Sharing is caring

People have been giving plants to friends and family for hundreds of years. Cottage industries started in people's gardens, growing flowers, fruit or vegetables. These would then be sold from people's driveways or in local markets. For many, plant sharing or buying from these cottage industries is not only good value for money but is community spirited and reduces the need to drive to find living foliage.

Plant sharing is also good for the environment, providing resources to green our own gardens, our streets and school grounds. A prosperous greening community could even provide young people with a pathway to horticulture training and jobs. In London an organisation called Wayward Plants is reviving the tradition of plant sharing.

Online market places and second hand platforms can also have a major postive role in upscaling local plant sharing. From what I have experienced, most are not making the most of this untapped potential.

Mother: Reward or support people who propogate plants, they are the creators of green infrastructure.

Community: Encourage community gardens and allotments to sign up. They are a hub for the local garden network and would benefit greatly from donated plants.

Filing cabinet: Have loads of plants available, consider posting a spreadsheet so people can read the full details rather then relying on limited range of photos .

Manners: Consider a post etiquette that encourages the word "plant" to be previxed before describing other characteristics of names. This will help others find a bigger list of plants rather then having to search by specific plant species

Common sense: Garden designers, housing developers and commercial landscape architects could use online platforms to source locally grown plants (likely to be more resilient to local weather and soil) and community grown thereby supporting local people and reducing carbon costs.

Hassle free: Plants don't have to live in pots, but could be left in the ground until someone wants them.

Family tree: Consider the breadth of plant material and resources that could be shared: Seeds, cuttings, saplings, young, semi-mature and mature plants, pierennals, annuals, biennials, house plants, trees, shrubs, maintenance machinery, soil, gravel, potting materials etc etc.

Examiner: Plants posted could benefit from some sort of verification through online users or AI.

Party: Consider supporting a local plant event to raise awareness of the benefits of online plant sharing.

Help: do you want more specialised support, get in touch: growiserosie@gmail.com.