Plant Swap Club

Anyone got any ideas how to raise plants on the cheap for a large garden?

I figure there must be other people in the same boat as me - large areas to plant, costs a fortune if bought at the Nursery, not everything can be grown from seed - and even if I did that it would give me lots of "spares".

I have had a bit of a Google for plant swap sites, but all the ones I found seem to only have a few members.

Perhaps I should start one?!! On second thoughts I have enough jobs at the moment ... but its a possible idea.

My Father told me that in his 20's all his mates decided to send a Christmas card round-robin. They had to keep the card, and then send it on the following year (A always send his card to B). After 10 years he got a card to keep signed by his ten best mates. Well ... it was just after the war! ... but it did get me thinking that perhaps folk could use the plants that they have as "stock" and propagate them and pass them round such that we would all wind up with exactly the same plants in our gardens :hehe:

The other reason I've been reluctant to get involved is that the things I have loads of everybody else probably already has, so I didn't think I had anything "special" to share. This year I'm having a go at some hardwood cuttings, so maybe next year I'll have plants-a-plenty to share.

Ideas on Web Sites that already do this, or suggestions for a "club", would be appreciated, thanks.

 

It's a great idea Kristen. What sort of plants are you looking for in particular - a few of us here would have herbaceous perennials - as you know, they need constant dividing to keep them vigourous. I've done most of mine now (I prefer to divide in autumn) but I'll have my huge clump of Rudbeckia to lift and sort out in Spring still.

 

What a great idea Kriston

 

"What sort of plants are you looking for in particular"

Well I'm looking for all sorts. Perhaps best might be "I really like these in combination" offered as a "set" because then folk could Plant and Try them as a set.

IF (as in Big-IF ) I made a website I think it would need:

• My Wants list
• My For-Swaps list - the Plants I have available
• Points system - a sort of barter currency

Points gained for each plant Provided, and then something for postage.
Spend points on "buying" plants.

Newcomers with no points, and no plants to "sell" could perhaps buy points initially. Points exchangeable for money - if you chose to withdraw them, but otherwise there would be no charge. That would pay for the running of the site.

Can't believe such a thing doesn't exist already ??

The real hassle with these things (think starting up an "eBay") is sorting out the disputes. Plants don't arrive, or the recipient is disappointed. Someone has gained points - unfairly in the eyes of the "buyer", who has lost points.

 

It's a fairly big project, much easier if you know a web developer who could sort out that system for you. I have a friend who does that sort of thing but he'd charge you and that is no good.

As for the disputes, just make sure to leave a note that tells people to make sure to get a receipt for postage AND that any complaints are the responsibility of the Royal Mail and not you, unless you state otherwise.

It's a good idea though and I'd definitely visit the website from time to time. If there was, like you said, a way to buy points I'd likely do that because I'm no good at growing plants. I can grow flax and that's it. Then again, I could just send you 50 of them for a single point each.

Good luck. And if you need my web dev contact I can probably arrange that.

 

I'm a web administrator/manager Kristen. Shout if you need help if you decide to go for it. I don't have a clue how you would go about setting it up, but I know how to administer and run a website once it's set up!

 

"much easier if you know a web developer who could sort out that system for you"

Ah ... should have said, sorry ... that's my day job. We build very large eCommerce shopping cart sites ...

"As for the disputes, just make sure to leave a note that tells people to make sure to get a receipt for postage AND that any complaints are the responsibility of the Royal Mail and not you, unless you state otherwise."

How would you handle "They were much smaller than I expect" and "I wasn't expecting something that hadn't been watered and arrived half dead" ? Those are the sorts of things I perceive as being difficult. Those folk on eBay who are running a small business have probably become expert at packaging things up safely, but the people who have only ever sold one or two items are probably a liability in that department! and plants are not easy to wrap, being fragile. Trees I have gown from seed have been 5' or 6' by the first Autumn - big job to post them :(

ebay get around that, in part, by having "Feedback". That would be easy to do.

But then, on the bright side, there are plenty of eBay-ers who make some pin-money, and I am sure that keen gardeners could do the same with their spares.

"I could just send you 50 of them for a single point each"

Brilliant! The site is not even off the drawing board and we have stock already!

Useful feedback, thanks :thumb:

"I know how to administer and run a website once it's set up!"

Now that's another thing we would need, thanks for that S.G. Some good folk to lend a helping hand.

I had a re-Google of "Plant Swap" and found half a dozen forums that have each had a handful of posts in the last 6 months - I think the sites look a bit forlorn (and a forum is a fairly useless way to tackle the problem IMHO).

