If I had to do it all over again, and know what I do now, I would recoomend the Black & Decker BV9000 Leaf Eater (at Costco for $79.00) verses buying the $300.00 Yarkworks 'chipper' for $199.00 at Cdn Tire. You can make alot more 'mulch' with leaves than you can with sticks & cones......in way less time. (and keep that little extra money to put towards that self propelled lawn monster that's on sale now at Home Depot or towards a new snow blowing machine you know you really really want and just haven't decided on which monster model you simply must have.) Costco's Black & Decker Leaf Eater comes with the attachments for blowing, vaccuming, shredding, over the shoulder bagging and added value at Costco is that it also includes the $30.00 garbage bin collection system, and an extention cord all for $79.00 - BV9000 is the model # - nice and light weight. Cdn tire sell the same machine but it is $10 more expensive and doesn't come with the extension cord and doen't include the garbage bin collection system (valued at $30.00) - (must be a promo deal with those two extras added in that is only offered at Costco) Here are the spec's: Push button release easily converts from blower to vacuum 3 Tools in 1 - Blower, Vacuum, and Mulcher Anti-clog Vortex® Vacuum System resists clogging Variable blow speed controls airflow from maximum 200MPH to 150 MPH Low Noise Design 10 to 1 mulch ratio mulches 10 bags of raked leaves into one bag of mulched leaves Reduces lawn clean-up to one simple step Deposits leaves directly into trash can No tools required I'm in love and have put my chipper in retirement as this little Black & Decker monster has shredded over 20 bags of maple leaves this afternoon - the front garden looks amazing with at least 6 inches of fine leaf mulch - haven't used the shoulder strap bagger yet because I've been having way too much fun using the 'leaf collection system' to put the pulverized leaves into - then running out to dump the garbage bins into the front gardens - more fun than I should be allowed! I'm going on a 'leaf hunt' tomorrow at the neighbours because I've vaccumed up and mulched every twig & leaf in my yard.......

SCPearson/Susan, You are more than welcome to join us at the swap. It is a lot of fun, a wonderful way to add to the plants you already have or are looking for, a great way to meet gardeners and have some "goodies" and lots of fun talk. wispfox/Suzanne You would have to dig up your main plants and divide the main plant into smaller plants, then pot up the smaller plants for the swap, and keep most of the main plant for yourself, (unless you didn't want to keep any for yourself.) Once you have divide up your main plant into the smaller pieces to bring to the swap, carefully replant your main plant and give it plenty of water and tender loving care. Take the small divisions that you made from the main plant, and pot those up in some soil in containers with good drainage. Keep those divisions well watered and in a sheltered, partly shaded area till the swap. hotzenplotz Welcome to you as well. Trust me when I say, you will have a car full of plant divisions and seedlings to start you on your way to beautiful gardens. And lots of us, including myself grow our own veggies, so you should be finding some veggies as well. And of course goodies are always welcome. fgirl21 Phlox taken if you don't want it. any idea what the color is? Heidi will be very happy to take it for her rock garden area. Lisa Still laughing over those "last famous words". You aren't going to take anything home this year? LOL, you must have forgotten all about those seeds you asked me to sow for you, while you sowed some for me. OK, I'll give you this. You aren't counting those that you where already planning on taking. It's all the others you aren't going to take home? Right? Yup, everyone just ignore Lisa and what she says about how much she will take home. It never works out that way and she knows it and we love you anyways, even though you keep trying and trying and trying and trying. You always find something that you weren't expecting and take it home. Just remember. wherever there is dirt, you can dig a hole and plant something in it. Fran

Marlene, Cindy, Kathy, It was my pleasure to host the swap and we will do it again next year as well. I can't believe that the weather turned out to be the way it did, nor rain, sun and a few clouds, but I could have done with out all the humidity. And to think, at 6:30AM this morning I was sitting here trying to decide who to scream at first for pushing me to go with today for the swap. It was storming for the 4th time since 1AM this morning and the weather maps where showing a wall of rain and storms heading in. Who would have thought we would luck out the way we did. Glad you had a good time, we do have a wonderful group of gardeners that come every year to the swap and keep adding and adding to the selection of plants and seedlings every year. Marlene, I will email you if I find any more pots that Michelle could use, and you should tell her to start checking out the yard sales whenever she can. She will be amazed at the pots she can find that way and the prices are really a steal. Kathy, I checked some of the pics in the link and those flowers still didn't look like the one you gave me last year and I got seeds from. Happy planting to all of you and happy gardening. How about some pics of the plants and seedlings when they bloom and thrive in their "new homes'. Hint, Hint Kathy, "new homes". Fran

Wade I was in Knoxville from Wed-Sat and couldn't come. How did it go? Details!!!!!