Tips on setting up a swap if you don't have any in your area already. 1. Pick a date/time and a place. (find a partner or 2 to help you) The date: Your date should be sometime around the average last frost or later and not on a holiday weekend. This gives people time to do the spring bed clean up, and divide perennials that need dividing and pull out extras of what ever they want to pass on, and also get them potted up and labeled. When people take home starts of divided plants they'll want to get them in the ground as soon as they can and give them the best shot at getting established with the least amount of stress possible. The time: Some swaps start at 9am... some later. Its up to you. Try to gage travel time and set up time. Most of the swaps around here are on Saturday to give people time to get things planted on Sunday. But lots of people can't come due to work or children's sports activities. Carrie and I tried Sunday afternoons and it works out just fine. More people can make it then and plant out when they can. The place: Any place that has lots of parking, shelter in case of rain and restrooms close by. Parking is the most important, shelter is second in importance. Plants are messy.. so if you chose to a swap someplace indoors you'll need to be prepared to clean up. Outdoors is much easier, all you'll need is a broom. :) We tend to hold them at public parks, which means someone has to reserve the pavilion, and pay the fees. You can solicit donations if you want. Carrie and I just pay for it ourselves. It doesn't cost much for only 2 -3 hours. I have been to swaps at people's homes and its great. You get to see their gardens and it just feels more laid back. However if your swap has lots of people it doesn't work out so good with people trying to park and needing restrooms and traipsing all over your yard and house. :( 2. Rules... read the rules other swaps use, and take what you want. Just keep it simple. Too many rules will confuse and keep people from attending. Each gardener makes their own trades and now has to do a trade they are not happy with. 3. Promote! We use garden web for most of it. Post on the exchanges pages. We watch our State forum and contact any poster who is close by to invite them. You can also use other garden forums where you can find local gardeners. Encourage new gardeners. Even if they don't have plants to share, they can bring other stuff to trade. Eventually they will have plants to share. I chat up people I meet at garden centers and Walmart too. :) About a month before the swap I print up fliers and drive around locally. If I see a home that looks like someone _really_ gardens there I stop the car knock on the door and talk to them! Be sure to praise their hard work, tell them about yourself and your plant swap. Personally invite them to come. Hand them that flier with ALL the details and a way for them to contact you with questions. I put my email address on it and the link to the Texas Garden Web exchanges page so they can check out all the pre trading going on. If the gardener isn't home, leave the flyer for them. I also sent out info to everyone in our HOA via email. Just talk it up. Church, work, neighbors, PTA, what ever other groups you are involved with. If you live in a small town, perhaps contact the local newspaper about it? If they (or you) can write up an article about it ahead of time, that could get some people to show up. Supplies for your swap: I bring: extra tables, and a wagon for hauling plants. If possible have some teenagers to help haul plants to and from the parking lot. a clip board with extra paper and pens name tags and signs to put on various tables. We set up a check in table: name tags, and sign in sheet. On that sheet get names, phone numbers and emails. You'll want to be able to keep in touch with these people! We've established a little group on a yahoo list and have get togethers and garden tours of each other's yards and meals together a few times a year now. We do swaps in Spring and Fall. Munchies...if you want or not its up to you. Pot luck meal or snacks what ever you decide you want to mess with. We're about snacks and drinks.. frees us up for more plant talk. I usually bring coffee, cups, sugars, creamer and a cooler with bottled water. Door prizes... if you want. There are several ways to go about it. We set up an Orphan Table... this is where people put plants they do not want to take home and no one has traded for them. These are for anyone who wants them. If in the end there are still orphans you can take them home or pass them on to any group who can use them. Most of the gardeners I know are just happy to find someone to give their extras to and help someone get started. Have someone prepared to take photos! You won't have time to do that yourself. You'll be busy meeting everyone, introducing people and talking plant trades! Most of the people coming probably won't know each other or have never been to a swap, so its up to you (and your buddy) (s) as hosts to make everyone feel welcome and answer questions. Its all pretty laid back and informal. Natural leaders in the group will emerge. Just try to make sure everyone feels welcome and valuable. Grandbaby is calling... if you have more questions just ask..I'll be around.

The GOOD.... Lucy Vitols and Aspen Gold....I don't have deer, and so far no hail damage....but I do have falling pecans and sweetgum balls. This is in August 2013 The BAD Fried Bananas was looking fine one day, the next it was all messed up with tobacco or mosaic virus. This showed up in April 2013 The UGLY This cluster of pots all arrived around the same time. The worst one over a month later was my beloved STARGATE. It took all summer for it to perk up. And I had such high hopes for featuring it at the gate to my garden .... oh well, I hope it looks good this year, because I have a relief hitter on order, another Stargate. My Austin Dickinson did not flourish like his sister Emily Dickinson, nor his Mistress Mabel. All three were side by side. I'm hoping Austin picks up the pace this spring.

Well, Howdy! You will enjoy Texas........gardening here is quite a challenge and thus quite meaningful! You can basically go one of two ways.......xeriscape or native with little continual watering....... or semi-tropical with plenty of water and dragging the tender plants around for cover in the Winter. I opted for the semi-tropical among the old "everywhere" stand-bys of shrubs, woody perennials, and roses. Everything else (and those shrubs too, actually) need to be mulched. Of the plants you intend to transport, ajuga is probably the only one that will make it with lots of special care (and shade). If you move in the Winter, you may have the lamium for a short while. I would not bother, except for sentimental reasons and it was very convenient to pot them up. If you have indoor begonias etc, I would bring those.

here are a few details since a pandora's box of speculation is all over the map. started the process of finding contractors at the end of april with the idea of a fall/winter build. house is 1 story, 30x40, on piers, 2 bdr, 2 bth. so my 'lavish' lifestyle will be housed basically in a trailer in the sky. ( to pigeon hole the style, would be mid-century-ish). i would wait 2-3 weeks, between phone calls, mainly because of the amount of rain pouring down from the sky and i was well aware of weather delays and the havoc that creates for building. my wonderful septic guy Carl was a peach. returned my calls, let me know of delays, showed up when he said he would, did a fantastic job & i am for ever in his debt. the flip side of carl tho? evidently he was a spoiler for my expectations in contractors. i was my own GC for my yankee house and also for an elderly neighbor's home. and most of all. i do not hate the south. southern's are the most kind, polite, gentle, most friendly people i have ever met..... always a wave hello, always a smile. they just hate to use the phone? if at any time anyone would have said- 'job is to small, not worth my time, your plans suck, you are crazy, don't ever call me again, kicked my dog or called my children ugly.' i would say thanks and move on to find someone else. not a problem. the reply's to my feeble attempt at a rant, and humor have been enjoyable. if i lived under your skin, i take it as a kind of a zen thing, accept my apology for inadvertently pushing a button, but i probably saved someone else. to those who sympathized and offered help, advice and patience, i thank you. and the wise sage who wrote rude behavior would be turning a job down, and it is not rude to never return phone calls- you gave me a light-bulb moment. i now know how to start the conversation. so...... let's all lighten up, just saying.