WatchieWatchie👁 (@Justwatchingitall)

If your local community doesn’t already have a Plantswap/Seedswap in place, start one! I did four years ago and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It started with a bucket of aloe vera pups and a bag of dried onion seed heads off to the side of a garage sale we had. After seeing how excited locals were about the plants, I knew what I had to do. There were gardeners around town, but nobody knew each other. I needed more knowledge about this new climate zone I moved to, I needed more plants, and as an introvert/borderline hermit, I needed to make some friends (I also needed a way to fund my gardening obsession lol) I host this event out front in the seemingly useless space along my driveway. I do around 3 or 4 events each year, and It gets bigger and better every time. I’ve built a whole community, a tribe where there was nothing, and our collective knowledge has increased exponentially, no more struggling alone! My gardens provide everything I need, my prayers for abundance have been answered so I am able to give free seeds and cuttings to anyone who wants them. The community brings their own seeds, cuttings, and plants as well, and ALL of our gardens and lives benefit from it. I have designated space available for guest gardeners to set up their stuff, and we all make just enough $$ to make up for the time and effort, and replenish our garden supplies. A few bucks to keep it all going is nice, but the money isn’t the main payoff for the endeavor, and it’s not even close to ‘lucrative’. Basically I’m doing what I wish someone else had been doing when I first moved here. I searched everywhere for an expert on our unique climate, with knowledge of which plants would do well here, and would answer questions and encourage me to not give up. There wasn’t anyone like that here so I had to become that person. I won’t lie, it’s a lot of work, but the benefits are immeasurable. I urge everyone to get something like this going locally. Get people together. Learn what the old-timers know who have been gardening in your area for decades. Expand your collection more than you ever thought was possible. Get people excited about gardening and teach them how to grow their own stuff so they don’t have to raid YOUR garden in tough times. When there’s a romaine recall because of some kind of contamination or disease, my community barely even notices. When supply chains are down, we hardly realize it. I haven’t had to buy eggs or produce for years now. Knowledge is power, knowledge is peace of mind, knowledge is self-sufficiency, and each person has a little piece of it. Everyone has something we all need, and everyone specializes in something different. Community is everything, start building yours now. See if anything like this exists in your area and join them. Find it or START IT! 🌱🌱🌱