Passing on a plant is easy! Put your spare plants somewhere accessible and make sure people know they can take them. That’s about it. These are our top tips:

Make a sign: Make sure it says “FREE!” You can also list what the plants are, with a little bit of info and ask people who take a plant to try to pass one on. We made a wooden reusable sign because we wanted to, but you could just as easily make one out of cardboard. 

When: any day you like, but usually a sunny day at the weekend is best.

Where: somewhere people pass. We live on a busy street, so we put plants on our wall. If you live in a very quiet place, you might want to put them somewherer there’s more “footfall” (my parents put theirs at the end of their road). It doesn’t matter if someone takes them – that’s what you want to happen!

Label the plants: make it clear which ones you’ve giving away (if you’ve got window boxes etc). We label ours with masking tape so people know which ones are which. 

That’s it! Some days all the plants go immediately. Some days, the right person doesn’t walk by and find the plant they want. It doesn’t matter, we put it out another day and sooner or later, someone wants it. 

What kind of plants?

Any you have. They’re all good. 

Because we love insects, we try to give away ones they like, but anything is good. We’ve given away shrubs and herbs, as well as flowers, climbers, indoor plants and even seeds. We’ve picked up vegetables and flowers in return.

It helps if the plant looks well and the ones with the most foliage/ flowers always go first – but it doesn’t make much difference. If I dig something up and I know I’m giving it away, I usually keep it for a week just to make sure it’s healthy. We’ve never given away anything really huge but it might be worth a try…