Labels. for yourself for your spouse for your plants for your trades for your car (so people can drop plants off, even if you're not there) for plants you are happy to see disappear for plants you intend to keep cardboard boxes are handy for packing up your loot a gallon jug to tote water can be handy If you have an unusual plant to offer, a color photo of it with some cultural info can be a great sales tool - especially for newbies. Saturday is the day to clean the garage/basement. Any non-plant garden related items will likely find new homes at the swap.

Ditto, no selling at the Fort Worth area swap. One lady showed up one time and wanted to sell her plants, but when we told her we weren't there to buy anything, she packed up her kit bag and went home. If you log on the Gardening in Arkansas forum and go to the trading forum you can just post a notice that you would like to have a swap in your area and see how many people are interested. You may be surprised and if you only have 5-10 people respond, go with it, a small swap is still a swap and you still get stuff for your garden for free. Ours started out several years ago with Sylvia doing that, and it is always a big event. We reserve a space at a centrally located public park, preferably an area with a pavilion and a grill. One couple has agreed to always bring refreshments for everyone in exchange for plants and seeds. Then if anyone has something they want to bring extra to eat they bring enough for at least 30 people. Then we set a date, usually a Saturday and people start listing what they plan to bring. We have a lot of "pre-swaps" on the garden web and then there are on the spot swaps after you get there and find people have brought stuff that they didn't list that you want, like tools, books and other fun things. One time someone brought gardening aprons with the GW logo embroidered on them. One person always brings great soaps and bath salts that she makes at home. Some people will bring baked goods to trade for plants if they don't have enough plants to swap. Another person made cute personalized name tags for everyone. Once you get one of these swap things going you will find that a lot of the same people will attend year after year (oh and we do it twice a year too, Spring and Fall) so we all get to be very good friends, even visiting each others homes and gardens and sharing plants and info on a regular basis. My humble opinion of the swap is that you should not ante up a dime for anything, otherwise you will be expected to continue to cover the costs and you will eventually lose out big time. Go cheap, spend nothing, and you will have a fun get-together with other gardeners who share interests in the best way, freely. This way you will never feel used or abused and in no danger of having to make it into some kind of business. Check out your public parks, maybe a church yard or a school yard will allow you to set up for a couple hours on a Saturday morning. If you plan to help out your humane society that can certainly happen too, they would have to be willing to set up at whatever location you choose but if they want to make money by selling something, you may again wind up obligated in some way. Personally, I'd keep those kinds of activities separate from a free plant swap. Cheryl

Fall MTPS Date Bama week! Oct. 21st. If I can make the ultimate sacrifice then so can everybody else. Hohenwald has their October Fest the weekend of the 14th, UT's only open date in October, and Jan says that the place shuts down and the streets are full of yard sales or something. Anyway, "The Third Saturday In October" will be our fall swap date. Do you know how much this hurts me? I'd rather take a written beating over the spring swap every day from now til then than miss getting to see UT beating Bama!!! Oh well, I'm a dedicated Swap Nazi I reckon. Jeff aka, Big Orange Boo-hooing

Kim, Thanks for the package. It must've been delivered on Saturday. We were out of town for the weekend, so I got it today - however the plants are still in awesome condition. Thanks for sending rooted ones too!! Kim sent: Burro's Tail Golden Pothos Spider plant (variegated) English Ivy Neophthytis "Exotic Cream" Murray Koenigi Silver Dollar Jade Panda Plant leaves I didn't have most of these, so am excited to see them as they get bigger. Thanks again!! Cedarnest - your package is being shipped tomorrow. The tracking number is 9101785091401257142137. I hope you enjoy it! Lissa