Neighborhood plant exchanges cultivate community as pandemic gardens flourish through 2021

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Patty Sage calls her backyard “the secret garden.” It’s a sprawling oasis of greenery shaded by massive hemlock and pine trees. Sage inherited the garden from a landscape architect when she and her husband bought the house in 2011. Fortunately for Sage, the yard is filled with low-maintenance plants though sometimes they can get out of control. When this happens, she prunes and pots them and takes them down the street to the neighborhood plant exchange.

Neighborhood plant exchanges offer communities the opportunity to recycle and reuse plants that are either overgrown or aren’t thriving in a particular area. Sage’s neighborhood, the Washburne Historic District in Springfield, has been running its plant exchange for the last five years but saw its highest level of participation in 2021. According to a gardening insights survey, 42% of gardeners spent more time in their gardens in 2020 because of the pandemic, and 86% plan to continue gardening in 2021.

If Sage’s neighborhood plant exchange is any indication, people are continuing to work in their gardens as the pandemic stretches into its second year.

“There are not many reasons we have these days to just drop in on someone and strike up a conversation,” said Sage. “Our society has moved to where we’re much more private, so it’s a good reason to come and see what’s going on.”

Sage and her neighbor Nancie Koerber founded the Washburne Plant Exchange in 2016. Koerber runs the exchange out of her backyard on weekends throughout the summer, Both Sage and Koerber are officers of the Washburne Neighborhood Association and decided to start the plant exchange as a way to serve their growing neighborhood.

“It’s just a nice way to meet your neighbors,” said Sage.

Koerber, who keeps track of plants that go through the exchange, estimates there was $7,000 worth of plants recycled through the neighborhood in 2021 alone. Part of this year’s increase in participation was because of a burgeoning demographic in Washburne.

“This year there were tons of families, which speaks to what is happening in the neighborhood, we have a lot more young people,” said Sage.

Washburne’s plant exchange tracks with national statistics. According to the same survey mentioned earlier, ​almost 72% of respondents who said they spent more time gardening were between the ages of 19 and 28. Respondents between 29 and 39 reported a nearly 76% increase in time spent gardening.

Much like the Washburne Plant Exchange, local nurseries saw a significant uptick in customers since March 2020.

“People buy plants because there’s a romance to the idea of growing something. Nature does not disappoint, it gives back,” said Bob Kramer, who owns Little Red Farm Nursery in southeast Springfield with his wife Gayle.

Kramer and his wife founded Little Red Farm Nursery in 1990 on an acre plot of land, which has since expanded to a massive greenhouse with rows of various plants, trees and flowers spilling outside.

Like most small business owners, Kramer said he was anxious about the future at the start of the pandemic. The country was locked down and wholesale nurseries were scaling back, anticipating a drop in business, said Kramer.

Instead, Little Red Farm Nursery saw an increase in business that persisted throughout their entire season and experienced even more growth in 2021, doubling their staff to account for all of their new customers.

“People who did start gardening again kept at it,” said Kramer. “People were told they could be outside, it was one place where they felt relatively safe.”

Toward the end of March 2020, Gov. Kate Brown designated nurseries in Oregon as essential businesses because they sold vegetable starters. Nurseries across the state sold so many plants and vegetable starters, it became difficult for Kramer to keep them in stock.

Oregon nurseries sold $205 million worth of plants in 2021, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture. If Little Red Farm Nursery is any indication, this number should be even higher in 2021.

“We saw a camaraderie among our customers, a found commonality of something they were going through together,” said Kramer.

Shortly after Oregon initiated its stay-at-home order in the spring of 2020, a free online course on vegetable gardening from the Master Gardener’s program at Oregon State University, received thousands of sign-ups. The Master Gardener’s program educates Oregonians on the art and science of growing things, said Erica Chernoh, a horticulture professor at OSU who oversees the program.

Because some home gardeners, particularly beginners, have a tendency to overuse fertilizer, pesticides and water, which can cen be harfmul to the environment over time, it’s important to provide eduction on sustainable gardening practices, Chernoh said.

The program’s plant clinic, which is a hotline for gardening questions, continues to stay busy offering gardeners tips on integrated pest management, building healthy soil and water conservation practices, said Chernoh.

“If people are growing things sustainability, it can have a huge environmental impact,” said Chernoh.

Volunteers at the Washburne Plant Exchange also work to help their neighbors by answering questions, identifying plants and trading tips on how to keep them alive. While the plant exchange officially runs throughout the summer, residents of Washburne continue to participate on the community’s Facebook page.

“It’s done so much good for our neighborhood,” said Sage.

Back in her secret garden, Sage admires a patch of grass growing in her garden, which she got at the plant exchange this summer, and recalls the time she and her husband have spent in their yard throughout the pandemic. It’s been a place to drink coffee in the morning, play cards at night and safely have friends and neighbors over.

“I just feel so lucky,” said Sage. “It’s so wonderful and peaceful.”

Patty Sage checks on tomato plants in her backyard in Springfield, Oregon. Sage has lived in Springfield with her husband Bill since 2011. She is a retired public school teacher and serves as the secretary of the Washburne Neighborhood Association, she also helped establish the Washburne Plant Exchange in 2016.