Traveling with plants is much more challenging than putting a bunch of clothes in some bags. You can not wrap plants up like tshatshkes and pile them up in a box. I suppose that it will be a lot of car-less people coming with tall boxes in their shopping carts or on their luggage racks. If people have too many flower pots to bring, then they might find it easier to put some of their freshly dug-up little seedlings in a bag and pot them on site into their stacked flower pots and bag of soil, which they will bring along. However, to do this, they would need some space and access to water to wash their hands.

To ease the transporting of plants, we should do it right near a subway station that also has stops for many bus lines. Since this event would last several hours, seating would be important for socializing and to arranging private exchanges as well as more gardening events. Of course, lots of people will probably also want to sit around while waiting to see what new plants would be arriving. With these priorities in mind, three possible places are easy choices in verdant Brownstone Brooklyn. (a) In front of Borough Hall, or (b) in the plaza in front of Target's entrance at the Atlantic Terminal Mall, or (c) in front of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens entrance on Eastern Parkway.

Choice (A): I think that there is at least a water fountain (working??) near the space at Borough Hall for people to rinse off their hands, as well as, seating on the stairs and nearby benches. However, there is no elevator from the subway at the busy Borough Hall station, as far as I know. Since there is a farmers market there 3 times a week, we know that this space could work well for such a meet.
Choice (B): The Atlantic Mall has lots of outdoor seating, public bathrooms, and several ELEVATORS that lead up to the street. The elevators would be very helpful for subway travelers and that is why this spot is very attractive. The LIRR at this Atlantic Avenue station would easily enable Queens and Long Island gardeners to come. Because the subway/LIRR elevator and subway exit are right near the Mall exit, there would be very little walking required to get to the plaza, which is right outside the mall doors.
Choice (C): The Eastern Parkway entrance of the BBG and the very long, wide sidewalk to the right of that entrance is good for many reasons. Because it is only steps away from the #2/#3 subway station, there would be very little walking involved. Although there is only a small public seating area, the empty block-long sidewalk would be good for lining up lots of flower pots. However, because there is no elevator, kind people (and there are many of those), will have to help those with the heavy loads at this quiet subway station. There are fewer bus connections there, but it right near the B71 bus and the B41 (Flatbush Avenue) buses, easily connect to almost all Brooklyn buses. There is a lot lovely Brooklyn Museum seating and space to the left of the BBG's Eastern Parkway entrance, but I don't know if the Museum would have a problem with us doing this in front of their property on a busy Sunday or Saturday afternoon. The great thing is that the Museum does let you in to use their bathroom, without paying an entrance fee. I suppose that the area in front the Park Slope Food Coop is fourth possibility, but that would require several blocks of dragging carts and luggage racks from any of the nearby subway stations. I know that there was one Freecycle meet there in the recent pass. Prospect Park would, of course, be nice, but it is a long/longish walk if you are maneuvering shopping carts to and from the subway. The Grand Army Park entrance would be one long block walk from the subway and again, no elevator, but a lot of kind people. Nearby car parking and pickup to any of these places is doable, but Borough Hall parking would be very difficult. At the same time, finding a taxi or a car service pickup is easy there.

I am supposing that we will just line up flower pots that people will bring on the ground, so no tables would be needed for a set up. We would just need signs for the various groupings, such as "sun", "shade", "houseplants", "vegetables", "seeds", "bulb", etc.

One of the great things about a large plant exchange meet in the fall would be that it would enable people with limited budgets to buy the highly discounted larger goupings of spring bulbs from fabulous vendors like Van Engelen and then exchange part of the grouping for an equivalent grouping of another bulb variety that someone else has bought. I am always looking to do bulb exchanges in the fall, because I love the great prices for the 25-bulb packages, but I have space for only a dozen of each variety. My friends love my gifts, but they have run out of room. Having a large Meet would also enable other bulb distributions, such as the thousands of free bulbs the BBG gives Brownstone Brooklyn homeowners to plant around the the street trees in front of their house. I am hoping that we and block associations would be able to better coordinate both bulb buying and distributions for street tree planting as a result of organizing such neighborhood events. I would not mind if in exchange for helping us with a plant exchange that the BBG would have their own tables to sell their special, rare, and exclusive items. Why not support and help this terrific institution.

So, how does this all all sound?

Roslyn

George