Green Elephant Plant Swap next Saturday

I hope to see some of you there! PM me for a meet-up if you can make it, and maybe we could do lunch afterwards!

Winter Seed Sowing/Hardwood Cuttings
Saturday January 7, 2012, 10 AM to Noon (indoors)
Right after the holidays in the cold dark of winter, we get together with our treasure troves of seeds, and dirt and pots and labels, to winter-sow perennials, trees, shrubs. These pots of seeds then go outside for cold treatment which breaks the seeds' dormancy. You won't believe the great results! Come spring they germinate in profusion. For this event, potting soil is provided. Bring your pots, seeds, labels to share. This year we will propagate hardwood cuttings of various native and ornamental shrubs. You can also divide and repot houseplants at this event.

Directions and Details
The Green Elephant Plant Swap is hosted in North Redmond, WA, at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross; The site offers parking, covered areas, indoor facilities, kitchen, memorial garden, grass labyrinth and playground. It is five minutes from I-405 and I-520.

Directions and Maps to the Church of the Holy Cross.

Contact: Jim Eichner, cell phone: 425-223-7249

Street address: 11526 - 162nd Ave NE Redmond, WA 98052

How it works: No sales, just exchanges and freebies, please.

Tailgating Encouraged. The format for the trade is like a tailgate party. Traders exchange expert gardening information as well as plant materials. In two hours all the deals are sealed. We have plenty of new parking.

Free Stuff. Many gardeners generously share plants from the abundance of their gardens. An excellent way to begin your garden. Also an excellent way to thin out that giant patch of shasta daisies, etc. There is always a pile of plants free for the sharing at the swap.

What if I have nothing to trade? Cookies and chocolate work like money at the Green Elephant!

Howdy:

Now that sounds like my kind of fun.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

Sounds like loads of fun! Wish there was something like this on the East coast!

If I leave in the am, I should get there by Sat.

Jo in SC

Things like this make me wish I was back on that side of the mountains. I wish I could go! But then I remember, I'd be living in an apartment and there's a three year wait for a pea patch... :o( (Maybe the wait is shorter at Marymoor?)

Sounds like fun. Wish we had something like this in Houston

Anyone showing up tomorrow? I'll be there with seeds and raspberry canes. PM me for a meet-up.

For all of you who wish you had one near you, you can!
Check around in your local Little Nickel, Pennysaver, or other local free newspaper, and look under garden clubs. Call and ask if they do one or more every year. If not, ask if you can help get them started on one. If that's not doable, ask your church or community center if you can have some space in the parking lot some Saturday morning in the spring, fall, or indoors in the winter, and start advertising in said papers, church bulletins, and on the local radio. Get your friends together and make it happen!
I became an events organizer years ago because there were things like this that I wanted to do, and no one was doing them. I always thought that someone else was in charge, but then I found out it's not hard to do it myself with a little help from my friends.

So can you!

The Green Elephant Plant and Seed Swap and planting session was so much fun! I forgot to tell you about it.

I was late, because I missed the ferry and also got slightly lost in the wilds of Redmond. I thought the only thing in Redmond was Microsoft until I saw those fields and farms.

Someone was putting good compost in 3.5" pots in flats, getting them ready for us to use.

Several folks were taking cuttings of branches that people had brought to share. Then they were potting them up in those prepped flats. Each bunch of branches were labeled, so you knew what you were bringing home.

There was a large basket of white plastic labels for the pots, cut from old vinyl blinds. Lots of pencils, too.

Inside, there were tables covered with plastic tablecloths, good idea, since we had compost-filled flats in there, too. We wintersowed some seeds in the flats, but most of us had envelopes of seeds to trade, and empty envelopes to 'borrow' some seeds from our neighbors. I came home with almost as many seeds as I brought, (I wish more had gone) and cuttings of forsythia, hydrangea, leather-leaf viburnum, and some other things I don't remember. I brought raspberry cuttings. They went fast!
Most of the seeds I got and traded were flowers. Not too many had new veg seeds to trade yet. I did get a lot of fava and radish seeds, though. I was really excited about that. We traded garden war stories, and tricks and tips, too, and had coffee, tea, and oranges. We gave each other email addresses do we could arrange for swaps before the event.

Nothing fancy. So much FUN!

I can't wait to go back March 3 for the next one, which is the biggest one of the year. Over 100 folks show up to swap and gossip.
Jim, the Green Elephant himself, is the originator of the event that occurs 4 times annually. He's the pastor, so he's the boss! What a wonderful way to share gardening with others.

For all of you who wish you had one near you, you can!
Check around in your local Little Nickel, Pennysaver, or other local free newspaper, and look under garden clubs. Call and ask if they do one or more every year. If not, ask if you can help get them started on one. If that's not doable, ask your church or community center if you can have some space in the parking lot some Saturday morning in the spring, fall, or indoors in the winter, and start advertising in said papers, church bulletins, and on the local radio. Get your friends together and make it happen!
I became an events organizer years ago because there were things like this that I wanted to do, and no one was doing them. I always thought that someone else was in charge, but then I found out it's not hard to do it myself with a little help from my friends. You can, too!

j

Glad you had a good time. Sounds like a fun event.

It's a good thing I already have the majority of seeds and starts I need for this year. Otherwise, I may have been silly enough to make the drive for the Green Elephant Plant & Seed Swap. I drove from Vancouver to Seattle last year to buy my kayak and never gave it a second thought. Well, not right away anyhow.