Host Your Own Plant Swap

Searching for that plant treasure

A friend on Facebook asked me if I could help her with how to go about organizing a plant swap.  It's really pretty easy but there are some basic things that really help to make these events go a little smoother and make them more fun.

First let me say that plant swaps are absolutely a blast and if you garden and have never been to one you are missing out.  They are a great way to connect with other gardeners and get free plants and seeds in the process.  At my swaps I have even encouraged gardeners who are brand new to gardening to just come and see what they can learn and find to take home to help build their gardens.  It's amazing the blessing this is to them and to the experienced gardeners who get to help invest in their success.

One of the hardest decisions...which seeds to take home

THE HOST'S RESPONSIBILTIES

• Decide what to call the event: I like "Gardener's Swap" better than plant swap because to me it says more than plants will be swapped that day but "Plant Swap" works too.  (see below for what to bring ideas)
• Do you want a theme? Themes can be fun especially if it is a pot luck.  Me, I just like getting folks together and am not big on adding a theme and the extra work involved that might mean so I don't bother with one.
• Set a date and time:  Spring and fall are the best seasons to host a swap.  Weekend swaps are most common though you could do one in the evening too.  Be sure you set a time frame for the swap...4 hours is good though an evening swap might only go two or three hours at most.  Or have a one hour "Gardening Madness Swap".  It's up to you.
• Get the word out - Yahoo Groups, Gardenweb, Dave's Garden and groups on Facebook are just a few places online to promote your swap.  Community bulletin boards, local news papers, word of mouth and even local broadcast news community events calendars are places you can post swaps.  (some restrictions may apply)  You can also send out old fashioned invitations too.  It's still fun when we get a party invite after all.
• PR Notice or invitation - Include the following:  Name of the event, date, time, place, if it is potluck or if food is provided, basic guidelines (simple version), an RSVP request if a closed event and CONTACT INFORMATION for more information.
• Where to hold the event - I recommend you host it at your own home if you have the space.  Keep in mind you will need space for everyone to set up what they have brought and you will need space for them to sit and rest and  also visit a spell (we gardeners are great at this).  If you don't have room, ask a friend who gardens if they might want to have one at their house with your help. 
• Restroom - It goes without saying that people will need to use the toilet so be sure it is available to them. (Yes I went to one once where there wasn't one available, had to leave and had to go far enough to find one I never went back...sad sad sad.)
• Weather Concerns - Be sure to have a place for people to get out of the hot sun or out of the rain if need be or even to warm up if it is chilly.  We have an "Autoshade" tent, one of these tents you can park a car under, that we pop up for shade and/or rain protection that works well for swap event and under a tent is a great place to have some tables and chairs set up for when people need to sit a spell.

Under the big top where we swapped seeds and ate pot luck

• Plan for refreshments or a potluck - Gardeners LOVE to get together and eat when they swap so ask swappers to bring food to share or if you are up to it provide the food yourself.  It can be lunch, dinner or snacks.  Be sure there is at least something for swappers to drink like water, coffee, tea or soda pop.  (Include this info in your announcement.)

The guys getting ready to barbeque burgers and brauts

• Designated Swap Area Set-up - Most swaps are set up with everyone's things kept in their own separate little space. You don't have to provide tables though it is nice if you have them to provide. Seeds are usually set up on a table under cover with extra envelopes so people can take a bit of this or that seed home with them.

The main swap area out and cruising swappers

• Set up a "Pre-Swap Trades" area.  This area is for any swaps that people planned ahead of time and lets everyone else know the plants are off limits unless their name is on them.
• Have Name Tags - We love to hate them but at swaps they are very handy since you will have a lot of strangers meeting each other for the first time.
• Provide extra tags and marking pens - They don't have to be fancy just whatever you have that people can mark their plants with should they need to...and someone always needs to.

Provide Basic Swap Event Guidelines for Participants
This will keep everyone on the same page (hopefully) as to what is expected of them and what you will be providing for them.

• What to bring to swap:  Plants, seeds, extra tools, planting containers, garden trellises, gardening magazines and books etc. 
  
• What is NOT allowed: Invasive plants and chemicals.  Both of these are troublesome to deal with...trust me.  As far as the invasive plants if someone does bring one make it a teaching moment.  It is surprising how many people don't know what plants are invasive and even against the law to transplant.  (English Ivy is one such plant here.)
• Name tag in each plant (if possible)  If they don't know what it is often someone at the swap will know.
• Pre-Swap Trades - These trades are set up prior to the event between swappers who will be attending so they can trade the day of the swap. This is a common practice in plant swapping communities and some of our best swapping is done this way.

