardeners, was the recipient of a huge garbage bag full of plants. this kind gardener was in dire need of thinning out the perennials in her beautiful backyard garden, so she put the word out on a local city-wide gardening list-serv and we joined her for an afternoon of digging what she no longer wanted. i went home with valerian, false indigo, globe thistle. oriental poppies, and brown eyed susans, along with a few mystery plants (i should have been more organized in my collection of plants!). even if your town or city doesn't have a gardening list-serv, this time of year, many people give away plants for free via freecycle or craigslist.
this afternoon, in the spirit of giving back what i had received, i drove around town delivering some surplus seedlings that i didn't have room for, as well as a couple of perennials that i myself had dug up out of my own garden. i've recently read about a bunch of plant & seed swaps around town, but i haven't been able to make it to any of them yet. i think next year, i'd love to host a small swap with some of my gardening friends- we could divide up who starts which seedlings early, and swap any excess seeds, seedlings, of perennials that we no longer want or need to be divided.
it's all part of the shared love of growing. tending.
