BRNN’s First Plant Swap

When: Sunday May 12, 9:00 AM – 2:PM
Where:  Charlotte Caplan’s front lawn at 39 Courtland Ave, Asheville

Who:  Principal organizers and plant donors were Charlotte Caplan, Barb Harrison, and Randy Richardson.  Penelope Reed helped greatly with publicity. Help on the day was given by Ken Czarnomski, who brought a rain canopy, and Tom Wright, who brought in many plants and stayed to help identify and organize more.

How it Works:  People who bring in plants for exchange get a voucher with one point per plant.  They can use each point to take away another plant for free.  Those who don’t bring plants, or run out of points, can buy plants – we charged $3.00 each. The event makes money by having an inventory of plants to start off with (we had about 170) and enough visitors who want to buy, not just swap, or who bring in more plants than they take away.

Did it Work?  Yes it did!  The weather turned out better than expected and we had lots of swappers and even more buyers.  We ended up with only about 50 plants unsold (they were put out on the sidewalk and all gratefully taken away by nightfall).  Some people brought in really interesting native plants, nicely potted, though others brought plastic bags of plants obviously dug up that morning. We were prepared to refuse invasives, but didn’t have to.  Several people even made small cash donations.  The gross proceeds were $438, which came to $366 net after expenses.  

Preparing for the Event:  It took some planning and a good deal of work ahead of time.

1. Digging and potting perennials started in March.  It is surprising how many plants you can take out of a naturalized patch without any visible impact a week or two later.  You do use up quite a lot of potting soil (I made my own from garden soil, peat, and a bit of compost). We cut up plastic yoghurt pots (24 oz size) for labels.

2. Publicity always matters. We used:

• BRNN website, Facebook, emails to members, and announcements at events.
• Free insertions in “community calendars” online and in print
• Montford Neighborhood newsletter
• Neighborhood posters – as for a yard sale – and flyers distributed in likely places. 

3. Set-up the day before was horrid, because it rained almost incessantly.  But we managed to get most of the plants out on tables, with natives on one side of the yard and non-natives, houseplants, and vegetable starters on the other.  They were grouped by sun/shade requirements.

Next year: We’ll do it again, and better.  We need:

• To fix the date before the end of this year
• Earlier publicity efforts & better flyer design
• More volunteers to bring in plants
• More volunteers to help on the day, in 2 hr shifts
• More tables (including one for last-minute potting & labeling plants)
• Plastic covering for the tables