Next time I separate the promised plants out.

• Have pre-swap trades marked with recipient's name before getting to the swap! This will save a ton of headaches.  The last swap I attended I didn't do it and it caused me undo stress as swappers descended on my offerings and tried to lay claim to those promised plants.  I felt bad having to tell them no too. 
• Swap Etiquette - Most people will ask before taking a plant, which is common courteousy in swaps, but it is good to remind people of this as swapping creates so much excitement sometimes people forget to.  Once everyone has gone around picking through everyone's plants  and things begin to slow down you may want to announce that the swap is open for "take whatever is left".

The host's swap offerings, plants and a tour

Other ideas I have seen work really well is to plan an area for plants that are good for new gardeners to grow.  We all have plants that will fit in this category and there is almost always a new gardener that shows up at a swap needing plants and your sage garden wisdom.  Its a great way to encourage and invest in their success.

As a long time gardener there have been times I have gone to swaps simply to get rid of excess plants and it was so much fun sitting back watching others enjoy their new found treasures.  I highly recommend trying it sometimes.

Have fun and happy swapping!

Copyright © 2012 by Patty Hicks
All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All reviews must include author's name and a link back to this blog.

Low Tech Lavender Propagation

English Lavender branch

Do you have lanky lavenders and can't do a thing with them?  Are you planning on pruning them but waiting until you find a way to reuse those branches?  Well I have good news!  You don't have to toss those cuttings into the compost heap, you can root them instead!

Whacking back a potted lavender

Here is a very simple propagation technique that gardeners have been doing since Methuselah was a baby and all it takes are some of those branches you just pruned off, a shovel, a spot of sunny soil to plant them in and...some patience.  Seriously, I'm not kidding, that's it.  You have got to give this a try.  When I first found out about this it really amazed me that it could be this simple.  Here, let me show you what I mean.

As simple as sticking it in a hole really!

Some of you may be familiar with the propagation technique called layering, where you pin a branch of a shrubby plant to the ground while it is still attached to the main plant, cover it with a bit of soil and wait.  Well this is sort of like that.  Last spring I cut a branch off of one of my lavenders and basically just stuck it in the garden with a little water and a little prayer and walked away.

The woman who taught me this method says branches that are 12 inches long work best...I think she may be right, but who knows.  Anyway my cutting was more like 8 inches long.  After cutting off the branch I pulled all the leaves off except the few at the top that would form the base structure of what would become my new lavender plant.

Snug as a bug in the mud

Out to the veggie garden I went, cut branch in hand, to dig a nice deep hole for the little branch.  It needed to be buried right up to it's neck, just below where the leaves stopped, and settled in with a little water.  The last step proved to be the trickiest...walking away and forgetting about it.  It became like trying not to peek at a present and having to stare at for days and it just went on and on, all through the summer and into the fall until finally it was winter and I got some relief from not having to see it as often.  And NO, I did not peek, not once!

Eeek! Are those new leaves? Wait, I just planted it!

Fall was the hardest season for me because I just knew there were roots forming down there and I am too curious for my own good sometimes.  If I dug up the cutting to peek I knew I would risk injuring the new roots which would mean I just killed another one.  I can't count the number of plant starts I have killed with anxious curiosity.  (Ugh.)  This would been so much easier if it would have been stuck in the ground where I wanted to plant a lavender.  One could grow a whole hedge of lavender that way.

Small roots but they'll grow

So the end of March came and it was time to dig it up. (Yippee, I can open my present!)  When I lifted it out of the soil I saw the roots were not as well formed as I had hoped.  Two meager roots had formed at the base of the branch and some nicer looking feeder roots up near the top.  I took a chance and cut off the lower section and again said my prayers and planted it up in a pot of potting soil so it could get a better chance of thriving if it was going to at all.

Please God, let it grow up strong and healthy

Answered prayer in the form of bright green new growth.

Today my baby lavender has more new leaves forming...a very good sign. I will be leaving it in this little container most of the summer just to be sure and pinching it back a couple of times to help keep it nice and shrubby.

So the next time you prune your lavender give this a try and let us know how it goes.

Happy Gardening!