I'm just not convinced it would get critical mass.

http://www.growsonyou.com/ looks like it used to have a Plant Swap section, but I can't find any sign of it now and I think they must have ditched it. Given how slick their site is that probably sounds the death knell for the concept!

 

Hello Kristen

Sounds like you have a problem of major proportions, unless you are aiming to create a business out of this, although plants can be expensive it seems a much more expensive route which you are considering.
Do you have a local 'freecycle group' and if so perhaps you could speak with their mods. about having a sort of gardeners freecycle. We have a local freecycle and there are often plants on offer and no costs involved. I think a major problem with plant swap sites has been the postage costs as well as the 'condition' question.

 

Very, very complicated and as you say sorting out disputes would be a nightmare and unless you have nothing else to do, would it be worth the time?
Selling on Ebay is fine, but a major time and expense consuming cost is sorting out packaging and postage and this would also apply to a 'swap' site.
Plants unlike consumer goods can die in transit and I doubt if the concept, whilist great in theory, would be a viable proposition.

 

Kristen - it sounds a nice idea. But I suspect such a thing would need to be done on a local basis, because of the sheer hassle of transporting plants.

I have the problem of having too many plants. I always take too many cuttings and sow too many seeds, and I hate throwing things away. But I end up by chucking away full grown plants at the end of the season, rather than just seedlings. The solution for many of us would be to join a local gardening club - but GC is so much better as an source of information.

However I do think seed schemes are good as the transport is so easy and cheap.

 

I sell a lot of motorbike stuff on evilbay. The problem there is that there are way too many conmen. I now make sure that all packaging is way over the top, so that no one can complain that goods are damaged.

I also send everything by a courier that will NOT leave a package without a signature and the goods are insured. The goods are also insured. That does cost a little bit more but it does put off the chancers that try to say the package has not arrived.

I like your idea Kirsten, but I do think that you may be inviting more potential problems than will justify the amount of work you have to do.

Why not try and arrange periodic plant swaps/sales locally? Might be a better idea as you can get to meet more gardeners face to face, costs and work involved would be much lower. Also be a good social event, as everyone has a common interest.

I am thinking of doing something on those lines myself next year. Something you may laso like to consider is the possibility of buying a bulk load of perennials from a wholesale supplier and splitting them with like minded people.

Earlier this year I bought 480 plugs from a wholesale nursery. Cost me less than £180. I view that as a good investment as I had to break into the gardening cycle somewhere to make best use of my new polytunnel. Asit happens I ended up with a hell of a lot more plants than I expected. (Have to say that this suits MY wants/needs), may not suit everybody.

Good luck mate and please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Regards
Chopper.

 

Thanks Chaps. Collective thinking is SO helpful

So, we are agreed that the Disputes and the Packing issues would be a nightmare.

Some specifics:

" although plants can be expensive it seems a much more expensive route which you are considering"

A shrub costs me say £10 and saves me a couple of years growing from a cutting - assuming I had a plant to get the cutting from! I figure if I can grow from seed / cuttings I can make my money go a lot further. As my stock increases if I can take cuttings, and swap them, then the hobby becomes self sustaining - or at least affordable. I would prefer to save grow-time but I don't have the money - we need thousands of plants. I'm planting 1,500 hedging plants this Autumn ... and we need 10 cherry trees where the electricity board cleared scrub that was fouling the wires - they are 30 or 40 quid each ... soon mounts up when buying in those quantities ...

"Plant Swap Parties"

I did see a forum that helped folk to arrange such things. I like that idea, and it was clear that it also enabled people to meet other local gardeners and do reciprocal garden-viewings, and continue to share plants. The forum seemed to suggest that people bought other things, like picnics, to swap for plants too - sounds like a Grand Party!. Certainly solves the packaging and "Oh, that's very small" disputes

"Freecycle"

I don't know how other people find it, and I haven't used it for a year or two, but to me it looked like 100's of Emails with things that I had no interest in for the 1 Email with something in that I might want. Unless it has changed there was no easy way to search for stuff, and no easy way to mark something as already sold etc.

Maybe they now have some auction-like software for people to list things, search and make a "I'll take that" offer, and then for the listing to be marked as Closed??

" buying a bulk load of perennials from a wholesale supplier"

I saw you had done that in your post Chopper, and didn't translate it to my own situation. I have bought bulk-plug-plants in the past - I got 150 tiny Lavender plants (can't remember exactly but somewhere between 10-20p each), which are now a nice low hedge I'll have a shop around. Although I am keen to get "choice" varieties, I don't know if that would reduce my attractiveness to the seller?, and I'm also not look for 100 of a single variety ...

