Dozens of plastic plant pots and red Solo cups full of vegetables, blooming greenery and houseplant clippings make up Springfield Community Gardens' latest project: a "take a plant, leave a plant" stand.

The green, wooden plant stand is located at the Midtown Community Garden at 1471 N. Benton Ave. Community members are welcome to visit the stand, which sits between the office and gardens, to take a plant they would like and leave one for others.

Springfield residents Kimberlee and Dustin Stokes are the masterminds behind the project, established about a month ago.

"(The plant stand) was an idea I actually found on Facebook a long time ago from someone ... he had it in his own little neighborhood and I was like, 'Wow, that's really amazing. I wish we could do something like that here.' And Dustin was like, 'Why don't you?'" Kimberlee said.

Kimberlee and Dustin's main priority was choosing a safe location for the plant stand, that would not be disturbed or taken advantage of. So they reached out to Springfield Community Gardens leadership, who were excited about the idea.

"We're always having community partners ask if we can take donations and we didn't really have a really good centralized spot where we could, because we were always trying to push our community gardens," Springfield Community Gardens coordinator Amanda Drewel said. "But it's so much cooler now that we're able to — thanks to (Kimberlee and Dustin) — share it with the community."

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To get the stand started, the Stokeses donated about 10 of their own plants, but it didn't take long before others began to take notice. Kimberlee said people have donated pumpkin, tomatoes, peppers, flowers and greenery, and houseplant cuttings.

"It's blown up way bigger than what we thought," Dustin said. "We were just trying to make a little stand for the community, just a trial. It's been accepted very well, and we're just very thankful."

The plant stand has been so successful that Springfield Community Gardens asked the Stokeses to create a second one, specifically for Missouri native plants. This stand will be located at the Delaware Neighborhood Community Garden at 1538 E. Stanford St. Dustin said the stand should be available within a few weeks.

Springfield Community Gardens has a few rules for visiting the plant stand:

The take a plant, leave a plant stand is available to community members anytime every day.

Springfield Community Gardens was established in 2010, with the first garden in the Grant Beach neighborhood. Today, Springfield Community Gardens manages 17 community gardens and three urban farms.

To learn more about Springfield Community Gardens, visit springfieldcommunitygardens.org/gardens.

Greta Cross is the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @gretacrossphoto. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com