Copyright © 2012 by Patty Hicks
All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All reviews must include author's name and a link back to this blog.

True Beauty Under Pressure

Who you lookin' at in that tone of voice

Recently we have all been reminded of how the media pushes it's twisted definition of beauty at us women.  A magazine at the checkout counter last week revealed what a few well known celebrities look like without their make up. (shock!)  This type of so-called-news always makes me wonder why we would even waste our time and money on it.  Does it make us feel better about our own less than perfect images?  I don't think so.  What they know we will be tempted to do is mock how normal and plain they look without makeup and further drive their false definition of beauty into our souls.

A few days later came the cruel attack on Ashley Judd's appearance.  Personally I admire Ashley Judd for going natural in her aging process and say more power to her.  When the media started hacking away at the way she looks I started shouting at the reporter on television and waving my my hand at them to go away!  (yes I really did) "LIKE WE CARE!  GET REAL!  LEAVE HER ALONE!".  I am so against this kind of derogatory news it makes me want to pinch heads off!  It serves no good purpose in anyone's life...not even to make one feel better about one's own sad life.

Why does the media and now social media continue to do this?  Because they know it affects us, they know it feeds some low desire in us.  Do you get the picture?  The good news is that we women also have leverage to fight back!

I bet you smiled back!

Being a rather realistic person, I know my face is not the kind to ever launch a thousand ships, but it might launch a dingy.  And though it is not a pretty face, it is a handsomely beautiful face and I have thankfully learned to love it without needing makeup on to do so.

I have my Facebook friend and blogger Pamela Price, who writes Red, White and Grew, to thank for inspiring me with her post supporting Ashley Judd.  In it she decided to post an image of herself as she "really" looks, bare faced and hair hidden.  I loved it and I decided to join in and do the same.  Us girls have to stick together, especially on this topic.

Here is the quote from Ms. Judd that Pam posted on the subject and what got us both going.

"The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of person hood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our person hood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted."  (Read her entire article here)

That did it for me and I was in to post my own photos.  However, after thinking about taking my own naked faced, hairless photos I started to choke a little.  To come clean, I have some issues about how I look now that I am not, er, young anymore that I don't openly share and they were bugging me.  I had to face them.  I knew it would be cathartic for me to do as humility is good for the soul after all.  Some of you may find this funny because these days I rarely if ever wear makeup.  That doesn't mean I don't think about how I look.

A smile is my favorite thing to put on my face.

Yes I really do miss that smooth youthful skin when I see those lovely images of youthful beauty, even if have earned this beautiful patina of life people can see on my face.  And I winced a little when I remembered how I look in those photos goofy photos I enjoy taking of myself for my blog.  Somewhere in the past year I have become more obsessed with how I am aging than I have wanted to admit.  Why I even have started wishing I had some extra cash lying around to get one of those fancy modern day beauty lifts they are advertising everywhere.  That is how all of this has begun to affect me and I don't like how it makes me feel about myself.

In Pam's blog post she asked the question "Do you think that social media is adding to the pressure that women feel to look a certain way?  As I thought about this I realized that to some degree it does push this unrealistic ideal of what beauty should be. However, I also think social media is cutting both ways on this issue.  There are gals like us who are realistic about our beauty expectations and take the process in stride, even if we don't always enjoy the results and encourage our sisters to love who they are as well and then there are the others...the beauty liars who are trying to push those unrealistic expectations on all of us no matter what our age.  Sad but true and this is why we have to stick together girls!


Getting older and getting wrinkled has never really been something I worried about and I have even looked forward to since I saw an elderly couple in matching red tennis shoes walking hand in hand down a sidewalk together.  They had to me in their 90s but were still living a life together.  I wanted to live to be able to do that with the man I loved someday too.  But I am digressing here.

The necked truth

The only exception to my not feeling dread about getting older was my 29th birthday when I just wanted to crawl in a hole.  As you can see I survived that event and then I went on to discover that life really begins at 30.  Or is it 50 now?  I'm not sure how I will feel at 59; I'm 56 now.  But I have never tried to hide how old I am and find it silly to even consider trying to...after all, the neck doesn't lie.

So if you blog or if you are on Facebook I challenge you to post your own naked faced, hair covered image in support of this cause.  Remember, we are in this together girls!


Copyright © 2012 by Patty Hicks
All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All reviews must include author's name and a link back to this blog.