So, I had my garden swap yesterday! It was a lot of fun, but nothing like I had originally planned, lol. I had sent out a bunch of evites back in August, and only had a few responses. Then, I got busy with back to school stuff. Then, we got busy at the office. So, I didn't really press the issue with people. On Thursday, I had 3 yes's and 1 maybe, and sent out a reminder, saying I was pretty much ready to cancel it because I was so busy and didn't have a lot of interest. After that, one neighbor changed his rsvp to no (had forgotten, I suspect, and made plans to go out of town), but on Friday night, another rsvp'd yes. I also got a couple of emails with the gist of gee, I'd love to swap with you, but I'm too busy to go. Which reminded me the reason I set it up in the first place, because I hardly ever got around to trading with people! So, I sent out another email saying that it was definitely on - so go out and get dividing!

So, Saturday morning, I went out and started dividing my irises (which was my original reason for doing the swap). While I was in there, I also dug up a few things that were in the wrong places (echinaea and geranium right at the base of the lilac, some lambs ears and centaurea montana crowding where I wanted to spread out more irises). While I was out there, I saw my neighbors to the side and behind me, who had said they were coming, and told them that yes, I was having it. (Since I wasn't sure they had seen the final email). It was pretty clear to me by now that it was going to be a pretty informal swap, lol. The one neighbor to the back hadn't had time to dig up anything, so I told her to just come over, and we could all talk about what people wanted to trade. Plus, my next door neighbor was also planning to give some plants to someone else in the neighborhood who was planning to start her first garden, so we figured we could give her anything extra. (Tho it turned out her husband was overwhelmed, and didn't want anything else past the first group!)

It turned out that we all had a lot of similar plants, but enough that people wanted to trade. I also got to walk through my garden with them (and my next door neighbor's garden), which was fun. Dd (age 7) also was hanging out with us. (She had decided she didn't want the centaurea montana in her part of the garden, so I had dug that up.)

Then, I realized the other neighbor hadn't showed up, so I called her. She had thought I was cancelling, so hadn't divided anything. So, I told her to just come over, and see if she wanted anything, and if anyone wanted anything she had. I'd forgotten that she is studying Forest Management at the local junior college, and loves native plants. I ended up getting some mountain poppy (?) and seeds for Solomon's Seal from her, and some ditch daylilies and balloon flower from another neighbor.

Oh, and one of the neighbors who couldn't make it lives across from her, so we decided to drop off some of the plants she had said she was interested in. It turned out she was home, tho hadn't had time to dig anything up. But in the spring, I may get some hostas and some turtlehead (another cool native). We also saw another neighbor who said she would have hostas in the spring, and maybe some more stuff.

So, it sounds like we may try and organize a spring neighborhood / block plant swap, combined with garden walk, lol! I do have to try and figure out a good time to do it, but fall weekends tend to be very busy around here (esp if the kids play soccer).

In the meantime, I'm getting pretty excited about getting my side and front yards filled a bit better. I've been brainstorming a bunch of ideas, realizing for instance that if I extend the bed around my Norway maple in front to the south, I could probably put some lambs ears and catmint there. (I was checking out the underplanting thread earlier). I'm also excited about the side yard. I already put the Solomon's seal seeds near the house, and the ditch daylilies and a random hosta further away. Oh, and one neighbor did offer some of the dark pachysandra that I like, which would be cool.

Wow, that was wordy! But, anyhow, we had a lot of fun, and everyone ended up with something new - and hardly anything ended up in the compost heap!