On and off for the past few months I have been transplanting herbs from the garden into little pots and occasionally giving them as gifts to friends (like Jane on March 13) and leaving the occasional pot outside on the street for strangers to pick up. A few days ago and again today, I decided to leave some outside grocery stores. Sometimes it feels a bit like cheating to give away herbs like peppermint and rosemary because they both grow so abundantly in our garden. However, when I didn’t have a garden of my own, I would buy little pots of herbs to grow in my kitchen or on my little balcony, and with a bit of care, I could keep them alive for a while and use them in my food or for tea. So, by leaving them outside a store, I might make someone like my past self happy that they can save a couple of extra dollars on herbs.

The other night, I left some peppermint outside Gelson’s, and today I decided to leave some rosemary on the wall by the shopping carts outside Trader Joe’s. As I placed the pot on the wall (with a little label saying, “Free Rosemary. Enjoy!” on it, the parking attendant was watching me, so I said hello and kept walking, trying to look as if leaving potted plants as gifts for strangers was a perfectly normal thing to do. And maybe, one day it will be. If I do it more often, and enough other people choose to do it too, it will become normal. But it could take some time. Or maybe a little thyme…?