Plants for Free! Where to get them

Everyone likes free stuff, right? And everyone likes plants? So let me show you how to get the best of both of those things – free plants!

Thank you to Hester Macdonald for providing us with this article, and giving us insights on rescuing plants! Before you throw away your next bucket of greens into the compost, wait a moment, some of them could be rescued and used as starters for free plants. The easiest free plants come from anything that contains seeds, think butternut squash, pumpkins or tomatoes. The least messy ones are squash or pumpkins, as the seeds are hard-shelled, and the pith is easy to wash away in a sieve. Put them on a tea-towel to dry off and plant them up in the next couple of weeks. Choose a light, free-draining soil mix for seeds, as this will help to avoid the seeds rotting. Keep them indoors until mid-May, when the last frost dates have gone by, in this region, usually considered to be the 11, 12 and 13th May.

The next easiest method is harnessing the plant’s own propagation methods and using them to make our own new plants to put up and keep or give away to friends. Succulents, like aloes, or sedums, often make baby plants, known as off-sets, or pups. You’ll see them pop up at the side of the parent plant and can be gently removed when they have grown their own roots and can survive on their own. An adult aloe can often make several pups a year, which will then go on to make more and more! If your aloe is fairly small, you can tip the whole plant out onto newspaper, and then brush off the soil around the roots so you can see the pups and the parent plant. Gently tug the pups away from the parent, using a clean pair of secateurs if the roots don’t separate easily. Pot up the babies immediately into soil for mediterranean plants and put the parent plant back into its’ pot or the next size up. Lastly, many plants will readily root in water, mint is a perfect example. Next time you buy some mint in a box from the supermarket, but don’t use it all, try making new plants with it. Strip the lowest leaves off the stems, then put the stems into a jar of clean water, out of direct sunlight. You’ll quickly see little roots growing out of the sides and base of the stems, change the water every few days and a month later the new mint plants will be ready to plant into some free-draining soil in pots outside.

Hester Macdonald is a garden designer, journalist, writer and the founder of the Swiss Gardening School, providing short courses for amateurs, based in Nyon. You can find out more about her work onwww.hmgardendesign.com and www.swissgardeningschool.ch