Free Plants (part 1)

In the spring, I rarely get in a hurry to weed. About this time of year there are quite a few weeds in my flower beds. There are also small seedlings of actual DESIRABLE plants.

Lemon Balm and Seedlings

Catmint and Seedlings

After my plants have bloomed, I could go out and harvest the seed, store it all winter and plant it the following spring. That seems like a lot of work when nature will do all of this for me, right?
Now, you do have to be able to tell the difference between what is a weed and what is a plant seedling. That's not too hard though, your plant will look like a miniture version of the large plant. Here's what to do next:

Determine if the seedling is in an area  you want it to continue to grow in. If it is, just start watering and feeding it in that area and let it get bigger. But, if it's not and you need to transplant it. Gently dig up the plant trying to keep as much of the soil around the root ball as possible.

You could certainly now transplant that seedling right into the desired home and water in. You would probably have to supply some sort of shade to the plant during the hottest part of the day (12pm to 3pm) to keep the seedling from wilting until it is established.

I transplant into containers of soil and water in with a water-soluble fertilizer. Then I move them into an afternoon shaded area of the fenced in garden area. This also keeps the chickens from uprooting the newly planted seedlings. Once the plants are rooted out I'll transplant them in their chosen spots.