Hi, Gardening Friends!
I have excellent news for anyone looking to plant this fall. October may be one of the best times to add something new to your garden simply by connecting with your community.
Right now, seeds are ripening, established plants are ready to be divided and Abington Township is preparing to give away free trees. Across our community, gardeners are offering milkweed pods, native violets and envelopes of seeds to complete strangers. Local seed libraries are being restocked. This is not necessarily expert gardening advice, but it is how I have acquired a surprising number of plants in my own garden. Someone offers you a plant, you say yes and then you go home and work out where on earth you are going to put it. Here is where to look for free seeds, plants and even a tree of your own this fall.
Get a free tree from Abington Township
Let’s begin with the largest free plant on the list. The Abington Township Shade Tree Commission is holding its Fall 2026 Free Tree Giveaway for township residents on Saturday, October 24, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Crestmont Park, 2595 Rubicam Avenue in Willow Grove. (I’ll be there at the sign table, so come by and say hi!)
Residents can reserve up to two trees. If you choose two, at least one must be a shade tree. Reserved trees can be collected during the morning, and any that have not been picked up will be given away at 11 a.m. on a first-come, first-served basis.
Shade Tree Commission volunteers sharing free trees with Abington residents.
You do need to register in advance and choose carefully. A free tree is only a bargain if it fits the place where you plan to put it. Look up its mature height and width, notice whether the location is sunny or shady, check how wet the soil stays and think carefully before planting a future giant directly under a power line.
The commission says private residences hold 78 percent of Abington’s tree canopy. That means the trees growing in our yards provide much of the township’s shade, cooling, stormwater support and wildlife habitat. Trees are especially valuable because one tree can support an extraordinary amount of life. A native oak, for example, can host the caterpillars of more than 450 species of butterflies and moths. It kind of makes an oak like a very busy apartment building for nature.
And while oaks are ecological superstars, they are not the only trees working hard. Depending on what you choose, a native tree might provide spring flowers for pollinators, summer fruit or fall seeds for birds, leaves for caterpillars and shelter throughout the year.
Fall is also a good time to plant one. The cooler weather is less stressful for both the tree and the person digging the hole, while the soil is still warm enough for roots to begin settling in. A newly planted tree will need regular watering as it establishes, but the work you do now can provide food and shelter for decades.
Tree reservations and planting information: abingtonpa.gov/199/STC-Tree-Giveaway
Check the local seed libraries or learn to collect your own
If you do not have room for a tree, an envelope of seeds is considerably easier to carry home. Upper Dublin Public Library has a seed library with vegetable and native plant seeds. Members of the Ambler Keystone Farm and Garden WNF&GA collect, clean and package native seeds in the fall, with a new supply expected around January.
Briar Bush Nature Center (where Katie Fisk in last month’s column works) in Abington is opening its free native seed library for the season on October 1. Because the selection at any seed library can change quickly, check with the library or nature center before making a special trip. Think of a seed library like a tiny, very hopeful pantry. What is on the shelf depends on what people have collected and shared.
Earlier this fall, free Burpee seed packets also began making their way through the community. More about that in Neighborhood Notes below. One of the best places to find out whether any are still circulating is the Abington PA Free Garden Community and Share Facebook group.
A young neighbor, Olivia, recently left a note in my Little Free Library explaining how to gather coneflower seeds and use them to start new plants. Thank you, Olivia, for sharing this with our community.
My young neighbor Olivia shared a way to gather coneflower seeds from your coneflowers.
If you are looking for something specific, you might stop by Primex Garden Center because they carry seeds from Hudson Valley Seed Company. The packets first caught my attention because they look like miniature works of art, and they are! Each year, the company commissions artists to interpret different varieties in its collection.
One-of-a-kind artist seed packs from Hudson Valley Seeds at Primex Garden Center in Glenside.
But the story behind the packets may be even more appropriate for this column. Hudson Valley Seed began with a seed library created by librarian K Greene at the Gardiner Library in New York in 2004. The seed company followed in 2009, built around organic and open-pollinated seeds that gardeners can grow, save and pass along.
Some of its heirloom varieties are at risk of disappearing from circulation, which makes saving seeds feel even more important and special. It is also a way of preserving a little living history. Primex carries the company’s flowers, herbs and vegetables, along with its Pollinate HV collection of Northeast-grown native seeds. I spotted asters, boneset, spotted beebalm, beardtongues, blue vervain, Joe-Pye weed and great blue lobelia.
Heirloom seed packs from Hudson Valley Seeds at Primex Garden Center in Glenside.
Upper Dublin Public Library seed library: upperdublinlibrary.org/books-more
Briar Bush Nature Center: briarbush.org
Friends of High School Park seed workshop: fhsp.org/seed-collection-workshop
Primex Garden Center: primexgardencenter.com
Find gardeners giving plants away
While we are on the subject of the Abington PA Free Garden Community and Share Facebook group, it may be one of the best places to find plants that need a new home. Last month alone, one gardener near the Willow Grove post office offered common milkweed pods after a particularly productive year. Another offered free native violets for porch pickup near Abington Hospital. Neighbor, Renie Ricca said she had plenty of love-in-a-mist seeds and would be happy to receive just five seeds of each flower at a future seed swap.
The Facebook page for the Abington Pa Free Garden Community and Share where you can find all kinds of neighbors sharing plants and seeds.
These offers may be gone by the time you read this column, but you join the group, watch for current posts or make your own request.
Neighborhood Notes
This month’s Neighborhood Notes is about Yovina Miller, who has helped turn a recent Burpee free seed giveaway into something magical in our community.
Yovina (also the owner of Miller’s Apiary) gathered seeds, organized them and helped get them into the hands of local gardeners. This work feels connected to another project Yovina helped create. In June 2025, she and her neighbor Misty LeCompte launched the Abington Community Fridge at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Glenside. Yovina had previously volunteered with a similar project in Germantown and began wondering why Abington did not have one of its own.
Seeds and food are obviously not the same thing, but the spirit behind sharing them can be. Both begin with noticing abundance. Someone has extra vegetables, packaged food, milkweed pods or coneflower seeds. Instead of allowing that extra to go to waste, it is placed somewhere another person can find and use it. When I asked Yovina why she does this for the Abington community she said, “I loved the idea of sharing something that can grow into food while also introducing more people to the Abington Community Fridge and Pantry. Gardening, food access, and community all come together in a really beautiful way.”
Volunteers organize Burpee seed giveaway on September 26th at St. Peter’s Church in Glenside
That is what I love about Yovina’s work. She does not just have generous ideas. She helps build the small systems that allow a whole community to be generous together. Perhaps that is the best thing about free plants. You may begin by taking home an envelope of seeds or a perennial from someone else’s garden. If it grows well, eventually you may have enough to offer it to the next person.
Learn more about the Abington Community Fridge: St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Together We Eat
A quick thank you to everyone who joined me at Primex for Saturday’s Pollinator Pathways class. I loved seeing the gardens you imagined and hearing how you want to make room for more wildlife. You made the afternoon such fun.
Your turn
Do you have seeds, divisions or spare plants to share? Have you found a local seed library, plant swap or giveaway that more neighbors should know about? Did someone give you a plant that now has a permanent place in your garden and its own story?
Send your beautiful stories my way by emailing dearmediocregardener@gmail.com.
Yours in mediocrity,
Edel
For more editions of The Mediocre Gardener, you can click here.
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