Gardening with a Green Elephant community is such a wonderful way to increase the diversity in your garden. I’ve been participating for a few years and have not only been able to add more native plants to my landscape, but build relationships with other gardeners as I build my garden.

The autumn harvest is a good time to bring excess garden vegetables, seeds, and divisions of plants which have either outgrown their garden space or outgrown their stay. We were also blessed with a gardener who brought handouts for ‘Neighborhood Bullies: Invasive Weeds in our Midst‘. As a transplant from the Midwest, I’m still learning what plants are considered invasive. However, perennial thugs like English Ivy are as invasive here as anywhere.

The Green Elephant draws young and old alike – with the promise of hot coffee, and generally a lot of sweet treats in lieu of plants for trade, everyone gets in time for good fun.

The event has grown and evolved, even in just the few short years I’ve been attending. The new thing we’re all bringing are our collapsible wagons to haul around our pre-arranged trades. As a rule, we stay out of the backs of vehicles and only help ourselves to items on the ground behind the vehicles.

Many of the gardeners are continually thinning their gardens and are happy to pass along their excess to those of us just establishing ours. Since our trade was Saturday, the day between the snows, it was chilly, so all trades were sealed before 11am – a record!

How do you involve community in your garden?