I received the last package today so now the fun begins. Actually I have worked on it all along so maybe the sorting won't be as bad. I had a list on which I gave everyone a number. When their package came in, I put that number on each package of seed so I would not give someone back their own seed. Then I made a list of what they sent in for the swap and put it all on a spreadsheet so hopefully I don't send them back the same kind of thing they sent in. I have another list that shows what they would like to have (if I have it). Maybe I can make all of this work. Some of you sent seeds marked for Diane and I didn't do anything to them except look at them. Lucky Diane! Thanks to all of you for caring about each other. George sent a wish list with only herbs and flowers and since I had not included herbs and flowers in the swap instructions, his share will be limited, but he knows that. However, he was very generous in sharing his seeds with us. In return, please offer a prayer in behalf of he and his family as they are experiencing some employment trials at this time. Jay said he was sending a little box with a few seeds. HaHa It was not a little box, nor was it a few seeds. I have repackaged some of the bulk packs that he sent and he says he doesn't want anything back either. I am sending him a couple of things anyway so he can try Dawn's new tomato, and the cowhorn okra I traded for earlier in the year for him. Almost everyone sent more than the required amount and two people want little or nothing back, so we will have some extra packets that will be included in your package. Actually Diane, it hasn't been too much of a mess. I took out all of the packets and put numbers on them, wrote down what was in the packs, and returned them all to the original package. I did this as they came in then kept them all in a clothes basket. Today, however, the mess begins and I have my entire dining room table covered with seeds. LOL I have seen the variety of seeds that Dawn and Jay have, and we still have our own king and queen of gardening on this forum. LOL Now the fun begins....and I will let you know when to start checking your mailbox. Thanks for playing. Carol

OK, y'all, this thread is so active I can hardy keep up, but I am going to try. Melissa, We are so glad you stumbled across this forum too. Containers are a great way to garden but they do require very careful attention to watering. Also, the soilless mix to fill them is expensive (often, when filling up my containers, I mix up my own soilless mix for far less than I'd spend buying a name brand soil-less mix/potting soil). The size/productivity of your plants is limited by the size of your container so for most things, the larger the container, the better. Also, during periods of hotter weather, containers may need to be watered daily and in the hottest 100-degree-plus weather, perhaps twice a day. The easiest way is to hook up a drip irrigation system and put it on a timer, especially if you are away from home a lot. Container gardening could be a whole thread in itself. I'll start a container gardening thread today or tomorrow and try to lay out some of the basics. Containers do not have to be fancy containers though....I use Tidy Cat litter buckets, which I have saved and used the whole decade-plus that we've lived here, and I spray paint them dark green using Fusion paint made especially for painting plastics. I also use Sunleaves grow bags. With clay soil, it takes years of constant amending to get it into really good shape. In the past I have only expanded my garden a little at a time....by adding an area maybe 40 to 60 feet long by 5 to 6 feet wide. Gumbo clay needs all the help it can get but it can be turned into great soil over a period of time. Our formerly red clay in the garden area is now a nice brown clayey loam because we've added organic matter to it for ten years, so I finally feel ready to start another garden spot....in three different places. However, they all will get fairly minimal improvement this winter (because I'm going to be working on 3 fairly large areas at once) and then every year I'll improve them more until they finally have pretty good soil. With clay the issue is that the particles of soil stick together and the prevents water from soaking in as well as it should, it also ensures that when the soil dries it is as hard and impenetrable as concrete so water just rolls off the surface and doesn't soak in, and it makes it hard for plant roots to grow. Technically, plant roots do not grow in soil. Rather, they grow in the air spaces between soil particles. Clay soil particles clump together so tightly that there are no air spaces for roots to grow in, and that's why we have to add tons of organic matter....to break up the particles of gumbo clay. The reason raised beds work so well with clay is that they put your plant roots in improved soil above the regular grade of the surrounding area. That allows water to drain down out of the beds to a certain extent. When 12.4 inches of rain fell here at our house in one day last year, I expected to lose my entire garden. You cannot expect ANY vegetable plant to survive that kind of flooding rainfall in clay soil. What did I lose? Only some onions and potatoes and a few corn plants that were not in a raised bed. Had I not had raised beds, I would have lost everything. George, We get more of the bermuda grass out by hand tools too, but in certain areas the ground is so clayey that we have to break it first with a tiller. When we do that, I rake out/remove by hand all the grass runners and stolons I can afterward, but it is hard to get a lot of it because it has been chopped into tiny pieces. Eventually, over several years time, I mostly win the bermuda war. Melissa, For hand tools, buy the absolute highest quality tools you can find and you'll never regret it. A high quality hand tool is a thing of beauty! Jay, I have bindweed in two places here and despite everything I do, it seems impossible to erradicate. Some years it isn't as bad, and this was one of those years....or maybe I am gradually winning the war. I hate bindweed as much as I hate bermuda grass and Johnson grass. Carol, I love containers and have found them to be lifesavers in very wet years like 2007. None of the plants I have in containers come close to approaching the size/productivity those same varieties achieve in the ground, but they do well enough to satisfy me. This year, there were several tomatoes that produced exceptionally well in feed tubs....including Chocolate Stripes, Momotaro and Scarlet Red. I wish I had 100 more feed tubs (I only have six). Y'all, I have to agree that no one looks the way I pictured them but.....I am going to stay on everybody's good side by saying that every person I met at the swap that I had not met before was younger, thinner and prettier than I had imagined. The one thing I already knew though was that every one one of them had a big heart of gold beating there in their chest and that was confirmed when I met them. Dawn

If there IS ever a Nevada site, I'd like to submit the following for an FAQ: 1) No matter what you have read, no matter what someone told you, no matter who that someone was, it won't apply to YOUR garden. 2) Forget everything you know about gardening and start over. Plants that shouldn't grow here will thrive. Plants that should grow well here will wither and die. It will snow in July. You will have warm weather in January. It will be 80 degrees the day before it snows in July. Except if Nevada weather does its usual unpredictable thing and then none of the above will happen as I specified. 3) If you aren't crazy from gardening in Nevada, you soon will be. Lisa

Sally Holmes did not survive the move, and recently, I learned of Nevada. I only owned Sally Holmes for about a year; own root, and it was a healthy vigorous rose. Those of you who have experience with or knowledge of these roses, how do you think they compare? I am so unfamiliar with the hybrid moyesii class in general, so any input you can provide will be greatly appreciated. I posted this question on the Antique Roses thread too because I do not know how Nevada is classified relative to the forums. Lynn