By: Beth Bergeron
Need a plant to beautify your home? Maybe you really wanted to try three different varieties of summer squash so you ordered three seed packets, and now you have way too many seeds. Plant and Seed Share to the rescue!
UT Extension Union County will accept any plants and/or seeds you may wish to donate and share them with others in our community.
So far this year, we have shared a lot of seed; herbs like lemon balm, chives, thyme and oregano; as well as bushes and trees like vitex, Washington hawthorne and redbud. One nice lady even brought tomato seedlings she had started.
Most of the plants we receive are perennials, plants that come back year after year. Perennials can live, undisturbed, for years in the same location. They thrive on a little attention, however, every so often they like to be divided. Dividing them helps to keep them healthy and prevents overcrowding. Once divided, you have additional plants. You may be able to find another spot on your property for the divisions, but you may not need more plants. Then what? If you are like me, throwing away a beautiful plant is not an option. The plant share program allows me to help someone else enjoy the plants. Some of those plants that often need division are iris, daylilies, and peonies.
Some of the perennial herbs spread via underground runners and their mounds become larger each year, often outgrowing the space allotted. Mints, oregano and thyme fall into this category and may need to be contained.
We also receive some self-seeding annuals. Those are plants that cheerfully multiply if their seed heads are not removed each year, and the seed falls on fertile soil. This is a task often forgotten at my house.
Some people are lucky enough to enjoy zinnia’s, cosmos, marigolds and more each year without ever having to replant them. Most of the perennials (including some, like chives, that self-seed) tend to arrive at the market bare root/rhizome (with no soil), but small, self-seeding annuals are more delicate and may need to be potted to successfully transplant. Feel free to bring seed heads in the fall.
Some plants thrive in the sun while others need some shade. Perhaps your home used to be in full sun, but now, years later, it has a lot of shade. Those plants you initially planted may no longer be happy in their current location. You may want to dig some, bring them to the plant share program, and go home with some shade lovers. Or, the opposite may be true. You may be living in a house with beautiful shade gardens and lots of old shade trees that are beginning to drop their limbs. Maybe they have become a hazard to your house and need to be removed. All of a sudden, those beautiful shade gardens are in full sun—Plant and Seed Share to the rescue once again. Stop by and see if we have some sun lovers for you.
Seed sharing is an old-time tradition. People used to collect their own seed and save it. In recent years, scientists and plant lovers have realized the need to save seed to ensure seed diversity. Perhaps you have an older relative that saved seed and no longer plants a garden. We know there are desk drawers and hidden away stashes of old seed in our region. Please, bring it to the market and let someone else grow it!
Often, someone would grow a plant, like a bean, for so many years, that it actually became just slightly different from its Greasy (or Greazy) beans, many named after the family that saved them.
Libraries, including the Maynardville Public Library, have started seed libraries. You may check seeds out, plant, grow and harvest, then you must bring back at least as many healthy seeds as you checked out. Extra seed brought to the market will be used by 4-H-ers and/or donated to the library.
Join us "Where Our Community Meets.” Bring a plant or seed to share, or just pick up what you need to meet your gardening needs. If you have gardening questions, bring those also as UT Extension is always willing to provide assistance. The market used to have an Adventures in Gardening group—let us know if you are interested in re-establishing this group.