Free plants: Come and get 'em!

Passalong plants

Is your "garden" nothing but a blank yard waiting to be filled with plants? You have choices. You can hire a landscaper to create a garden for you and take out a second mortgage to pay the bill. For a lot less money, you can start buying a few plants every year and, in a decade or so, your yard might look like a garden. OR you can do what my neighbors did; I'll call them the Empty-Lotters.

Photo: Susan Harris

A local gardener forages at a plant swap.

Having recently bought their dream home with its huge but vacant back yard, the Empty-Lotters had to sink even more money into needed alterations to the house, leaving their landscaping budget nonexistent. But luckily for them, City Gardener Mike Welsh was in the process of thinning out his own large wildlife habitat garden, which he'd allowed to go to seed for so long it was jam-packed with plants and virtually impassable. So I put Mike in touch with the Empty Lotters and for only $20 - the cost of a small U-Haul flatbed truck for half a day - they brought home the following: 3 Chinese elm trees, 3 American dogwoods, 8 full-grown mockorange shrubs (about 7' tall), 5 coralberry shrubs (soon to be 4-5'), and 6 pots of trifoliate orange, a fruit- and thorn-bearing hardy orange tree. Next spring they'll be returning to claim divisions from his many overgrown ornamental grasses. So voila--instant garden!

Now there's a lesson here and it's not just for people with empty lots but for everyone with a yard that isn't yet full and lush and private. If you need plants, be on the look-out for freebies, what are called "passalong plants" in the South. Just tell all the established gardeners you know that you're willing to take some of their extra plants off their hands. Offer to dig them yourself, ask for suggestions for growing them, and show a little gratitude. You'll actually be getting what even money can't buy - full-grown plants that don't need years before they fill out and start to look like something.

Plant swaps

One of the best deals in town is the $12 yearly dues per household to become members of the Takoma Horticultural Club, open to all area gardeners. While the club offers plenty of events, both fun and educational, the important club benefit for our discussion is admission to their spring and fall plant swaps, where you'll have the opportunity to literally load up the old minivan with free plants for your yard. And, if you're an empty-lotter yourself, and have nothing to give away, don't despair because these aren't one-for-one swaps, but huge free-for-alls with everyone donating their plants to a common pool from which people choose what they like and need. So if you have no extra plants to offer, bring old tools, gardening magazines or even just snacks. See, gardeners love to find homes for their extra plants and you're doing them a favor by showing up empty-handed and plant-greedy. Seriously.

Giveaways via e-mail groups

Another nifty feature offered by Takoma's Hort Club is its 200+ member Yahoo group, which comes in handy when gardeners have extra plants to get rid of throughout the year, between plant swaps. Just this past spring, as I was helping a neighbor redesign her garden, we were wishing for a nice fat flowering shrub like a spirea to fill up a certain spot when lo and behold, garden designer Margaret Atwell posted to the Yahoo group that she was putting a full-grown spirea in her driveway for anyone to take. A hurried 6-block drive later, the spirea was claimed. Although membership in the Yahoo group is open to everyone, even nonmembers of the Hort Club, they request that only dues-paying club members take free plants, so there's another reason to join - only 12 bucks, remember? See www.takomahort.org for details.

Alternatively, neighborhood email groups can easily be used to offer or even to request extra plants. I've often left plants at my curb and posted to the Woodland Avenue email group, only to find them snatched up within minutes. Even without a neighborhood email group, plants are sometimes left in driveways or along curbsides with a "free plants" sign. More proof that gardeners prefer finding homes for their extra plants over discarding or even composting them.

Need specific plants?

If there's a particular plant you need, again you have choices - to wait for someone to give it away or to simply ask for it by name. Recently a local gardener wanted enough pachysandra to fill a large area but balked at the $50 per flat cost for the groundcover (she needed at least four flats). But to her surprise, a call for free pachysandra to the local email group produced three responses, probably because it's so common, and her problem was solved without spending a dime. So especially if the plant you want needs regular thinning or dividing, like liriope, hostas, black-eyed susans and daylilies, do ask, offering to dig them up yourself if needed, and you'll be doing the donors and yourself a favor. And by the way, you'll probably be offered a garden tour while you're there - something that gardeners and wannabees alike should never pass up.

Be easy to please

If the free plants you're offered aren't your favorites, consider using them anyway. You can replace them over time with plants you like better, but at least you'll have a garden in the meantime. Likewise, I try to talk people out of ripping out all the plants they aren't thrilled with in their newly purchased yards, encouraging them to keep the plants at least until they have replacements. Then who knows - if they're not in such a hurry to get rid of those "boring evergreens," they might just come to appreciate them. They could even just move their least favorite plants to less conspicuous spots where they can still contribute to the garden for years to come. Local gardener John Hartmann is fond of advising clients to use what they have. I'd simply expand that principle to include using what anyone has.

Donate to the city

If your garden is full and you have extra plants to unload, another option is to donate them to your local park and continue to enjoy them in their new location. For larger plants, the crew will come dig them for you, haul them away, and even leave you a receipt for a tax deduction. What a deal! Contact Takoma Park City Gardener Mike Welsh at 301-891-7622 or mikew@takomagov.org.

Master Gardener Susan Harris writes about gardening for UDC's Cooperative Extension Service and teaches gardening privately; see - thegardeningcoach.com. She also blogs at gardenrant.com and takomagardener.typepad.com.

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