SCPearson/Susan, You are more than welcome to join us at the swap. It is a lot of fun, a wonderful way to add to the plants you already have or are looking for, a great way to meet gardeners and have some "goodies" and lots of fun talk. wispfox/Suzanne You would have to dig up your main plants and divide the main plant into smaller plants, then pot up the smaller plants for the swap, and keep most of the main plant for yourself, (unless you didn't want to keep any for yourself.) Once you have divide up your main plant into the smaller pieces to bring to the swap, carefully replant your main plant and give it plenty of water and tender loving care. Take the small divisions that you made from the main plant, and pot those up in some soil in containers with good drainage. Keep those divisions well watered and in a sheltered, partly shaded area till the swap. hotzenplotz Welcome to you as well. Trust me when I say, you will have a car full of plant divisions and seedlings to start you on your way to beautiful gardens. And lots of us, including myself grow our own veggies, so you should be finding some veggies as well. And of course goodies are always welcome. fgirl21 Phlox taken if you don't want it. any idea what the color is? Heidi will be very happy to take it for her rock garden area. Lisa Still laughing over those "last famous words". You aren't going to take anything home this year? LOL, you must have forgotten all about those seeds you asked me to sow for you, while you sowed some for me. OK, I'll give you this. You aren't counting those that you where already planning on taking. It's all the others you aren't going to take home? Right? Yup, everyone just ignore Lisa and what she says about how much she will take home. It never works out that way and she knows it and we love you anyways, even though you keep trying and trying and trying and trying. You always find something that you weren't expecting and take it home. Just remember. wherever there is dirt, you can dig a hole and plant something in it. Fran

You are all quite welcome, and thank you for coming to the swap. It was quite a large crowd, larger than the past 4 years, but the more the merrier. The swap keeps growing in size every year and that is so much fun. More people, new people, new garden friends to meet and always new and more variety of plants, seedlings, divisions to share. Blake, my hubby said the same thing, gardeners are always smiling, especially at a swap. So here are some questions for all of us. Why all the smiles yesterday? 1. Because all the plants, seedlings, divisions where finding new homes because we had no place for them in our gardens? 2. Because of all the new plants and seedlings we where bringing home to replace the ones we where giving away? 3. Because we where all with a group of people just like ourselves, crazy, plant loving, gardeners and no one at the swap thought we where crazy, but rather, we where al the sane ones? 4. Because we where with a group of people with common interests and could just let ourselves be ourselves and not think twice about it? 5. Because it is all of the above? Now I'll answer first, it's because of all of the above. Can't get any better than a bunch of like minded gardeners, all together in one location with tons and tons of plants and seedlings being offered for free and adding to the garden beds, talking with people about our love of gardening and having good food and drinks and perfect weather to boot. So I'll see all of you again, around the same time of year next year. And again for what will be the 5th year in a row, I'll be praying that I will have no more back problems and not facing another spine surgery after the swap. Thank you all for coming, glad everyone had such a good time, brought home "new babies" for the beds and as always, everyone is welcome to come, with or without plants, seedlings, divisions. Just come and take home our extras and give them good homes. NOW, all that wonderful home made food; I posted a thread to collect all those recipes. Everyone was saying things like I've got to get that recipe, so folks start posting the recipes for them. Michael, wintersowing is the best. Go onto the Winter sowing forum and read the FAQ's to start with. Have a question post on the forum. We are the friendliest and most welcoming forum on GW. No question is ignored, and we will welcome you with open arms and get you addicted real quick. And you can always e-mail me any time with questions. Kathy, they will grow up perfectly in their new home, on the other end of town. I will have to come and see them. It's not like we are that far away from each other. OK, time for me to start killing my back and get my beds planted. Count down time for me, before I'm not able to garden again till the fall. You all saw what is in my fenced in yard to get in the ground. POST THOSE RECIPES FOR ALL OF US. AGNES THOSE STUFFED PHYLLO...

Thank you! And you too, Moonshadow. A lot of folks asked me to come back to the forum, so I emailed Tamara about it and she told me I was welcome to return pursuant to the following conditions: ************* "By using the name of your business in your sig line, you are violating our forum rules which prohibit advertising of any kind. Also, if you are soliciting for business or even offering to give a quote on furniture, this is also in violation of our Terms of Service." ************* So, no more pricing given on the forum, and I won't mention my business name here any more. We're good to go.... Happy New Year all. -Duane Collie

SpinCrazy25, both my DH and I are tall (I'm 5'10" & DH is 6'5") and we find a MW drawer (not a regular MW mounted under the counter) to be very easy to use. However, it's up to you. I was also attempting to find a way to keep your main/cleanup sink out of the island or peninsula to avoid splashing your visitors. It looks like you have a 12" overhang in the island version and that is not enough to protect visitors from being splashed (regardless of counter height). The peninsula looks like it has a deeper overhang, but I wasn't sure. To me, the current island plan seems very limited in counterspace...the only real workspace is on either side of the range. The island does not have enough room to function as both a prep area and cleanup area...which it will have to function as since it's the only water source in the kitchen. (Whether you "plan" to use it as a prep area or not, it will end up being used that way b/c the sink is there.) My old kitchen had limited room around the sink and it was a royal pain to try to prep around it while someone else was at the sink (cleaning up, getting water, washing hands, etc.). I had 24" on one side & 30" on the other...more than you have proposed...and I am so glad we now have more room! The island will also most likely be the landing space for the pantry... Additionally, the sink doesn't have much "wiggle" room around it (especially the non-DW side) to help keep dishes from falling off the ends. In this situation, I'd like to see at least 36" on each side of the sink. Or, alternately, you could put a 6" wall on each side of the sink to corral items around the sink...but that would take even more space away from the work area in the cleanup zone. I really think the island as it is right now is too small for all the tasks it will be asked to do! * Cleanup area * Prep area * Landing space for pantry * Visiting/eating