Too much of a good thing

[Schufrei]

This is only my second year of veggie gardening, and last year I wasn't very happy with my seed-starting results, and the final products were only so-so. This year, I wanted to try a bunch of tomato varieties to see what did the best and what I liked the most, and make those my standards going forward. So I got carried away at sampleseeds.com and ordered 17 varieties (don't even ask about the peppers and everything else!). I have room for... um... 17 tomato plants. I was nervous about germination, so I planted 4 seeds of each. Now I'm happy (sort of) to report that I got almost 100 percent germination. So I have 40-plus seedlings in danger of being homeless. It's breaking my heart! Of course I've been asking everyone I know if they'd like some plants, but only received a few half-hearted OKs. So my question is: Does anyone have any creative ideas for unloading unneeded plants?

[clkingtx]

Maybe try an ad on Craigslist? I think if you listed them for 1.00 each, they would go pretty fast.

[Tom A To]

Garden club in your area? Donate them.

[Redbaron]

A lemonade stand in the front yard manned by the kids and giving away a free tomato plant with every glass of lemonade?? or a free glass of lemonade for every tomato plant sold? Whichever works best!

[Tapout]

Maybe donate them to your local high school green house.

[marc_groleau]

Have a give away... Friends, neighbors, community garden

Be sure to hold on to a couple extras for early replacement of plants that might develop issues.

[kath]

Sometimes local food pantries and senior citizen centers will take them.

[kurt]

Welcome from S Florida.Does your avatar mean shoe free as in barefoot?Anyways I take the Johnny Appleseed approach and have access to a lot of open space and ground and plant a lot of strays, extras,runts,old seeds in the wild to encourage natural selection and hopefully some free natural bounty sometime down the road.So far when we airboat in the Everglades I have seen some results over the years.But I do keep in mind no invasive,foreign species that will harm our local fauna,species and enviornment.

[EarlyStarter]

Fill your gutters with dirt. Lay the stalks down lengthwise in the gutters and bury to build good roots. Just hose down your roof 24 times or so a day to water and you should be golden.

I kid, I kid.

I go overboard every year and give away about 100+ plants on craigslist, to community gardens in the area, etc. I also tend to dig a bunch of last minute holes in random spots for any that I am still left with.

[Rideau Rambler]

Do you have freecycle or a kijiji or a facebook gardening group for your area? I would do a google search for "free stuff" for your area and see what sites pop up. I am in the same situation but I have found a gardening club annual sale and a freecycle plant swap, fortunately.
If only we had bigger gardens, sigh

[Schufrei]

Thanks for all the good ideas -- and for making me feel better that I'm not the only one whose eyes are bigger than their garden.

Oh, and schufrei is a shortened version of my crazy-long last name, which means Free of Debt. Which must have applied to some ancestor, but definitely not to me!

[lycomania]

Well, I'm PA Deutsch and I imagine so are you! lol

[Sunsi]

I'm having the same 'problem' and called the vet center and they agreed to take some--I'm also going to call the food bank and see if if they want some to give away. None of my tomato/peppers will be homeless, NEVER!

[Deborah]

Schufrei, my last name has 13 letters. How many in yours?

[ScottinAtlanta]

I take them to church, label them well, put them in the foyer with a sign saying donate $2 to the church for every plant you take, and this has worked splendidly. Some new gardeners got hooked on tomatoes that way.