Plants taking over your space, but you hate to throw them away? Be neighborly – share plants!

The other day as I was wandering through my front garden, I realized my aloe plants had spread all over the front half of my garden. How did I not notice that before? Well, honestly, I don’t know.  I guess I was just used to seeing aloe and didn’t really realize how many new ones were appearing. Especially since only the really big ones flower.

This picture is only ONE SECTION of the garden…

I knew I had to get an awful lot of them out of the garden, but I already had a pot of aloe on my back porch and one in the house, too. Aloe is so good for burns. I have always hated thinning out plants. Yes, I know it’s necessary, but I still feel like a murderer…  Right now I have a pot full of bell pepper seedlings on my porch that I need to thin. There are probably 50 healthy little seedlings in there and I sure don’t have room in my yard for 50 pepper plants!  I see some more giveaways in my immediate future. But, I digress…

How to share plants. Be neighborly!

So, back to the aloes. I grabbed my old recycling bin and started digging. Fortunately, it is easy to dig up aloe, so it didn’t take too long to completely fill up the recycling bin. My garden looked so much better.  I only kept 2 large plants and got rid of all the rest.

There they were, a bin full of large, healthy aloe plants, and I was heartbroken.

So, I headed to social media and signage. Remember, be neighborly!

Luckily, in my community we have lots of Facebook pages.  So, I took a picture of my bin of aloes looking for a new home and posted it on my neighborhood page, our community freebie/giveaway page and the general community page. After that, I added a nice large sign to the bin and plopped it near the front sidewalk, letting people know the aloe were free to a good home! We have lots of people out walking their dogs, jogging and driving by on Saturdays, so it was the perfect time.

Lots of people responded to my Facebook posts and by the end of the day, most of the plants were gone.

As I have mentioned before, I live in Florida and new non-Floridians are moving into my community all the time.  Many of them don’t know what grows well here, so it is fun to let them know what does, and this is a great way to meet new neighbors, too!

Share plants and cuttings with friends and family. Be neighborly with them, too!

I love sharing my herbs and other cuttings, like my prolific wandering Jew and swamp lily, too. (Both of which were given to me as starts, by the way.) So many plants in the yard and garden can be easily propagated from a cutting, seeds or even a leaf. And if it grows in my yard, chances are it will grow in their’s, too!

It’s easy to gather up seeds at the end of the season and pop them in snack sized zip-top bags for easy distribution!  Throw a plant exchange get-together with friends.  It’s a great excuse to catch up with each other and get some great new items for your garden. A win-win in my book!

For example, here is a post on how to start a new African violet from a leaf: How to (finally!) not be a plant killer!

Want to know my favorite part about sharing plants? It’s so nice to look at a plant growing happily in my yard and remember who I got the start from.

So, go take a look around your yard and see what needs to be thinned out. Get on social media or pick up the phone and make someone’s day with the gift of a plant for their yard. Maybe they’ll return the favor 🙂

Happy gardening!

~ Pam