2011-2012 Theme Garden Seed Swap

Do you have a theme garden? Do you want to have a theme garden? Then this seed swap is for you! Drippy (Kim) began this annual swap in 2006 (if not earlier) and many join every year and really enjoy it. I filled in for her one year and here I am again! She got the swap off to a great start and hopefully she can join in with the swapping part this year.

For those of you who may be new to gardening and don't know what a theme garden is, some people build gardens around certain themes. For example, an herb garden is a theme garden. A theme garden can be based on color (all white, all red, etc.) A theme garden might reflect the size of the plants (giant, small), the growing conditions (hot and dry, cool and moist) or it might just be fanciful - Mystery Garden, Musical Garden, Fairy Garden, or it might be a garden where the plants have animal names, etc. People who join in are very creative as are those who send in seeds based on the themes. If your intent is not obvious from the name, explain it a bit when you post the names.

To join in, list your themes below (5 themes per person only.) Then, using e-mail, you must send me your real name, GardenWeb name, and e-mail address. I'll gather mailing addresses later. Please send the information to me with "Theme Garden" as the subject. I need that information prior to the sign ups closing. If I don't receive it, you will not be in the swap.

It will be very much appreciated if prior to December 30th you update your "Seeds Wanted" information on your member pages even if you feel that it doesn't have anything to do with this swap - it is very helpful to me and those who send seeds for you. Don't feel bad if you are not current right now. Neither am I. Just begin to work on it.

Dates:

Post your themes below and continue to join through to December 30th. You will not mail your seeds to me until January, but start to get the seeds together so they will be ready to mail after the holidays. I will try to get them all shuffled and back out to you by the end of January - although depending on how quickly they arrive; it might be just a bit longer. Between December 31 and January 6th I will e-mail my mailing information to everyone who is signed up. Do not send before you get the e-mail message from me even if you might already have my address. I don't want seeds to be arriving until some of my Christmas "stuff" has been cleared and packed away.

Rules for sending your seeds to me:

Seeds that are sent in should be packaged in ready-to-trade individual packets; I cannot sort bulk seeds. This will be a "one-for-one swap" - meaning you will receive one packet back for each packet you send in. However, you are almost certain to get some extras! Unless what you are sending are "bonus seeds" (seeds beyond the number you wish to receive in return) - please limit any particular variety of seeds to 5 packets unless more than 5 people have requested the seed and even then, the limit will be 10 packets of one variety. All types of plant seeds (flowers, vegetables, herbs, shrubs) are welcome. If you only want vegetable seeds or only want flower seeds, you will let me know prior to me mailing to you and I will honor that to the best of my ability based on what is sent in.

The swap is limited to U.S. residents. All seeds should be no older than 2010. Please provide viable seed that has been properly collected and stored. Label the packet accurately so the recipient knows what has been sent and include your GardenWeb name as the sender on each packet. That way I won't be sending the same seeds back to you!. As for quantity, you can send a smaller amount if the seeds are expensive or rare, but just be fair in providing a reasonable amount. This has not seemed to be a problem in the past so I will leave it without specific guidelines. If you want to "categorize" seeds by theme or GardenWeb member - trying to be helpful to me when I sort - do this by placing the packets in a labeled baggie rather than put that information on each packet. They may need to get reshuffled because others may send in the same seeds. I hope the way I wrote that makes sense.

Players must limit the amount of seeds they expect back to 100 packets. When I first did this, I had no idea how generous some of the members are in sharing their seeds! For the return mailing, I am limited by what is sent in and have no way to anticipate that I may have more than 100 types of seeds to fill your theme requests. It may happen, but I don't want to promise it. That being said, depending on what comes in, you may well get more than 100 back. You are welcome to send in as many as you like. Any numbers of greater than 100 packets will be considered bonus seeds and will be distributed to those who sign up unless you request "no extras" - for example, you might send in 25 packets and state that you only want 25 in return. If no one wants the seeds that are in excess of what is requested, we can discuss options for donating them to a good cause. Please no suggestions at this time.

Newbies: If you only have few packs, you can still play! If you have no seeds to trade, go buy 2 or 3 packs and play! Some gardeners send in extras to be given away to beginning gardeners or just because they like to share.

Envelopes were my biggest problem last time so I have changed how I am doing that part. I will post specifics a bit later, but be aware that you will use both an outer envelope addressed to me - it will not be reused in this swap - and an inner envelope - of sufficient size and the inner envelope must be clear, clean, padded, and without tears and you will self-address it so it is ready to be returned to you. You will also be sending me stamps to cover the postage it will take to return the envelope to you. Do not affix the stamps to the return envelope because I will need to get them weighed. The quantity sent back to you may be a good bit larger that what is mailed to me. All envelopes will be returned with delivery confirmation, assuming the post office still allows for that in January. No metered postage is to be sent - only stamps. If you send excess postage, it will not be returned. It will be pooled to help for when someone happens to not send enough in postage - and that happens.

Okay, more about that later.

What can you do now? Post your themes, send the necessary information to me, and watch to see what themes are posted so you can accommodate requests from your stash of seeds or perhaps order a few packets to share.

If I've forgotten anything, please e-mail me or post here. Also, I will try to check the list frequently, but if anyone has the inclination to compile an overall list and update it from time-to-time, that will be a help to all of us. Just jump right in if you want to be a list "compiler" for us! If there is no highly motivated volunteer to do that, I will try to do it weekly.

Thanks for making this swap lots of fun once again! Everyone really helps to make this a big success.

Jeanne