BERNE — As the sunny weather in the past week has sprouted seeds in backyards across the area, a couple is asking people to dig up their plants and bring them to the town park on May 16.

Starting at 10:30 a.m., the pavilion in the park on Route 443 will have a controlled gardening free-for-all. In separate rounds, growers will have one minute after the blow of a whistle to select a plant, until the number of plants they donated matches the number of plants they’ve taken. Perusal of the plants and set-up starts an hour beforehand, and negotiations and bartering happen afterward.

For anyone with a budding interest in gardening but no plants to trade, a surplus of plants will be available.

It’s best to put donated plants in pots weeks beforehand, so they get used to the pots. Plants should be labeled to specify names, light preference, and color. Boxes or carts for transporting plants are needed.

“Gardeners are a very giving bunch,” said Debra Bajouwa, who is organizing the event with her husband, Haytham Bajouwa. They live in Berne, where they keep vegetable and perennial gardens.

Growers may bring any perennials, fruit bushes, shrubs, tender bulbs, annual flowers, or vegetables, as long as they aren’t invasive species. Even gardening books, tools, and equipment will have a place.

“If they can dig up 10 of those and bring them and swap them for 10 different varieties, it’s a way to expand their gardens…almost like using their plants as money,” said Debra Bajouwa, who has a degree in horticulture from the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill and previously worked as a florist and floral designer.

The event is the first of its kind locally and the Bajouwas hope it will become a tradition. As real-estate agents, they will get their names out and traffic to their website, Debra Bajouwa said, as with community garage sales organized by agents elsewhere.

A stand of fresh lemonade will be run at the exchange by Emma Detlefsen, a 6-year-old from Berne with Lymphedema, Bajouwa said. Detlefsen has raised money with friends and family toward researching the disease, which affects more than 140 million people around the world.

— Marcello Iaia