There was a Gardeners World a few months back and the gardener they featured had had a planting-party (all friends & family WELCOME!!!!) for a new 6 acre "prairie garden" they were making. They had plants in the 10,000's - and I was envious of their courage! I would want to stagger it over several years to make sure I could keep up with weeding and getting them established.

 

Have been reading the responses with great interest as I'd be very keen to participate but agree there maybe quite a few potential pitfalls. I did sell quite a lot of snowdrop bulbs (doubles) on Ebay a couple of months back. I was altering an area and didn't want them to go to waste. It was quite hard work lifting the bulbs to order and counting them...sold about 5000 altogether but found everybody who bought the bulbs were very complimentary, hoping as the bulbs were only out of the ground for about 3 days max that they should take fine. 1 person who bought bulbs asked if I had anything else going abegging as he was starting a garden from scratch, so I sent him a large selection of plants. I sent them barerooted in poly bags(Tescos!) and numbered the bags, I included a list of what each numbered bag contained. I sent them by courier which took 2 days and arrived safely. Ok it it too early to tell if all the plants took but unless he was a bit of a twit they'd all be fine. All proceeds of the sales went to my local hedgehog rescue centre, so I wasn't doing it for "profit".

I suppose it wouldn't be possible to set up something on this site? I think maybe sending large shrubs and trees around the place could be tricky but would be surprised if herbaceous plants, bulbs or rooted cuttings would cause too many problems. Sending plants barerooted would save on postage and also reduce the risk of passing on any nasties you might have in your soil. I don't have any that I am aware of! None of the plants I sent were particularly exotic altho I did send him a good chunk of Rodgersia, that said I must have saved him at least £75 in comparison to garden centre prices.

Maybe I was lucky but nobody moaned about the bulbs (they had nothing to moan about!) altho I did attract some people who obviously wanted to buy all I had available at a rediculously low price which were probably going to be resold at some car boot sale or wherever.

Your Idea Kristen of gaining points/sort of barter system would avoid people just trying to buy on the cheap. Personally my only problem would be to make sure that I knew the exact plant variety. I have for example many different types of Geranium but am not sure of all their different names!

I am a complete ignoramous when it comes to computers but did run my own mail order business for many years so perhaps that's why I thought I'd give selling the bulbs a bash.My very limited experience of selling plants was positive and I for 1 would certainly be keen to join in. I may not have incredibly excitng things to offer but they might be to someone else and visa vera.

 

Hi Kristen

Just been reading your blog. What a garden!!! Can you tell me how big is the garden, difficult to guage the size as there are so many different parts of it. By hell you really do have some work on your hands there. Looks bloody marvellous and just the sort of thing I would love to have a crack at. Love what you are doing mate.

Now then, the company I bought a bulk load of plug plants from will supply you with a huge number of the same plants or much much smaller quantities of a variety of plants. As long as the total number of plants comes to 480 or multiples of 480.

My selection included about a dozen different batches of 30 plants and a few of 60 plants to make up the numbers. They do have, (What to me appeared to be) a good variety to choose from. I think prices were good, service was superb and they even let me choose the day of delivery.

Here is a linkl to thier website: http://barrettsbridge.co.uk/

Hope the moderators don't mind me posting that, but it is NOT a company that I have any financial interest in. I am simply a satisfied customer that wants to pass on a recommendation.

Many of the plugs I bought had doubles in them and I have already been able to take a lot of cuttings of them.

Hope this helps you Kristen.

Regards

Chopper

 

"I suppose it wouldn't be possible to set up something on this site?"

I personally don't think a forum works well for this type of thing, but OTOH there is the right audience here, and the site must attract a lot of "passing trade" from Googlers

Forums that offer "wants" have advert messages, and then people reply, and it is confusing as to who has offered/bid for what, and what is still available - relying on either the understanding of the posters to update the post with "SOLD" or whatever, or the moderators - which then becomes a full-time-chore I expect!

There are forums on this site for:
Wants list
For Sale
Exchanges
Wanted

I suppose at the very lease I should put a post in the Wants List forum ... of course I will then have to sit down and make the list!

I think something like eBay where when a "sale" occurs the "lot" of then marked as "sold" is better. Easy to search too.

"barrettsbridge.co.uk"

Not heard of them before, but they are only a hour up the road and offer a 10% discount for [note: by appointment] fill-a-trolley customers, which would be great. 60 minimum per variety would mean I would have to swap / sell some, but it would certainly give me plenty to have on offer to swap! (There aren't any mixed-batches on their site at the moment, but it looks like they only list what they have available, rather than what I might pre-order for the Spring, so that's fair enough).

Thanks for that Chopper. I'll have a Google for other similar organisations.