Trades are getting slimmer. I've been weeding out the plants I don't want over the past few years and haven't got enough of the plants I like to be able to divide much. Hope that changes in a year or two! I can bring: My seed stash 1 black walnut seedling Daylilies (unknown type but definitely not ditch lilies) Mums (yellow) Black eyed susans Grape hyacinth bulbs Lycoris bulbs Small flowered coreopsis seedlings Russian sage cuttings (roots easily in water during the spring) Star of Bethlehem bulbs (can be VERY invasive and is very poisonous to dogs and cats but perhaps in a pot it wouldn't be too bad) Hyacinthoides (wood hyacinth)-white I may not get to dig all of these (time is getting short), so let me know if you want something and I'll make sure I bring it. Diana Lynn

I've bought these dormant bareroot plants many times with good success. I buy them right away so they are not lounging around a warm store too long. The perennials I keep outside so they do not break dormancy until I can pot them up. The more marginal plants like cannas and caladiums, I would keep in a cool place indoors until the weather is more consistently warm. I normally pot mine up and grow them on for a few months before placing them in the garden since they are fairly small and easily lost in the suffle. My favorites to buy this way are bleeding hearts, daylilies, peonies, and Japanese anemone. So far, the only problems I've had were when I tried to plant directly in the garden - they just couldn't compete. I also bought some raspberries once and while most established in 2-3 years and have been great producers (and the birds don't eat em!) there were a couple of mis-identified plants in the bunch that turned out to be very bitter, thorny, and rampant blackberries (understock?)

The only think I think you could do is look at planting vegetables among your bulbs, maybe consider growing up. I grow beans, peas, cukes,and melons up on a plastic mesh, this lets me grow other plants underneath as they do not compete for the same space. Cukes especially like to be trellised ( not the bush type), and pole beans are more prolific than the bush so I do not need as many plants. I grow cut flowers for market and though I am not sure your zone, tulips would be done early, lilies bloom around end of July, and when cut would allow any of these vegetables enough room to fill in the space. But the bulbs could not be dug until fall. I grow my garlic in any space I can, they grow well with lots of things, lettuce is one that comes to mind, I also tuck them in my strawberry bed and with my apple seedlings. In fact I always leave a few garlic in the ground around my rose bushes and do not dig them up in the fall. These are the first things to sprout in the spring with lots of thick green stems, I cut them for stir fry or pull them up, they are small but packed with flavor that is so welcome at that time of year. I am not sure if any of this would work for you as in a community garden I assume you would like to just till the whole thing in the spring. Good Luck.

3 days into August, Melinda has asked to be taken off the OBF membership until a later time so does anyone want to volunteer to take August or just take a break this month since it is so very HOT. LMK your thoughts.