Gardening in Silicon Valley; Mountain View, CA Plant Exchange 3/30/13
You don't need to have a green thumb to look like a Master Gardener in Silicon Valley. Mother Nature has done most of the hard work by bestowing what's needed: fertile valley soil, temperate climate and lots of sunshine. That's why we were dubbed "Orchard Valley" and "The Valley of the Heart's Delight" before we were called "Silicon Valley".
Silicon Valley plants grow so easily and quickly that gardeners, like me, always have clippings and cuttings we've removed from plants to prune and groom them. Many gardeners hate to throw them into the garden waste. Even though they will be recycled into compost, the clipping can be planted and grown into beautiful plants. Especially the easy-to-grow-cuttings from succulents that fill my yards.
Some brilliant gardener (in the East Bay, I think) came up with the terrific, much-needed, idea for a Free Plant Exchange. That's right...FREE. Well...technically it's a trade. Donate your excess clippings and cuttings (which you'd put into your garden waste anyway) and receive someone's else donated clippings and cuttings to plant and grow in your garden.
How perfect is that? A reciprocal relationship exchanging garden waste for new life and beauty. The salesman in me needs to elaborate all the benefits:
- You're giving new life to clippings and garden waste that would otherwise be disposed of;
- You're helping make someone else's garden beautiful;
- You're making some other gardener and their garden-loving guests happy and appreciative of nature's beauty;
- You're saving someone else's garden waste and growing it into a new, beautiful plant that diversifies your garden;
- You and your garden-loving guests receive the joy from the beauty of the new plant.
- You're growing plants with nectar for bees and butterflies, seeds for birds, and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen; and
- IT'S ALL FREE.
Seems like it ought to qualify for the MacArthur Genius Award.
Anyway...the plant exchange is this Saturday March 30, 2013 in the Community Room at the Moutain View Public Library from 12:00 PM until 4:00 PM. If you donate your clippings or cuttings, you may take home someones else's clippings and cuttings. If you can label your donations with the plants' names, it's appreciated. Information about Plant Exchanges in general can be found here.
Lloyd Binen
Realtor/Broker/DRE 572654
Certified Realty Services
19200 Shubert Drive
Saratoga CA 95070
Certified Residential Specialist (CRS); Graduate, Realtor's Institute (GRI)
408-373-4411; e-mail
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