A Mesa Nonprofit Built a Network of Free Seed and Plant Stands, and on Nov. 15 It Will Explain the Yellow Tags on Arizona Citrus Trees

Some of the best gardening help in the East Valley sits at the edge of a driveway. It might be a painted cabinet, a shelf built from pallets or an old hutch, stocked with envelopes of seeds, pots of cuttings and a few garden books. A sign says it is free. The rule is easy to remember: take one, leave one.

Those stands are the work of Garden Exchange Stands Org, a Mesa-based nonprofit that also goes by Free Plant N Garden Stands Org. Its seed libraries and garden stands are hosted by volunteers on their own property and pinned to a shared online map, so a gardener in Mesa, Gilbert or Tucson can look up the closest one and stop by in daylight hours.

This month the group is also opening its own backyard. On Sunday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to noon, it will host a hands-on workshop called BUGS Friend or Foe??? at what it calls its “city farm” homestead headquarters, 1438 N. 66th Place in Mesa. The event listing says a guest named Becky from the USDA will join the group’s secretary, Silvia Messmer, and the organizers are hoping an entomologist can come too.

What the bug workshop covers

The listing promises a look at “some good & bad BUGS,” and one topic in particular will catch the eye of anyone with a lemon or orange tree. According to the event page, Becky will talk about “the yellow tags that hang on the citrus trees around Arizona,” which the listing says are there “to protect the county’s citrus supply through early detection of economically damaging citrus diseases.”

The listing does not name the specific program behind the tags, so the workshop is the place to ask. The background is well documented, though. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension explains in its homeowner guide that yellow sticky cards are a standard way to catch adult Asian citrus psyllids, small insects that can carry the bacteria behind citrus greening disease, also called huanglongbing or HLB.

Citrus greening is one of the most serious citrus diseases in the world, the extension guide says, and there is no cure. It damages a tree’s ability to move sugars from its leaves, which leads to root loss, poor fruit and, eventually, the death of the tree. The disease is not harmful to people or animals. According to the guide, it was found in Arizona for the first time in Nogales in January 2025, and authorities set up a quarantine zone there. As of the guide’s May 2025 update, the psyllid had been found throughout the citrus-growing region of southern Arizona, while greening had been found only in Nogales.

The Arizona Department of Agriculture says the psyllid has been detected in all of the state’s citrus-growing areas and is under a statewide quarantine. Its advice for homeowners is practical: don’t move citrus trees or trimmings without precautions, never ship citrus fruit, plants or plant parts through the mail, buy citrus plants from a reputable local nursery and share fruit from your tree with neighbors locally.

Workshop guests will also go home with a handout, plus seeds, plant cuttings and a few plants for their gardens, according to the listing. The suggested fee is $5 per person or a $15 donation for a family of four, and the organizers say the money goes back into the community. Capacity is listed at 40. The event is sponsored by Bic Bugs of Tucson and Bugs in Community. Organizers note that they cannot supervise children, so kids need a parent, guardian or other adult with them.

How a book swap turned into a seed network

The stands started small. DePhane Weaver, the group’s founder and president, began what became the nonprofit about 10 years ago as a neighborhood book-sharing project, ABC15 Arizona reported in a profile by Sean McDowell. Over time the shelves filled with seeds, plants and growing advice instead of paperbacks.

“The excitement they get, a seed or a plant they’ve never tried that’s from a local gardener, they know it’s going to grow here,” Weaver told ABC15. “People, when they come, they’re like, this is free? I go, yeah, these are free.”

That local-seed point matters in the desert. A packet from a big-box rack may have been grown somewhere with cooler summers and steadier rain. A seed saved by a neighbor came from a plant that already survived an East Valley summer.

Paul Weaver, the group’s vice president and treasurer, told ABC15 he sees the effect on new gardeners, especially children. “We have kids coming up to our booth at events getting excited because they just live with their mom in an apartment, and all they have is a little balcony,” he said. “When they find something they can grow out on that balcony, they get excited about it.”

A Mother Earth News profile traced the online side of the network to October 2020, when Weaver and longtime garden friends Anne Till, Silvia Messmer and Deb Gain-Braley launched a Facebook page for the Free Plant N Garden Stand community. At the time of that article, the page had grown to more than 20,000 members and 150 stands. One of them was the Sprouting Shamrock Stand, a green hutch in Rebecca Tims’ front yard in Tucson, where Tims handed neighborhood children pots, soil and tomato and pepper starts along with advice on shade and water.

“You don’t have to have anything [to offer] to take something, and there’s no requirement for garden expertise to be a stand host,” Weaver told the magazine. Messmer added a line that works for anyone nervous about starting: “You can just start with a couple of pots on your patio and work your way up.”

The rules of the stand

Because the stands sit on private property, the group publishes etiquette that every visitor should read before stopping by. Take a little and share a lot. Never knock on the host’s door; leave a note instead. Visit only during daylight hours and keep the noise down. Don’t wander into the host’s yard or take anything that is not on the stand. Label plant and seed donations when you can, and skip trash bags, which can blow away and turn into litter.

The stands are for fresh produce, seeds and plants, not canned goods. “We are not a pantry for nonperishable foods,” the etiquette page says, pointing people to the food banks and pantries that already do that work. The group says it shares open-pollinated and heirloom seeds and does not accept or distribute patented varieties. It also cautions that its collection is not a commercial seed source, so germination can vary, and it asks gardeners to report any problems.

Hosting a stand, the Mother Earth News piece explained, starts with picking a spot near the street or sidewalk where visitors can reach it, then building something stable that offers some shade. Seeds go in waterproof, windproof containers, and every stand needs a sign saying the items are free. New hosts fill out a form to be added to the map. The group says people can also earn volunteer hours as co-hosts, growers, “seed shepherds” or helpers who hand out free seeds at events.

More dates this month

The bug workshop is one of several November stops on the group’s calendar. It plans to bring a free flower seed basket to the Great American Seed Up at North Phoenix Baptist Church, 5757 N. Central Ave., where the seed room is open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 7. On Saturday, Nov. 14, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., it will hold a community yard sale at the Mesa homestead to raise money for the stands, with homemade items, plants, cactus, succulents and fresh herbs listed among the offerings. The group also says it will take part in National Tree Week, Nov. 21 to 29.

Garden Exchange Stands Org lists itself as a 509(a)(2) public charity under section 501(c)(3), and it says donations help replenish stands and pay for workshops. Its website, gardenexchangestands.org, has the stand map, the full etiquette list and the event pages.

For a San Tan Valley or Queen Creek gardener, the Nov. 15 workshop is a short drive and a cheap way to learn which bugs to welcome, which to watch and what those yellow tags in a neighbor’s citrus tree are really for. Bring your questions and a few envelopes, and leave room in the car for a cutting or two.