BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — O Grows is holding a Garden Opening event on April 18 from 9 a.m. to noon at the garden, located at 1103 Glenn St. in Opelika. Join in for a Saturday of planting alongside locals, and bring a plant for the Plant Swap.
“We wanted to invite people out,” said O Grows Farmers Market Manager Antionio Martinez. “I think it will be a really beautiful thing to invite locals and have people put plants in the ground. We’ve also done arts events and different things like that, which is great, but I think there’s enough of that; people need an opportunity to do something meaningful. And I think it’s kind of innate in our bodies to put something in the ground.”
Bring a plant, buy a plant, sell a plant or swap a plant. For locals who cultivate house plants, or are interested in growing greenery inside their homes, plan to participate in the O Grows Plant Swap.
“Also, during that time, we want to have a plant swap, and those tend to be relatively popular, and I think that building off of the two will make it even more accessible and exciting,” Martinez said. “Also, it’s starting to become spring, it’s starting to be a little nicer, we want to invite people out and for everyone to have a good time. We have a lot of really talented plant growers and plant swappers, and they come out and have a beautiful selection of house plants.”
Martinez said both events are free, but some plant swappers may offer their plants for certain prices; however, many who bring plants are open to trading.
“This is a community that’s also very open to just swapping; they just love plants,” he said. “We love plants, so feel free to bring a house plant. The more exotic you get, the better swap value you might have. So some people just bring plants because they are like, ‘I’ve got a lot of these plants. I’m gonna put them on this table. I hope somebody brings them home.’ So if you want to bring a plant and just drop it and then walk around and leave, you can do that. If you want to bring a plant and try to convince somebody to swap with you, like on the elementary school playground, you can do that. If you want to come and buy a plant, you can do that.”
For more information on O Grows and the Garden Opening, visit O Grows/OGrows Farmers Market on Facebook or ogrows.org. Martinez said he is looking forward to seeing locals come out, connect with gardening and have the opportunity to swap plants.
“We love our plant swap community, they’re fantastic,” he said. “They bring a bunch of weird house plants, so [we are] kind of coupling that it is springtime now and people’s love for plants for this event. We’re in springtime now, so let’s start inviting the plants into the ground and also into our homes.”
