In Victoria, being the City of Gardens, many people leave unwanted plants out on their boulevard for other people to have (if all the tomato seeds take and you don’t have room or you are dividing perennials).  Some people even leave extra plastic bags because they know others may not have that with them when they are walking home from work.

Last week, I was driving to pick up my Dad for dinner when I passed this beautiful willow tree with a sign that said: free tree. The conundrum: am I late for my Dad while I try and stuff a tree in my trunk or do I go a little further and risk that it’s still there? Dad and I showed up there a few minutes later. A woman on a bike had stopped, she was trying to think how she could get this home…who could she call with a car…we haggled in typical Canadian fashion which went like this: “no, you take it, you got here first, no, but you really want it..yes, but you were here first.” Another woman stopped in her car..”is this tree still available?…no!”..the owners of the tree were regretting not putting a price tag on it!

In the end, as you can see in the pictures, I became the VERY excited new steward thanks to the kind owners of this tree (which was too big for their front walkway) and the woman on the bike who decided not to take it…it doesn’t look that big…but once we got it home, it was a little too wide to get through my gate (or my neighbour’s – I thought that maybe we could heave it over the fence…) with a little creative pruning and a huge shove – we got it into the garden.

I’m so incredibly thankful to those people who decided to pass this along.